McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has promoted Ryan Felton to vice president of operations and Kris Montgomery to project director in the company’s Omaha office.
Felton will manage the operational aspects of McCarthy project work throughout Nebraska and western Iowa and join the leadership team that oversees McCarthy’s 28-state Central Region.
Since joining McCarthy’s Omaha office as project manager in 2007, Felton has led and managed more than 50 active and completed projects, with a total construction value of more than $1 billion. He led the construction team on the $350 million Mercy Joplin Replacement Hospital after an EF-5 tornado demolished the original facility.
Other career highlights included serving as a project leader on the $250 million Generation Patient program, which encompassed all five campuses of Alegent Health (now CHI Health). Felton has also been instrumental in helping to expand the breadth of McCarthy’s project work across Nebraska and western Iowa.
A Nebraska native, Felton earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is a LEED Green Associate and an active member in the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE), Nebraska Society of Health Care Engineering (NSHE) and Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA).
Montgomery, who has been promoted to project director, will assume project leadership responsibilities on several Nebraska projects.
He joined McCarthy as a project engineer in 2007 and has overseen more than $1.38 billion of healthcare construction projects. Most recently, he managed construction of the Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center, which opened ahead of schedule and under budget in summer 2020. He previously served as a project superintendent on the New Orleans VA Medical Center, a nine-building new campus that replaced critical medical infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Montgomery earned a construction management degree from Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. His volunteer activities include the ACE Mentor Program of Greater Omaha, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce REACH Beyond Mentoring program, the Construction Advisory Committee at Metropolitan Community College and the Wayne State Center for Applied Technology Advisory Board. He also serves as an adjunct professor for the Construction Management program at Wayne State College.
“Both Ryan and Kris are exceptional project leaders and have been key contributors to McCarthy’s growing success in Nebraska,” said Ryan Sawall, senior vice president and business unit leader at McCarthy Building Companies.
Marking its 20th anniversary in Nebraska in 2021, McCarthy’s Omaha team has completed more than $1 billion in construction projects across Nebraska and western Iowa. The company has expertise in building the most complex facilities across diverse markets, including healthcare, K-12, higher education, advanced technology and manufacturing, and commercial.
Having recently completed the $86 million, 57,000-sq-ft. Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center, McCarthy’s current local projects include a $70 million new high school and $48 million new middle school for Omaha Public Schools, $23.7 million developer-led Marriott Tribute Hotel (Scarlet Hotel) on the Nebraska Innovation Campus, $25.6 million University of Nebraska Omaha Durham Science Center renovation and several advanced technology and manufacturing projects.
