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mostly just talking to the people you need to
talk to about some specific task." To stay
connected outside of work, the team partici-
pates in events such as go-carting and reaches
out to chat without any specific agenda.
Ironically, Fushman found the early stages of
the pandemic to be particularly rewarding,
despite the stress.
"All of us were in the storm together, working
harder than we ever had, but really rowing
together in perfect sync — everyone communi-
cating well, totally aligned to the goal of
supporting our front-line construction workers,
keeping our projects going and making sure we
were maximizing our recoveries," he says.
Fushman and his team recently developed a
proprietary algorithm to assess risk in turnkey
engineering, procurement and construction
contracts — through which the company hires
the contractor to deliver a system such that
you simply "turn the key," and it works.
"The challenge is that not all EPC or turnkey
projects have the same risk profile — and you
can miss good opportunities if you just say the
risk of turnkey projects is too great," says
Fushman. Together with associate general
counsel Ernie Chan, Fushman developed a
checklist of questions that generate a green,
yellow or red response to provide a frame of
reference, from a risk management perspec-
tive, about which jobs to pursue and how to
price them.
Fushman's team is also working hard to
strengthen cybersecurity to mitigate the risk of
attacks. They recently ran a tabletop simulation
which Fushman recommends as a best practice.
Fushman plans to focus on staying ahead of
the rapidly evolving sustainability space to ensure
Aecon stays at the front of the pack in the year
ahead. He also wants to guide his team members
as they continue to be strategic advisors and
refine their ability to hone in on critical issues that
will be business drivers for Aecon.
Fushman says: "We have to constantly come
up for air and ask ourselves: 'Am I doing the
most important thing for the company I can
right now? Am I adding value?' You provide the
best value for your client when you block out the
noise and just focus on the few issues that really
matter — which very often are the issues
nobody is talking about."
