ABC Names the 2024 Young Professional of the Year
The Young Professional of the Year Award recognizes industry professionals under the age of 40 employed by ABC member companies chosen based on leadership qualities, career achievement and vision for the future of commercial and industrial construction. Menke, 32, was selected based on his contributions to the industry and ABC.
“With nearly 10 years of experience in the industry, Mike is the type of innovative, young construction leader who has already invested so much of his time and talents in the industry, and we are all better for it,” said 2024 National Chair of the ABC Board of Directors Buddy Henley, president, Henley Construction Co. Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland. “Thanks to Mike’s involvement in his local community, FCI Constructors and the ABC Rocky Mountain chapter, he excels at delivering complex projects with accuracy while keeping quality and safety at the forefront. It is also very impressive that Mike mentors FCI’s engineers and interns, established an internship committee to evaluate prospective employees and developed and taught a boot camp for construction management students.”
“I am personally most proud of the impact that I have made by teaching others,” said Menke. “I get to continually facilitate internal training at FCI and share the knowledge I have gained. I have taught at Colorado State University, my alma mater. I have been a guest lecturer at my high school as well as various middle schools. I’m proud that students I have mentored keep in touch and bounce questions of career and life off me. It greatly humbles me that they reach out.”
Menke has been involved with CSU’s ABC Construction Management Competition team for the past 10 years, having participated in the competition and mentored teams that have won first place several times. He also mentors the current student chapter, where he is a guest lecturer. In addition, Menke is engaged in ABC membership recruitment, workforce development, networking and advocacy efforts and promotes the ABC merit shop philosophy in his community involvement.