Usually one follows a meticulously planned path when it comes to career, and few find their path or career accidentally and CEO of TriCore Panels Misha Homara, is one of them. TriCore Panels is a leading architectural panel provider serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Women make up just 14% of the construction workforce in the U.S. and merely 1% as CEO and Misha Homara makes the cut.
The 30-year-old is the CEO of TriCore Panels, a family business her dad started in 2012 that creates metal, wood and concrete paneling for the walls used in construction projects.
Road to being female CEOs in construction
Her dad previously worked as a car salesman but got his contractor’s license to renovate the dealership after he was given a quote he thought was too high. Taking over her father’s company and becoming part of the mere 10% of women in construction was not something Misha had dreamed of. Misha Homara became a licensed cosmetologist after high school until a car accident left her unable to be on her feet for too long.
As per Misha her dad had just started his company, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come to work for me?”
Never one to turn down a challenge, she walked through the doors of TriCore Panels in 2014 and unknowingly into the career she was meant for. At first, she helped around the office a few days a week but as she learned the ins and outs of the business, her role began to grow.
Homara changing TriCore’s company culture
She also saw an opportunity to make a difference: She and her dad could shift the share of women in the construction workforce, starting with his small business.
Over the next few years, Homara worked her way up from being the office manager. She learned about what goes into builds and worked with superintendents and foremen in the field to develop the company’s safety structure. She took on project management work and built out TriCore’s company culture. A culture where she aimed to empower employees to listen, innovate and develop their careers.
At the same time, Homara took a full college course and graduated with communications and media degree from San Francisco State University in 2018. She credits her communication skills for becoming the first CEO of TriCore in at the age of 26.
Misha Homara grew TriCore
It wasn’t long before Misha began winning multi-million-dollar projects and in less than five years, she expanded the organization by more than 20 employees. She implemented an EOS, an Entrepreneurial Operating System, designed to give team members structure, and more ownership over their projects.
Her dad previously acted as president but did not establish a formal executive board. He is no longer with the company but remains a mentor in many ways.
Women in construction
“In construction, it’s a lot of yelling and hostility and aggression,” Homara says. As a young woman in the field, “I’ve been told so many times, ‘You don’t fit the mold of someone in construction.’ I have more of a conversational style of understanding and developing [relationships].”
Homara leans on being a construction outsider as a strength. While construction sites and offices can be intense environments, she brought a sense of calmness ad clarity to the work. In turn, the team dynamic shifted from being mostly task-oriented to one where people have opportunities to collaborate and innovate on larger projects, she says.
Support network of women in construction
As CEO, Homara says she splits her time securing and growing new industry partnerships, as well as fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment for her team to succeed together.
As a leader, she says she remains curious and humble in asking about what she doesn’t know. She also relies on a support network of women in construction organizations and other mentors. Homara is part of the board of directors for the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction, and she’s communications chair for Women Construction Owners and Executives.
“It’s not possible to do anything alone,” she says. “Find the people that believe in you, and then ask them questions, even if you feel like they’re like silly questions.”
Getting more women in construction
As CEO, Misha Homara is invested in getting more women in the construction field. Her next goal is to ensure that the staff of TriCore Panels, which is currently just under 50 people, moves from 30% women to 50% women in the next five years.
Reaching that goal will take work. “It doesn’t just happen,” Homara says. “You have to intentionally focus on educating and working with teams and different trade partners that want to develop women” in the field. This includes investing in education for a construction careers through free, hands-on workshops, community events and apprenticeships.
Homara recently hosted several events for “Women in Construction Week” in mid-March, including inviting people to experiment with AutoCAD design software and to see their CNC machine, which is like a super-powered drill and carving machine controlled by a computer, in operation.
Increasing women in construction
Women have made strides in the construction field since 2016, when they comprised 12.5% of the industry. Some areas have even higher representation of women in construction. There is 17.6% in Washington D.C., 15.6% in Arizona and 14.5% in Florida, as per a analysis from The Washington Post.
As per labor experts there are many factors, including record low unemployment and initiatives from industry associations to increase training for women in construction, remove hiring barriers and better support women on worksites.
CEOs and leaders have seen the big benefits. There are fewer mistakes, greater attention to detail, better multitasking, higher safety standards and a different communication style, to name a few, as per Homara.
Getting girls and young women interested in the field requires more effort from schools. They need to introduce opportunities in the trades and career potential in construction.
Growth in construction field
The field has staying power with long-term job growth, and it can be lucrative. The highest-paying construction job, chief estimator, can command up to $171,000 per year, according to ZipRecruiter.
Gender diversity and pay in construction is also less pronounced, though it still exists. As of 2019, women in construction were paid an average of 99 cents for every $1 paid to a man. This compared with the U.S. average pay gap of 81 cents paid to woman for every $1 paid to man.
