Estimator joins Carl A. Nelson & Company team

11 months, 3 weeks ago

Utah native Mark Evans brings more than two decades of construction industry experience in estimating and project management to Iowa-based firm.

After spending the first 23 years of his career in his home state of Utah, and elsewhere in the American West, Mark Evans has brought his experience in construction project estimating and project management to Iowa. Evans joins Carl A. Nelson & Company (CANCO), based in Burlington, Iowa, after looking for a change for himself and his family from the big-city hustle and bustle, while looking for a smaller company with a strong industrial, commercial and institutional portfolio.

Evans' first day at CANCO was April 24, 2023.

A 2000 graduate of Brigham Young University with a bachelor of science degree in construction management, Evans got his Utah contractor's license and worked his way through college as a builder. His professional career began in Park City, Utah, where he spent six years as an estimator for a firm performing small commercial and high-end residential projects. During his time with that firm, he also was able to manage some of the company's projects. Having discovered an affinity for the commercial side of construction, Evans moved on to Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked for a contractor that built projects ranging from 30-story high-rise condominimums in downtown Phoenix,to strip malls, office buildings and even the people-mover at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Impacted by the 2008 recession, Evans' career transitioned through the insurance industry, his own residential construction company, estimating for a highway contractor and working the past four years for a commercial contractor in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A desire for a more rural life, in a smaller community where they could own a few acres, made CANCO the perfect opportunity. The company does the kind of work, in type and scale, that appeals to him, Evans said. Employee-ownership of the firm does, too. And so did having friends who live in the area who will help to ease the transition to a new place.

"There is a family here besides the family we'll make at Carl Nelson," he said. 

Evans' experience working with transplanted Midwesterners also helped make the move appealing: "It's a different mindset, but I like it."

Evans and his wife of 18 years, Stacy, have two daughters, Mara, 15, and Audri, 12. Away from work, the family enjoys tent camping and rock hunting. Evans said he enjoys woodworking and home repair.