Gilbane Building Company, one of the largest, privately-owned construction firms in the industry, announced the appointment of Raquel Diaz as business leader for its New York City operations. In her new role, Diaz will drive strategy and growth for the company in New York City, including expanding market portfolio and service offerings, fostering team development and growth and delivering world-class facilities for clients and communities.
An engineer by training, Diaz is a proven technical builder with over 18 years of experience totaling more than $2.8 billion and four million square feet in project delivery in New York City. Since joining Gilbane in 2019, Diaz has significantly expanded Gilbane’s public sector portfolio as Market Leader with notable clients and projects, including the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC)’s COVID Centers of Excellence projects, the restoration of the Orchard Beach Pavilion for NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the NYC Parks Department, the Metropolitan Hospital Resiliency project for New York City Health + Hospitals and EDC, five Carnegie library renovations for The New York Public Library, multiple new recreation space projects for Hudson River Park Trust and partnerships with the NYC School Construction Authority and State University Construction Fund.
“Raquel has earned the trust of our New York City public and private sector partners,” said Ryan Hutchins, regional president, Gilbane Building Company. “She has leveraged progressive methods such as design-build that deliver projects faster and more reliably, creating greater benefits for our clients and communities. With her deep technical expertise and people-first focus, Raquel has been a grounding force on the New York City team these past five years and is perfectly positioned to lead us into the future.”
Diaz has served in various roles throughout her career, including MEP project manager, MEP superintendent, estimating/ purchasing engineer, senior project manager, project director and project executive on high-profile projects in the New York metropolitan area. Before joining Gilbane, Diaz worked on projects for clients such as NYU Langone Health, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, New York University and New York‐Presbyterian Hospital.
Born in Ecuador, Diaz holds a bachelor of engineering from The City College of New York and certifications as an Associate Design-Build Professional and healthcare constructor.
