Menu Close

Built to lead: Evan Shriver

From boyhood dreams to boardroom leadership, Evan Shriver’s journey has been shaped by a lifelong passion for learning. Now, as CEO of Atlantic Constructors, he brings hands-on experience and people-first leadership to a fast-growing company entering its next chapter.

Some people are born engineers. Even as a young Evan Shriver made new worlds with his LEGO blocks, his father knew his son had a technical career ahead of him.

“Construction ran in the family,” Shriver reflects on the CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast. “And then throughout college, I had internships in various technical firms. I looked at design and manufacturing. But I always gravitated towards construction. There’s such a tangible aspect of seeing what you’re building.”

Desperate to avoid being stuck at a desk, Shriver followed his calling into a profession that kept him out in the world and working with people. Today, he’s CEO of Atlantic Constructors, Inc (ACI), a leading construction and service provider across Virginia and North Carolina.

ACI has been Shriver’s professional home for 12 years, but it’s only since 2020 that he’s been in the CEO role. For the former project manager, it’s familiar territory.

“I came up through project management, and it’s kind of like being a business owner,” he says.

“You’re responsible for the construction but also the finances. You lead people.”

And with the promotion coming as it did at the dawn of a global pandemic, Shriver says his tenure was an opportunity for change.

“What better time to lead? I went from really tactical problem solving to finding the best way to motivate people to achieve success. It was a challenge I enjoyed,” he reveals.

Centered on people

ACI’s portfolio of projects spans halls of education, government buildings, breweries and manufacturing centers. No project is beyond the company’s scope, it seems, and Shriver is committed to always looking ahead.

“Even though we’re a big capable company, we have a smaller family feel so we can get things done,” he says. “But whatever we’re working on, we have that sense of family. We’re not afraid to change and evolve, and that keeps things exciting.”

Construction companies are largely cut from the same cloth – there are, after all, only so many ways one can erect a building. But Shriver says that people and culture are what separates the good constructors from the great.

“We’ve really leaned into that,” he says. “You may have the same skills, suppliers and contractors, but who you are and who you want to be sets you apart. At every new employee orientation I speak to our incoming people about the mission, the vision and the values. I think it sets the tone and helps them achieve their best for us.”

That mission is to provide diverse and extraordinary facility solutions that support the missions of ACI’s clientele.

“Right there, that’s people driven in itself. There’s such a deep connection between Atlantic and our customers, and our mission is to help bring their mission to life,” he explains.

That’s when the job takes on a very human dimension.

“We were building a children’s hospital and I was walking through the job site,” Shriver recalls. “I ran into one of our plumbers and asked him what he was up to. He said he was installing some pipes. I said, ‘No, you’re not. You’re saving children’s lives.’

“I explained that one day that pipe would provide oxygen to a sick child and help them live a long, happy life, all because of the work he did that day. And you can apply that to every single project we work on.”

The executive side of the business helps the company achieve its goals, but Shriver says it’s while on site that people get the best sense of ACI’s culture.

“It’s amazing the ideas you’ll get just walking around and talking to the team. ‘What are you up to? What’s standing in your way? Anything we can do to help?’ That’s where some of our best ideas come from,” he explains.

Shriver’s own hands-on background in engineering has gifted him with an innate understanding of many levels of the business, which helps him make the most of this coalface opportunity.

“Metrics and analytics is where I gravitate to, but it’s hard to measure a culture,” he acknowledges. “That’s why I spend as much time as I can on-site engaging with employees.”

ACI’s diversity and embrace of innovation have made it easy for the company to provide a rich assortment of benefits for customers.

“It’s a very controlled environment, not many variables. Schedule certainty helps a lot. And safety is a top priority for us. Nothing else matters if we aren’t sending every single employee home safe every day,” Shriver says.

New potential

Although his role – and the company’s success – is the culmination of one journey, it’s also the beginning of another. In April 2025, ACI was acquired by Texas-based TriplePoint MEP, one of the largest providers of mechanical services in the United States. The move at once augmented TriplePoint’s sizable portfolio while giving ACI the boost it needed to reach the next level.

“It’s been really exciting,” Shriver says. “We’d been growing like crazy over the last 10 years, but really accelerated in the last three or four.”

But with such exponential growth comes certain trade-offs and constraints.

“Do we invest in this or that? How do we start up new divisions and new offices? Aligning with TriplePoint helped alleviate all that. It’s one of the best decisions we’ve made,” he adds.

Now, just as its CEO did, ACI is working even harder to realize its potential. It’s a new phase in lockstep with the right partner.

“By integrating with TriplePoint, we’ve seen eye to eye on core values, specifically employee engagement. They know that’s the key to success for all companies. We trade best practices and better ideas,” Shriver says.

And the future looks limitless.

“Nothing is off the table,” he concludes. “There are things we do great, things they do great. If we can share all that, we can all get better together.”

Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with Evan Shriver on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.