Lane Funari
Job Title: Project Manager
Company: The Superior Group
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Age: 26
Years on the Job: 4
Interests: Working out at the gym, reading books, kayaking, and hiking. He is also learning to speak Spanish and play the guitar — and enjoys traveling with his wife and doing home improvement projects.
As a graduate of The Ohio State University, Lane Funari blazed the way as the first in his family to graduate from a college or university. While majoring in construction management, he met a representative from The Superior Group, which sparked his interest in a career in the electrical industry.
Born and raised in a small suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio, Funari secured a part-time project engineer internship as a sophomore in college, and he worked full time each summer. Once he graduated in December 2019, he began his career in the commercial electrical construction industry.
As a project engineer, he performs daily job-site visits, manages submittals, RFPs, constraint logs, and material take-offs and procurement. In addition, he reviews labor projections and the budget, and manages the scope of work for subcontractors.
“When I started, I knew almost nothing about electrical construction. Since then, my responsibilities have changed a lot,” he says. “I started with learning how to read drawings and specs, and now I’m given a lot of freedom and responsibility to help manage multimillion-dollar contracts.”
While he says it’s challenging to keep up on all the details on diverse projects — from data centers to higher education research facilities to correctional facilities — he loves all aspects of his job. He also enjoys testing out new technologies and finding ways to improve processes. For example, his company has expanded its engineering and virtual design construction groups to accommodate the needs of any project as well as explore new innovative prefabrication methods to best meet clients’ needs.
“Technology is becoming more and more necessary throughout the construction industry,” he says.
Funari recently was promoted to a project manager position, and he will be managing his own contracts for a private client data center.
“Construction is fast-paced and hectic at times, but I’m so happy this is where I landed,” he says.
