Brenton Owens
Job Title: Project Manager
Company: Electro Construction Corp.
Location: Altadena, Calif.
Age: 27
Years on the Job: 3
Interests: Giving back to the Kappa League, engaging with youth to help mold and direct them toward alternative means of success through education, leadership, and altruism for all
While still in high school, Brenton Owens attended the National Society of Black Engineers conference, which forever changed his career path. As part of the Kappa League mentorship program, he was able to participate in the event, where he discovered a strong interest in construction engineering, specifically the electrical contribution to a project. Owens, a California native, attended California State University-Long Beach, where he majored in construction engineering management. Aside from his courses, he received training in his initial internship as a project engineer for a start-up electrical contractor in Chino, Calif.
“As an assistant project engineer, I was able to home in on the administrative side of construction as a subcontractor as well as get a base feel for the typical flow and scheduling of a construction project,” he says. “Because it was a start-up company, I was able to see the growing pains in real time.”
His unwavering work ethic sets him apart from other young professionals in the electrical trade.
“In order to succeed as a young employee in today’s electrical industry, you must be willing to learn constantly, understand when you are wrong, and not beat yourself up for too long when you are, in fact, in the wrong,” Owens says. “You must brush yourself off and keep moving in a positive direction.”
In his current role, he currently wears many hats. Each day, he responds to pressing issues like RFIs, change orders, and on-site discrepancies. After being promoted from a project engineer to a project manager, he now manages more projects and has taken on more responsibility for the end profit.
“Naturally, I am a problem solver, and this role allows me to be just that on a large scale,” says Owens. “Having so many responsibilities allows me to learn at high speed and be well-versed in my numerous aspects of electrical construction.”
