Ross Rappaport

Executive Coach

Ross Rappaport

President, Gilford Corporation · President, W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors

“When you give people advice, they're not doing it for themselves. They're doing it because you told them to.”

Ross Rappaport
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Experience

Gilford Corporation Donohoe Construction Company W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors American Contracting and Environmental Services
6th
Washington Business Journal, 1999
125
On Gilford's staff list at exit
15 of 33
Coachees promoted in ~18 months
$150M
Project he consulted to completion

Expertise

For more than 40 years, owners have called Ross to build a construction company fast or pull one out of financial trouble. He took a federal contractor from its first hires through graduation from the SBA 8(a) program, then steadied a mechanical subcontractor through a financial recovery and an ownership sale. He opens every coaching relationship by telling people he is not their boss. He asks how they would handle a problem before he offers an idea, a habit he sums up as "you can't push a rope."

Industry

Ross has spent more than 40 years in construction, including international work for the State Department and the FBI. He worked as a general contractor for more than 20 years and as a mechanical, plumbing, and HVAC subcontractor for 16 years. He began as an Army Corps of Engineers officer overseeing construction at Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base.

Specialties

  • Preparing project engineers and managers for their next promotion
  • Learning to delegate after a promotion to executive
  • Growing a federal contractor through SBA 8(a) graduation
  • Steadying a financially struggling company toward a sale
  • Coaching leaders who resist or distrust coaching

Career history

01 of 10

Captain, U.S. Army

In their own words

Proudest accomplishment?
01
In a matter of seven years, I started at the bottom as a project engineer, got promoted to assistant project manager, project manager, senior project manager, then project executive.
Best advice he'd give?
02
I tell young executives to advocate for yourself. We pull out those job descriptions, and I say you need to start rating yourself on those job descriptions.
Most fulfilling part?
03
People from 25, 30 years back still call me and ask for advice. The legacy is that I helped people. I help people advance their career and figure things out.

Would Ross be the right match?

Tell us about the leader and the situation. If Ross is not the fit, one of the other coaches will be.

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