Dan Ryan, President of Tim Ryan Construction, is a dedicated family man who works in his family business and relishes his Kitsap community.  Thankfully, he is able to blend his loyalties:  Ryan, his father Tim Ryan, and his seven siblings all live in Kitsap County, where the family has lived since the early 1970s.

The family is so close that Ryan became “a bit of a black sheep” when he moved to Denver, CO after his graduation from the construction management program at Washington State University.

“Nobody was hiring at the time and I got an interview just before finals,” Ryan said, of the opportunity with Hensel Phelps, one of the largest construction management firms in the nation.  “Afterwards, they told me to jump on a plane and get down there. I was one of two guys out of the program who had a job at graduation.”

Several years later, in 1993, after working with Hensel Phelps in both Denver and Irvine, CA, he returned to Kitsap and joined the business that his father started in 1957.  By that point, Ryan, an Excell member since 2012, had married and had four children. Having grown up in the area, he knew that Poulsbo was the perfect place to bring up a family.

“It has such a small town feel where people can live and work in the community but still be close to all the amenities of Seattle,” he said, adding that his family enjoys attending Mariners games. And after living in Southern California, where bumper-to-bumper traffic could be expected at all hours of the day, he enjoyed a far more manageable commute in Kitsap.

Furthermore, it was the ideal time to join the family business because it had made a significant shift from being a residential construction company to one that focused on commercial development, Ryan’s area of expertise.

At the time, the Seattle’s population boom had a profound effect on surrounding areas as people fled the city’s congestion and rising prices. On the Kitsap Peninsula, for example, farmland was rapidly subdivided into residential lots. And, while Tim Ryan Construction no longer specialized in residential work, the firm was well positioned to build the services that would support the influx of homeowners: strip malls and buildings that would house banks, grocery stores, and doctors’ offices.

As the peninsula’s growth continues, Ryan’s company actively decides how it wants to expand – or not.

“We want to stay close, work with clients that we know, leverage our relationships, and develop people within our company,” he said. “We are content with whatever pace there is and size accordingly to growth in the area.”

In 2009, Ryan received his Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP) designation which means that he is certified to manage the construction of buildings that are required to be built to specific environmental standards.  Widely recognized as a passing trend starting with government buildings, “green building” has since permeated the construction industry.

“Now, non-LEED jobs are opting for the LEED standards even though they don’t have to,” Ryan said, adding that his firm’s knowledge about how “green” practices, products, or materials can often save a client money during a building’s construction phase — rather than having to wait decades to reap the benefits of environmentally-minded construction.

Being a forward-thinking member of his community, Ryan is similarly on the lookout to better develop his company and his leadership skills.  He is a charter member of Excell’s Kitsap Group and, though he joined four years ago, he still enjoys the mix of workshops and the peer mentoring.

“Being the CEO is a lonely spot and it’s fantastic to have a peer group to learn from and to have challenging conversations with,” he said. “We share ideas, information, and concepts. I don’t think it’s possible to learn everything there is to learn from my group.”

Christmastime on the Beach: Dan Ryan with his wife, children, grandchildren, spouses, and significant others.