By John Hinman, Managing Director with Nexus 5 Group
October 2018 is when Brent Hastings blessed us with his presence at Nexus 5 Group. He started off a bit nervous, to say the least. You see, Brent had never been a project manager for a general contractor before, and had never worked in a corporate office environment.
Prior to coming to Nexus 5 Group, Brent worked for another general contractor for a few years renovating big box stores in 5 states. He started as a carpenter during the summers in high school and college. He attended Northwest Missouri State where he earned his degree in Agriculture Business, then went to work managing logistics for a company in central Kansas. While in central Kansas, Brent got married and moved back to his hometown of Smithville, Missouri where he and Hillary are raising their first son, Crew.
When not putting in the long hours in the office, Brent enjoys hunting (duck, turkey, pheasant), fishing, softball, working on his new house, and hanging out with his family.
Brent's passion to learn and win are what drives him at Nexus 5 Group. In his two and a half years, he has developed many new relationships and has left a positive impact with every client he has worked with. Brent has completed projects for Chownow, Fountain Mortgage, Copilevitz, Lam & Raney, Attorneys at Law, Trumpet Behavioral Health and 15 projects at the Lightwell Building downtown.
Here are a few comments from his clients:
“As a senior operations leader for a technology firm, I have high expectations of my team and my vendors for efficiency and quality of the outcomes. Nexus 5 Group has repeatedly outperformed on projects for our company. Without exception, they have delivered on their commitments early and on budget. Perhaps more importantly, they are proactive in their communication, timely in their responses, and care as much about the quality of the final result as I do.” - Eric Jaffe, CEO, Chownow
“The Nexus 5 Group exceeded my expectations in EVERY way. Looking at a daily schedule for a 4-month project and then seeing things happen on-time, every day of the project was nothing short of amazing. The level of communication and organization when it came to the schedule, changes, approvals, options, etc. was second to none. I want to especially compliment Brent Hastings. His calm demeanor, quick response times, clear communication, friendly attitude, and handle on all the details is what made this project great. He is a true treasure and I hope he has a long and lucrative career at Nexus 5 Group. He is an absolute winner.” - Charity Ohlund, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Fountain Mortgage
Brent is not the first person at Nexus 5 Group that is in his current position for the first time. You see, at Nexus 5 Group we believe in hiring people with the intangibles that you cannot train (integrity, honesty, character, desire to win, self-drive and motivation, communication) then develop the practical skills needed (estimating, project management, scheduling, construction politics). We believe in hiring culture first, then hiring for experience. Brent was a great find that came recommended internally by Josh Green, who started just a couple short months before Brent.
I asked Brent, “what is your favorite part of working at Nexus 5 Group?” He replied, “the team member culture, everyone is always looking to help out whenever needed.”
Brent's future at Nexus 5 Group is very bright and we're proud to have him as part of our Nexus 5 Group family.