St. Louis-based McCarthy has tapped Joe Jouvenal as its next COO, the contractor announced on Jan. 10. He will replace current executive Scott Wittkop, who is retiring in April.
Joe Jouvenal
Courtesy of McCarthy
Jouvenal joined McCarthy in 1998 as a project engineer, and became the company’s first chief administrative officer in 2022, per the release. As COO, he’ll oversee all operations for the firm and its subsidiaries, along with the builder’s corporate human resources, quality and safety departments.
McCarthy said that Jouvenal has worked on some of the company’s most challenging projects. These include jobs for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta; a National Emerging Infectious Disease laboratories project at Boston University Medical Center; and the Parker H. Petit Science Center at Georgia State University.
“Joe is an outstanding leader, and I am pleased to announce his selection as our new chief operating officer,” said Ray Sedey, McCarthy’s CEO. “He has been working with Scott Wittkop for many months to ensure a seamless transition.”
This is the second C-suite level move that the contractor has made in the past month. In December, McCarthy picked IT boss Justin McFarland to fill in the chief administrative officer role that Jouvenal is vacating.
It’s also been busy on the building side. In August, McCarthy was picked as part of a JV with Mortenson as construction manager for a $1.5 billion ballpark for the Oakland Athletics in Las Vegas. Additionally, the contractor broke ground on a $400 million battery manufacturing plant in its backyard in St. Louis.
“It’s a great honor to take on this leadership role, and I couldn’t be more excited to see where the future takes us together,” Jouvenal said in the release.