CREW Kicks Off Convention With Unusual Story About An Unplanned Career

LAS VEGAS—GlobeSt.com was in attendance last night for the opening reception of the CREW Network Convention here in Las Vegas where the energy was upbeat and the chatter highlighted that relationships matter.

More than 700 commercial real estate leaders gathered from all around the globe this week for deal making, business networking, industry education and leadership development. This year’s event was a hybrid event, providing the opportunity to join in-person at The Mirage in Las Vegas or virtually via the digital convention platform.

Kicking off the event was a morning keynote session, where Linda Alvarado, president and chief executive officer of Denver-based Alvarado Construction Inc. talked about her “unplanned career” in construction. Alvarado worked in construction as a laborer for a landscape company in college. She then worked as an on-site contract administrator for a commercial development company on large planned-use projects.

For Albuquerque, NM-born Alvarado, “while it seemed crazy at the time for a girl, I started a curb, gutter, and sidewalk concrete firm that expanded its construction expertise and capabilities into the large construction company it is today.  

“Throughout my life and my career, I have always been told I don’t look the part,” she said. “I don’t look like the co-owner of a major league baseball team, I don’t look like the owner of a construction company, and I have even been told I don’t look Hispanic and don’t look like I hold director positions on 5 Fortune 1000 companies. People think I drink beer before 9 a.m., that I should have muscles the size of the Hulk.”

The funny thing about all this is, she said, are the misconceptions. “I have been mistaken for a banker, an attorney, and a cleaning woman,” she said. “No one really says ‘oh, hi, you’re a contractor.’ We are trying to change the perception not only about what people think or the stereotype but about what we can or cannot do.”

For Alvarado, non-conventional thinking opens doors to the possibility of not letting our vision be blocked by ourselves and by other people. “In the construction industry, I am Hispanic and female so I am the secretary and laborer, right?”

It all began with a family well-rooted in sports and their Hispanic culture. She grew up with five brothers who wrestled, a father who played catcher in a baseball summer league. “Between innings, he’d let me go out and clean off home plate, and, to this day, it is still the only plate I know how to clean.”

When Alvarado wanted to go out for the high jump in school, she was told no because the principal said girls didn’t do the high jump. “My mother took me in the principal’s office and persisted…told him to think about it. Five years later, his daughter signed up for the high jump.”

We have to change the idea of how we think about things, she said. “I am on the construction site right now every day and I am dressing to look the part. Trying to be compliant. Nevertheless, being such high profile or the first in any industry, you get a little bit afraid of if you are going to make a mistake or ask a dumb question. I found out it is better to ask a dumb question than make a dumb mistake.”

Check back with GlobeSt.com for more live coverage from the 2021 CREW Network Convention.