Navacon Construction Inc.

Navacon Construction is one of Brantford’s premier underground construction companies specializing in underground water, sewer, site development and road building.

Check out more on Navacon Construction Inc. from their company page https://navaconinc.com/ or visit them on Instagram @navaconstructioninc.

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John Abel

Project Manager + Estimator

John’s love of construction originated after high school. He was not sure what he wanted to do or what career path he wanted to take. He had decided on taking a gap year (1 year of travel/work) before determining his career path. John landed on Conestoga’s Civil Technology program with coop. For the Contestoga coop term, John was interviewing for a side walk deficiencies program but ultimately was employed by the city of Kitchener for an inspection role. This role opened up his eyes into the world of sewer and watermain. His first projects were mid and large scale capital paving projects while still in post secondary! John was hired in his third year right after graduation by Lafarge. He was hired as a junior estimator and put into a fast paced environment, and he LOVED IT! John worked with Lafarge for a number of years but wanted larger, more challenging projects. John attributes his confidence to make life changing decisions to his faith in God. At the time he had a good relationship built with AECON so he took a leap of faith that AECON would teach him some new career and life lessons. He was hired as an estimator into their industrial division. The projects were great infrastructure experience ranging from utilities to nuclear. After a few years with Aecon John felt the call back to sewer and watermain. The life lessons he took away from Aecon is that he knew he wanted to stay with a small to mid sized company so he could wear multiple hats. He was hired onto the Seagmiller team as a Project Manager / Estimator where he gained valuable experiences tendering projects and being hands on through to completion. At the time, Seagmiller was subcontracting work to Navacon so when an Operations role appeared within Navacon, John jumped on the chance to once again challenge his skill sets.

Today the Navacon team is successfully growing their brand, their projects, and their people. John takes pride in building the Navacon brand and ensuring it is a culture and environment aligned with good values and morals.

John and the senior staff at Navacon believe in giving their staff and young people the opportunity to try on multiple roles, to learn new responsibilities and grow in a supported environment with supportive supervisors.

Brad McDougall

Project Coordinator

Brad is in the early stages of his career. He recently graduated from Fanshawe College 2015-2018 in the Civil Technology program. Brad has always had a fascination with underground utilities, excavation and earthworks. In 2017 during his first coop term with Fanshawe, Brad interviewed and got the coop job with Navacon. He was then invited back for his second coop term and felt the coop was an incredibly rewarding experience. He was allowed many hands on opportunities that most coop placements would not have been afforded. He was mentored directly under upper management Glen and John, and felt he was a great fit for their culture and work expectations.

After graduation Brad was hired right away by Navacon as a Project Coordinator. He currently works on multiple facets of heavy civil projects including ordering trucks, coordinating maintenance, dealing with residence in resolving issues, communications with the grounds grew, owners and subtrades. Brad is being given the chance early on in his career to communicate with all levels and people on projects, contract negotiations and more. Brad loves the team atmosphere at Navacon and appreciates the ability to wear multiple hats and showcase his talent while growing his skill sets. He is hoping to prove himself and grow his career further in the heavy civil world.

Glenn McDonald

Construction Manager

Glen’s first connect to construction was in high school. Glen enrolled in a high school coop program, now known today as OYAP.

This program allowed him high school credits while working on the job and in the field acquiring real life skill sets. Glen started his coop working for a local homebuilder. The homebuilder had him sweeping reno sites, working on tools and generally testing out most aspects of construction for low rise houses. During his second year of high school coop, Glen learned that the developer he was working for had a sewer and watermain company. He proceeded to dip his toes into heavy civil, opening his eyes to a different aspect of construction. By 18 years of age, Glen was working full time on a heavy civil site managing small teams. In 5 years he was hired by Lafarge, a large road works and paving company (later purchased by Coco Paving). This gave Glen the opportunity to work on large scale projects, his first project as foreman out of the gate was a $7million road and paving project. Glen was overseeing upwards of 50 people from multiple teams! 3 years later he was called back to the heavy civil world where he worked for Seagmiller and ultimately met John Abel. They worked hand in hand for 3 years before John left to Navacon and Glen joined him there shortly after. Glen left Seagmiller as Senior Site Super and is now currently handling all Construction Management for Navacon.

Glen wears multiple hats and enjoys the daily challenges and growth that Navacon provides him. The hats he wears includes: site super, construction manager, maintenance, purchases etc…

To date, Glen is also on the Board of Directors for the Central Southwest Ontario Heavy Civil Construction Association. He manages collective agreements and works with the heavy civil community. Navacons growth has been exponential and Glen is excited about what their future holds!

Wes Resendes

Foreman Heavy Civil

Wes found his love for construction at a young age. He always had a passion for architecture and art. He was already drafting and drawing by the time he was 14. He found the idea of building something new very exciting and engaging. When he still in high school his uncle was a site super for a developer on low rise properties. Wes worked a summer job helping his uncle. He was able to see into the world of construction and decide the avenue he wished to take.

This is around the same time that Wes start working more with the heavy civil and earthworks component of developing sites. Wes went back to Conestoga college where he completed most of his Architectural Technology diploma. While looking for work in the field, he applied thought the union and Seagmiller took him on as a laborer. We was working with John and Glen moving his way up to lead hand. He transferred to Navacon a full foreman and oversees sites with Glen and John once more. Wes was never formally trained in heavy civil and is proud of the challenges and accomplishments he overcame through hard work and dedication to his trade. Wes has been in the union for a number of years now and is eligible for pension for an early retirement. He is grateful for the opportunities Navacon has afforded him in a supportive and collaborative manner. Wes describes Navacon as a smaller company that trusted him with his abilities. He wants to continue working for Navacon and continually challenge himself on projects and in the classroom. Wes is forever a student of the construction world and plans on putting himself back to school to grow his knowledge further.

Peter Drexler

Special Project Superintendent

Peter’s fascination with construction came from his family setting. In High School Peter was working part time and summer hours for the family business Drexler construction. He started as a general labourer working alongside his uncles, father and cousins. Peter is proud of the work he did with his family, learning about roads, sewers and watermains throughout South Western Ontario. Peter worked his way to machine operator (backhoe, excavator, diggers, loaders etc.) 3 years and after the completion of high school, Peter was promoted to Lead Hand. He was the assistant to the Foreman on the jobs. Ranging from $20,000 - $3million in scopes.

Peter knew he wanted to be a superintendent because he loved the bigger picture, the coordination, the people and the construction of something bigger. In 2014 Peter left the family business in pursuit of growth opportunities, he went into work for himself on residential homes as a handyman/renovator. Shortly after he saw an opening with Coca Paving and had his heart set on getting back into the road and watermain business. While working with Coco Paving he met Navacon. Navacon and Coco were working on a project together in Tillsonberg. Navacon appreciated the work ethic Peter displayed and had an opening for a progressive and forward thinking site super. Peter jumped on the chance to work with a magnificent team and take on new challenges. To date Peter works on complicated projects with Navacon and leads teams. He loves the ability to be a mentor to others and has several young labourers and foremans under his wing. Navacon has been a great long term fit for Peter and his career aspirations and desire to grow and challenge himself. He sees himself staying with Navacon and growing their younger staff into great heavy civil peers.