ETRO celebrates 10 years of ‘building cool sh**’

ETRO started with just a folding table in a basement and a pickup truck.

Ten years later, the B.C.-based construction company operates out of a new refined, thoughtfully designed office in the heart of East Vancouver — a reflection of how far it has come.

Inside, the energy is immediate. Shoes tap across polished concrete floors as employees move between sleek glass meeting rooms. There’s a gym, a full kitchen and modern furniture — a space that feels closer to a high-tech start-up than a traditional construction firm.

A sign on the wall sums up what’s going on inside: “We build cool shit with great people.”

It’s a phrase that reflects how the company operates. More than anything, it’s the people that Founder and CEO Mike Maierle is focused on. After the hard grind it took to build ETRO, his focus is shifting toward higher-level strategy — while remaining actively engaged in the business and creating space for the next generation of aspiring leaders to grow.

“It’s an inflection point for me. We’ve built this great business and now have highly capable leaders driving operations, preconstruction and the day-to-day execution,” he said.

ETRO’s core group of people has been carefully cultivated. Rather than focusing on quarterly earnings, ETRO has long prioritized building out its org chart — a practice that dates back to when the company had just six employees. The goal has never simply been to fill positions, but to continuously create new lanes for emerging leaders to grow into and define their future within the company. As ETRO expands, so do the opportunities for ambitious team members to keep climbing, with leadership intentionally stretching the organization to ensure there is never a ceiling placed on someone’s upward trajectory. That focus is now paying off, with the 10-year anniversary coinciding with a significant wave of internal promotions, including: 

• Dan Chyzowski, Executive Vice President + COO
• Jason Short, Vice President, Pre-Construction + Estimating
• Duane Ferreria, Director of Construction
• Stewart Borrett, Director of Operations
• Alain MacNair, Director of Field Operations
• Travis Feldmann, Director of Pre-Construction
• Jenna Burnet, Director of Construction, Dynamic Ops
• Matteo Lanci, Director of Business Operations, Dynamic Ops
• Karina Delcourt, Director of Strategic Initiatives

These promotions mark a key step in ETRO’s evolution — strengthening its leadership bench and positioning the company for its next phase of growth.

“It’s really allowing the org chart to stretch and create that vertical movement that opens up opportunities for people,” Maierle said. “Dan Chyzowski started as a project manager and now he’s been promoted to COO and executive vice-president. He’s leading the business with a level of capability that’s rare for someone still early in their executive career — better than me in many ways. There are just so many people here who have smashed their own goals.”

That growing depth of leadership is now enabling ETRO to look outward and scale.

Maierle said the new office isn’t just an upgrade. It will serve as the organization’s central hub as it begins to expand. Last summer, the company tested this approach by forming a strategic alliance with Durwest Construction Management to pursue work on Vancouver Island — a move that is already gaining traction.

The joint venture’s first project is now underway with the Broad Street Hotel Redevelopment for Chard Properties. More recently, the ETRO Durwest team secured two additional projects totalling close to $300M on Vancouver Island.

“Our partnership with Durwest has been a great success. We’ve learned a lot about integrating two companies — aligning systems, processes and cultures, and bringing people together in the right way. Like in everything we do, we play with it and tweak to continuously improve,” said Maierle.

The first push for expansion will be moving north and east in B.C. via acquisitions and partnerships, with a focus on institutional, hospitality, infrastructure, healthcare and government contracts. The goal is to take all the ETRO processes and systems that were forged in Metro Vancouver and scale them up.

“With our home base, reputation for execution and amazing people, I don’t think it’s going to be hard to scale. The back end is done. It’s here and it works,” said Maierle.

While it has been a time to celebrate, Maierle has a mind that won’t stay still. He’s always thinking 10 to 25 years ahead, or “horizon thinking,” as he calls it. He doesn’t want his legacy to be a pile of money. He’d rather build people into leaders, help them reach their potential and, in his words, “build really cool shit.”

“I’m proud of what we’ve built. But most of all I’m proud of the people. You walk down these halls and there are 40 people talking, engaging, sharing. It’s an exciting time to be a team member here,” he said. “I’m continuing to support and push our senior leadership as they define what’s next, doing whatever it takes to help them succeed.”

From a folding table in a basement to a company preparing to scale across the province with a goal of continuing the scale across the Prairies and into Eastern Canada within the next 24 months, ETRO’s next chapter won’t just be defined by the projects it takes on — but by the people now stepping up to lead them.