When 31-year-old Donna Manley was named senior vice president and CEO of Westway Construction Corp. in 1988, it was no longer considered unusual for women to be executives in the still male-dominated construction industry.
However, those who have followed Manley`s rapid 10-year rise from office manager for Joe Keim Builders to her present position consider her quite exceptional.
”Donna is just a dynamite lady,” said Donna Heaver, sales manager for Joe Keim. ”Westway`s gain was our loss.”
Her fast-track career has been quite an achievement for someone who started out as a secretary with no experience in any phase of construction, land development or sales.
”Working for Joe Keim was a wonderful crash course in understanding the building industry,” said Manley. ”I handled walk-throughs and closings, prepared contracts and did clerical work for his land development business. I learned a great deal in a short time.”
In 1981, Keim promoted Manley to vice president of J.A.K. Builders in Naperville, one of his construction firms. Unfortunately, the promotion came only a few weeks after her husband died.
Manley left her job to spend time with her 8-year-old son and went back to school to obtain her degree from the College of Du Page. She returned to work in 1983, the same year she married her present husband, Don Manley, then a superintendent for Joe Keim.
Manley joined Westway Construction, a St. Charles-based builder of moderately priced single-family homes in the Fox River Valley, in 1984 as what she describes as a ”right-hand person” in sales and marketing.
At that point Westway Construction had just been bought by its current owners, James Urhausen, president, and James Getzelman, vice president, both longtime employees of the firm. It was the first time the company had changed ownership since it was founded in 1953 by Thomas Rossetter.
”Donna has the strength and talents of someone who`s extremely organized and loyal and possesses a clear depth of understanding and experience in home building,” said Urhausen. ”She has as much technical experience as anyone, including me.”
”It felt like home, like where I belonged,” said Manley, whose responsibilities grew as the company prospered. In 1985, she was promoted to vice president of sales and then promoted again three years later.
However, that triumph was marred by another tragedy when Manley gave birth prematurely to twins and only one survived. This time she took more than a year off to care for her infant son before returning to Westway.
”It`s something I couldn`t have done without an understanding husband and son and a firm committed to working mothers,” she said. ”I`ve always felt appreciated here, not just employed, and that gives me all the incentive I need to do the best possible job.”
Her husband is now president of his own company, Manley Built Homes, specializing in semi-custom and custom homes, also in the Fox River Valley.
”We`ve never been competitors in the marketplace because we target different buyers,” said Manley.
Westway Construction is currently closing out the last 40 homes at Randall Square, a 250-unit development of single-family homes ranging in price from $150,000 to $200,000.
This summer the firm plans to begin work on Cambridge West in Elburn, a development of aluminum-sided homes priced from $122,900.
Manley noted that there is a glut of expensive homes on the market in contrast to a shortage of affordably priced units.
”First-time buyers are highly motivated to buy now because of the low interest rates, but the trick is to find a house that is as much a bargain as these lowered rates,” she said.
”But people looking at more expensive homes don`t feel that same sense of urgency. It doesn`t mean as much to them if rates fluctuate a point or two. They can afford to wait.”
Like other builders trying to recoup from one of the most dismal years in recent memory, Westway is trying to hold the line on costs.
According to Manley, Westway does not expect to earn the same percentage of profits on their newest developments such as Cambridge West but feels additional volume will compensate for any losses.
”Based on traffic through our models in recent weeks, we`re looking forward to a summer that is at least as good and maybe better than last summer,” she said.
