LaVonne N. Brooks
President and CEO
HSI (High Sierra Industries)
Reno
Years in Nevada: 12
Years with Firm: 6
Type of business
Northern Nevada’s largest provider of services to people with intellectual and physical disabilities
Biggest business challenge
Juggling the dual missions of HSI: providing employment, job training and residential supports to people with disabilities, while also providing excellent light manufacturing and labor-intensive services on a contract basis to local businesses.
If you could start over and choose a different profession, what would it be?
My current position is a varied, exciting, sometimes frustrating, and in the end, always rewarding job. I didn’t begin my career here. Rather, this organization and I found each other after I spent many years in the manufacturing industry and having run my own consulting company. So, the only other “career” I might have chosen is to have been a mom.
How do you spend your time when you’re not working?
Does Rotary or the Hispanic Chamber of Northern Nevada and the Latino Empowerment Advancement and Development program count as work? If so, then I make an effort to run a minimum of three to four miles, three times a week. Sundays are spent with my family.
Little-known fact about yourself:
I was a figure skater for nine years, until I was 14 years old. I was a great jumper, but a horrible spinner.
Does managing a non-profit require different skills than managing a for-profit company?
Having had a career in both arenas, I would say that leading a non-profit organization demands much more of me on every level than I believed possible. On any given day, I could be working on issues as varied as developing a strategic overview for presentation to our Board of Trustees, to gloving-up to assist someone who is having a seizure.
Joseph Crisci
President
Crisci Custom Builders
Las Vegas
Years in Nevada: 22
Years with Firm: 16
Type of business
Las Vegas-based general contracting firm that specializes in institutional, industrial, professional and retail construction.
Biggest Business Challenge:
Finding quality people to staff my company. When they’re out in the field, they represent the company. When they make a mistake, it not only reflects poorly on them, but on Crisci Custom Builders as well. On the same note, when they do well, Crisci Custom Builders is reflected positively through their actions.
What do you like best about your job?
I love being able to see somebody’s dream come alive. When a client describes what he or she wants, an architect sketches it on paper and we’re able to build it, it’s amazing. To think that what we build could be standing for years – that’s another amazing part of my job.
How do you spend your time when you’re not working?
Boating, reading and practicing martial arts
What would you like your legacy to be?
I would like to be remembered as a man whose actions were true to his word and above-board, who carried through with his promises and practiced honesty all around.
With building material costs rising, what are you doing to help keep your costs down?
While we cannot regulate the costs of building materials, we have found one truly efficient way of keeping costs down for everyone involved. The key is ensuring that the project is finished on time according to schedule. By using the best subcontractors and managing construction progress so developments are completed on time. Owners see the overall savings when we keep our word.