Alberta's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 48
48
ALBERTA’S TOP EMPLOYERS
Graham’s strong infrastructure includes its culture
G
rowing up, Jeremy
Klarenbach was
fascinated by big
construction projects
– the bridges and
buildings and major infrastructure
sprouting all over the growing
province. “I wanted to be part of
the construction industry,” he
says, “which is why I went into the
civil engineering field.” The name
he saw on many of these projects
was Graham Construction, where
Klarenbach is now the executive
vice-president of infrastructure
and industrial — a dream job for
that younger man.
We aren’t just building
projects, we are helping
to build Alberta’s
future.
— Denise Lemieux
Director, Talent Management
When Denise Lemieux started
working for Graham, she was also
attracted by what the company
was building. “I saw that the best
companies were the ones that
invest in their people as intentionally as they invest in their
projects,” she says. “What drew
me to Graham was that opportunity to help shape that, to bring
together leadership development,
succession management and culture in a company that has such
a strong reputation for execution
and integrity.”
Lemieux, director of talent management, adds that she “wanted to
be part of a company that builds
Graham Construction prioritizes knowledge sharing as a means of creating respectful partnerships,
particularly when it comes to ongoing client relationships.
more than projects — one that
builds people, culture and longterm capability.”
The Calgary-based company
works all over Alberta and Canada
as well as the United States, and
Lemieux says that mentoring is
crucial for a business involving
so much mobility. “In a company
like Graham where every project
is unique, our standards remain
constant,” she says.
“Knowledge sharing is what
keeps us unified and performing
to the highest levels. Many of our
clients partner with us for repeat
projects across sectors and regions
and we get to know our clients,
so sharing insights about client
expectations, communications
and their partnership dynamic,
helps us maintain this trust and
continuity.”
Klarenbach adds that hiring
within the communities that host
their projects is also key — not
just to Graham’s growth but to the
whole industry — and that this
is especially important in First
Nations communities.
“It’s really impactful for everyone around when you’re able to
provide a career in construction,”
he says. “They can foster their
skills and set out on their path and
pass those skills and knowledge
along through their siblings and
families and through the generations to develop capacity in the
construction industry.”
Klarenbach underlines how
Graham projects are often of
immediate service to a community,
like the repairs it did on Calgary’s
Bearspaw water main in 2024,
which brought together employees from across the company’s
divisions to staff 24-hour-a-day
