1997 Fredericton Encaenia - Ceremony C
Giannelia, Paul
Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
ENCAENIA, MAY, 1997
PAUL GIANNELIA
to be Doctor of Science
Paul Giannelia is the builder of one of the wonders of the modern world. He is the President and CEO of Strait Crossing Inc. and the Project Director of the Northumberland Strait Crossing Project. Next week, the fruit of his labour, the 13 kilometre Confederation Bridge, will open linking Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick. It is a near-billion dollar undertaking, involving ten years of planning and construction, and it will meet its completion target-date bang on.
Despite his relative youth, Paul Giannelia claims 30 years of experience in the construction industry. In those 30 years, he has worked at practically every job from the bottom to the top. While still in grade school, he began as a labourer, and through high school and university he remained on the blue-collar side as a bricklayer and stone mason helper, ironworker and crew foreman. He took his university degree at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, and continued his climb in construction as a field superintendent, estimator, claims manager, labour relations manager, and so on up the line. He began with a Toronto-based company, George & Asmussen, and within seven years advanced with this firm to executive manager of U.S. Operations. When he moved to the W.A. Stephenson Group of Companies in 1977, he was on track to become this Calgary firm's President and CEO. Out of the Stephenson Group emerged Strait Crossing in 1987.
Paul Giannelia's career teaches a powerful lesson for today's youth. In a rapidly changing world, it is impossible to forecast the specific educational skills a person will need in life. Many of the engineering graduates of only a decade ago no longer work in engineering, and those who do, practice engineering techniques that they were not taught in university. Many persons with law degrees never practice law. But what all of these university graduates have is something to start with, something to build on. Paul Giannelia has masterminded one of the greatest engineering marvels in Canada's history, yet he is not a trained engineer. He has a BA in Economics, plus, one must quickly add, the resourcefulness and creativity and ingenuity to tread where no one has tread before. He is an entrepreneurial innovator.
When Paul Giannelia graduated from university, public-private partnering was a rarity. Today, it is Paul Giannelia's specialty. The particular genius of his enterprise is to bring together skilled people from wherever in the world they have developed expertise, and combine them with the financial resources and planning to carry the project through to completion. His companies have built transit systems, elevated highways, dams, and Olympic Games facilities. But none has matched the Confederation Bridge in size or daring.
It is useful to remember that the decision to build the fixed link was not Paul Giannelia's to make. It was a decision of government and of the people of Prince Edward Island. But once made, it took a person of Paul Giannelia's vision and business acumen to create a concept that would work, and a team that could implement the rigorous requirements of the job: environmental, design, construction phasing, financing, and overall management. He brought together a team from Europe and Canada with collective experience in building thousands of bridges. They designed fabrication facilities on each side of the strait, and planned how to move huge prefabricated piers and spans from shore to water during the 34-week construction season allowed by the Atlantic Canadian climate. They innovated with concrete construction techniques, using huge inverted V-shaped steel diaphragms for the piers to reduce the need for cables and steel rods. They brought in a giant, one-of-a-kind floating crane to carry the massive piers and spans into position. Carefully balanced girders were fitted onto each of the piers and drop-in girders were placed to complete each span. Steel cables running from one end to the other were put under enormous tension to pull the massive concrete pieces into one continuous link. The bridge is designed to last a hundred years and beyond, with a probability of failure of one in ten million in any given year and under any conditions.
Paul Giannelia had close to 2500 workers helping him with this project. But if any one person was indispensable, it was he. We salute him today on the eve of his dream-come-true. We salute him as a master-builder, visionary, and business innovator. And we thank him for demonstrating that, while a university degree is a passport to the future, it takes the person to actually make the journey.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
PAUL GIANNELIA
to be Doctor of Science
Paul Giannelia is the builder of one of the wonders of the modern world. He is the President and CEO of Strait Crossing Inc. and the Project Director of the Northumberland Strait Crossing Project. Next week, the fruit of his labour, the 13 kilometre Confederation Bridge, will open linking Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick. It is a near-billion dollar undertaking, involving ten years of planning and construction, and it will meet its completion target-date bang on.
Despite his relative youth, Paul Giannelia claims 30 years of experience in the construction industry. In those 30 years, he has worked at practically every job from the bottom to the top. While still in grade school, he began as a labourer, and through high school and university he remained on the blue-collar side as a bricklayer and stone mason helper, ironworker and crew foreman. He took his university degree at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, and continued his climb in construction as a field superintendent, estimator, claims manager, labour relations manager, and so on up the line. He began with a Toronto-based company, George & Asmussen, and within seven years advanced with this firm to executive manager of U.S. Operations. When he moved to the W.A. Stephenson Group of Companies in 1977, he was on track to become this Calgary firm's President and CEO. Out of the Stephenson Group emerged Strait Crossing in 1987.
Paul Giannelia's career teaches a powerful lesson for today's youth. In a rapidly changing world, it is impossible to forecast the specific educational skills a person will need in life. Many of the engineering graduates of only a decade ago no longer work in engineering, and those who do, practice engineering techniques that they were not taught in university. Many persons with law degrees never practice law. But what all of these university graduates have is something to start with, something to build on. Paul Giannelia has masterminded one of the greatest engineering marvels in Canada's history, yet he is not a trained engineer. He has a BA in Economics, plus, one must quickly add, the resourcefulness and creativity and ingenuity to tread where no one has tread before. He is an entrepreneurial innovator.
When Paul Giannelia graduated from university, public-private partnering was a rarity. Today, it is Paul Giannelia's specialty. The particular genius of his enterprise is to bring together skilled people from wherever in the world they have developed expertise, and combine them with the financial resources and planning to carry the project through to completion. His companies have built transit systems, elevated highways, dams, and Olympic Games facilities. But none has matched the Confederation Bridge in size or daring.
It is useful to remember that the decision to build the fixed link was not Paul Giannelia's to make. It was a decision of government and of the people of Prince Edward Island. But once made, it took a person of Paul Giannelia's vision and business acumen to create a concept that would work, and a team that could implement the rigorous requirements of the job: environmental, design, construction phasing, financing, and overall management. He brought together a team from Europe and Canada with collective experience in building thousands of bridges. They designed fabrication facilities on each side of the strait, and planned how to move huge prefabricated piers and spans from shore to water during the 34-week construction season allowed by the Atlantic Canadian climate. They innovated with concrete construction techniques, using huge inverted V-shaped steel diaphragms for the piers to reduce the need for cables and steel rods. They brought in a giant, one-of-a-kind floating crane to carry the massive piers and spans into position. Carefully balanced girders were fitted onto each of the piers and drop-in girders were placed to complete each span. Steel cables running from one end to the other were put under enormous tension to pull the massive concrete pieces into one continuous link. The bridge is designed to last a hundred years and beyond, with a probability of failure of one in ten million in any given year and under any conditions.
Paul Giannelia had close to 2500 workers helping him with this project. But if any one person was indispensable, it was he. We salute him today on the eve of his dream-come-true. We salute him as a master-builder, visionary, and business innovator. And we thank him for demonstrating that, while a university degree is a passport to the future, it takes the person to actually make the journey.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
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