Trubach stays true to self, mission at Gilbane

Estimator of the Year
Ben Trubach – Gilbane

Ben Trubach – Gilbane

Within a year of taking a job at Gilbane in 2018, Ben Trubach found himself sitting in on meetings about the Foxconn factory in Mount Pleasant.

It was enough to make the 23-year-old estimator’s head spin.

After all, it was only a few years before that, while at the University of Cincinnati, he had decided he wasn’t as interested in studying architecture and engineering as he had initially thought and instead wanted to pursue a degree in construction management. That decision led to several internship-like “co-op” opportunities – one of which had him working on grocery-story projects for Kroger Co.

“I worked two years of 40-hour weeks,” Trubach said. “It was pretty amazing. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it weren’t for those co-ops.”

Trubach had met representatives of Gilbane at a career fair in 2017 and then took a separate co-op opportunity at the company. When Gilbane later offered him a job as an estimator in its Milwaukee office, accepting was easy, Trubach said.

Trubach’s time at Gilbane has since found him working on everything from the large R1ver office building for Michels Corp. just south of downtown Milwaukee to the conversion of the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center into a COVID-19 Alternate Care Facility.

He has impressed his supervisors enough that they chose him for Gilbane’s Management Candidate Acceleration Program, which is used to prepare “rising stars” for eventual leadership positions.

He completed it in fall 2020 and has since started taking on a bigger role at the company.

His dedication is not lost on his colleagues.

“Ben is always eager to support whatever comes his way and ready for the next challenge,” Gilbane wrote in nominating him. “His tremendous work ethic and positive attitude is infectious.”