Real Estate 2025: BECHTEL, BRENDAN

Serving as CEO since 2016 and chairman since 2017, Bechtel is the fifth generation to lead his family-owned global engineering, construction and project management company. Ranked the nation’s second largest construction company by Engineering News-Record in 2025, Bechtel Corp. has completed more than 25, 000 projects in 160 countries since its 1898 founding.

The firm’s portfolio includes massive infrastructure and industrial projects across the world, including the Ankara-Gerede highway in Turkey. Bechtel also was part of the team behind the 85-station, six-line Riyadh Metro network in Saudia Arabia, the first phase of which opened in November 2024.

Intel announced in March that it has delayed construction of its $28 billion semiconductor manufacturing project in Ohio, for which Bechtel is contracted to build 2. 5 million square feet. Formerly expected to be finished this year, the new due date is 2030. In July, Bechtel announced its appointment as project management consultant for the 2030 World Expo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a six-month event expected to draw 42 million visitors. The company will oversee infrastructure delivery and the transformation of the expo site into an urban development after the event.

Bechtel sits alongside heavy hitters like Apple CEO Tim Cook and JPMorganChase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on the powerful board of the Business Roundtable, the association of the nation’s top CEOs. The other Virginians on the Business Roundtable’s board of directors are Huntington Ingalls Industries President and CEO Christopher D. Kastner and Hilton Worldwide Holdings CEO Christopher J. Nassetta.

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