Farewell from Dave Bangasser on his Retirement

The best laid plans…

When I decided it was time for me to retire from Opus last December, I thought I had good plans in place:

• more time to spend with family, including my 92-year-old Dad locally and 15-month-old granddaughter in North Carolina
• my wife Mary Jo and I had plans to travel – to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons with good friends and Yosemite with our daughter Catherine
• personal finances in good shape
• Opus sailing along smoothly with 2020 looking very strong with great projects in construction and in the pipeline

What a difference 3 months make – I neglected to plan for a pandemic! Now:

• travel plans are postponed indefinitely
• Dad's independent living apartment is not allowing visitors
• the stock market has tanked
• the global economy and Opus dealing with all the uncertainty the COVID-19 virus has brought

This, too, shall pass.

We have seen crisis before – in fact, Mary Jo and I noted recently that I took my role as president of ODB in the midst of the Great Recession crisis and now, as it turns out, I am retiring in the midst of another crisis.

Opus has committed ownership, strong and effective leadership, a great platform and great people.  I am very confident Tom Becker, our new President & CEO of Construction, along with the rest of our leadership, will lead Opus through this crisis and to new opportunities.

I am very proud of all that we have accomplished together throughout my career at Opus. Very few Americans today can say they spent their entire career, or even most of it, with one company. We are fortunate that Opus has many associates who have chosen to stay together. For me, there are many reasons to choose to stay with Team Opus, which are likely shared by many team members:

• Great platform and resources: The three disciplines of design, construction and development along with all the partner functions under one umbrella company collaborate as a team.
• Great corporate culture: Gerry Rauenhorst founded the company on honesty and integrity and provided people with the responsibility and authority to execute projects and the company's strategic plan.
• Great people: I have heard many times over the years from clients and others that they are surprised at the depth of talent in the organization. They are used to a steep drop off once you got past a few key people. At Opus they see really strong professionals throughout, who are not just good at their job, but are good people you would want to spend time with outside of work.
• Great value: Together, we deliver great value to our clients.
• Great impact: We get the satisfaction from knowing we are making a positive impact on the world, both through our projects as well as through the Rauenhorst family's commitment to giving back to the communities in which we live and work.

I have been involved in making many deals in the last 39 years, and often our clients' needs or demands have required tight schedules, unique solutions, high-quality standards and/or challenging budgets.  I always had great confidence that the Opus team had the horsepower and commitment to deliver what I promised – and together we did!

While it is a bit sad to turn from the Opus chapter of our lives, I am very excited for the next chapter.

As we write this next chapter, Mary Jo and I hope the many relationships we have built through Opus will be a part of this future chapter as well – let's make it happen!

I have every confidence that the next chapter for Opus will keep a great thing going!