Deryl McKissack is the President and CEO of McKissack & McKissack, a construction management and design business based in Washington, D.C. that has worked on some of America’s most iconic structures.
Her buildings include the Smithsonian African American Museum of History and Culture, as well as the Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson memorials. According to CNBC Make It, the company’s lineage can be traced back to her great-great-grandfather Mosses, a skilled slave brick maker who arrived in the United States in 1790.
He would pass on the expertise from one generation to the next. Eventually, his grandchildren decided to start a construction company in Tennessee called McKissack & McKissack. Cheryl, McKissack’s twin sister, now runs the family enterprise, which is situated in New York.
“My father would always take us to job sites and the office. “We discussed it at the table,” stated McKissack. “It was always a very integral part of our family.”
McKissack used her savings of $1,000 to start her own construction company in 1990. Oxford Economics estimates that the global construction business will be valued $13.9 trillion by 2037. Women still account for only 1.4% of construction CEOs globally, with Black women making up only a small portion of this number.
McKissack’s ambition to build her own path and see other Black women CEOs in the construction sector inspired her to launch her company. Today, the company she began with $1,000 generates between $25 million and $30 million each year and manages over $15 billion in projects, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Baltimore.
“I remember in college, there were probably three women in my class, one of whom was my twin sister.” McKissack stated that women are underrepresented in this industry, but they are performing well.
McKissack earned a six-figure salary as an engineer before starting her construction enterprise. Getting clients was challenging for her in the early stages of her business, but she used slides of work she’d done for family members to “sell my wares.” According to the entrepreneur, who holds a civil engineering degree from Howard University, it took her five years to obtain her first $10,000 line of credit.
“I probably went to 11 banks that told me ‘no’… [but] I had this burning passion on the inside that I just had to do this, and it was going to work out for me.”
She got her first job doing interior design at her alma mater thanks to her networking skills. The successful completion of one assignment led to another, and McKissack compiled a portfolio of work to show potential clients.
She then began applying for federal contracts, eventually landing jobs in the White House and the United States Treasury. Large federal initiatives quickly followed.
Following her success in the construction industry, McKissack does not want to be the only known Black person there. She started AEC Unites, a nonprofit organization, to encourage more Black individuals to enter the construction business. It offers professional chances for black individuals in the architecture, engineering, and construction fields.
“I haven’t made it until more blacks and more women have made it,” she said. She added, “Once more people that look like me are in the industry and they’re dominating in parts of this industry, then I can sit back and say, ‘We’ve made it.'”