As HNTB Corporation’s Western Division President, John Friel leads the growth strategy and talent recruitment initiatives and oversees key client relationships for offices in the firm’s Northwest and West divisions. He is responsible for positioning the region for rapid and tremendous growth.
John has served in many significant roles during his 30 years with HNTB, including project manager, sales officer, regional manager, project executive and corporate president. Most recently, he has become an authority on design-build delivery, leading the design-build division and coordinating with offices and project teams throughout the firm.
John has built strong relationships with contractor clients, established firmwide processes and successfully delivered more than $9 billion in constructed design-build and public-private partnership projects across the highway, transit and aviation infrastructure markets.
A licensed civil engineer with 38 years of industry experience, John began his career with the Michigan Department of Transportation and then transitioned to the private sector.
He is an active member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the Engineering Society of Detroit.
He has a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan.
