At Bozzuto, Toby Bozzuto leads more than 4,000 employees across homebuilding, multifamily development, construction and management divisions, overseeing 130,000 apartments and 4 million square feet of retail space nationwide.

The company has earned recognition as a Great Place to Work and a Top Workplace by The Washington Post for 10 consecutive years. In July 2024, Bozzuto was named Chair of Colgate University’s board of trustees, becoming the youngest person to hold that position. Committed to diversity and inclusion, he joined the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge and Catalyst CEO Champions for Change.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

The biggest challenge facing our industry is that the cost to build continues to make new projects extraordinarily difficult. This is due to the combined cost of capital, inflation, tariff impact, labor, hard costs and soft costs. On top of that, an increasingly onerous regulatory environment puts more and more burdens on housing development and is actually curtailing new starts and exacerbating the affordability issues in housing.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

From my father: “Never forget where you came from.” Humility is the single greatest gift a leader can have. This gives us perspective on how fortunate we are to do what we do with such incredible people. Furthermore, humility reminds us that it is our corporate obligation to give back to the communities we are lucky enough to work in.

How do you define success?

Success is leaving the world and the people you meet in a better place.

Darrin Brown has served as president of McClung-Logan Equipment Company since 2010, following years in key sales and management roles within the organization. Founded in 1939 and headquartered in Baltimore, McClung-Logan is a privately owned construction equipment distributor operating 11 full-service locations across Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. The company serves the heavy construction, aggregate and portable power industries, representing manufacturers including Volvo Construction Equipment and Takeuchi.

Under Brown’s leadership, McClung-Logan diversified its product portfolio, expanded into Maryland and Delaware Takeuchi markets in 2025, and acquired White Oak Equipment, adding compact equipment expertise and additional Virginia locations.

Founding ReBUILD Metro in Baltimore in 2006, Sean Closkey has led the nonprofit’s development of more than 600 homes in East Baltimore neighborhoods, including the block-by-block restoration of more than 300 abandoned properties. Before launching ReBUILD Metro, Closkey served as executive director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, where he created the state’s $2.5 billion Smart Growth Housing Policy, and as executive director of St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society in Camden, New Jersey, from 1993 to 2002.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Villanova University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

While there is great energy and optimism surrounding community revitalization in Baltimore, we are still confronting challenges in achieving the scale of redevelopment necessary to overcome Baltimore’s 60-year vacancy crisis. Given the number of people across our public agencies, private institutions, philanthropic foundations and communities who have committed to coming together in partnership to resolve this crisis, I feel confident that this challenge is one we can overcome.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Hope unlocks imagination, and persistence enables creation.

How do you define success?

When Baltimore has healthy neighborhoods stretching across the city and community residents say, “We built this together.”

Since Comer Construction’s founding in 1982, Linda Sue “Susie” Comer has been a constant presence at the firm, now serving as its president and treasurer while also directing the estimating and project management divisions and customer relations. Under her leadership, the company has built a reputation for quality construction services at competitive prices.

A committed advocate for the advancement of women in business, Comer extends her influence through extensive community service, including the Harford County Public Works Advisory Board, the M&T Bank Northeast Advisory Board, the Maryland Building Industry Association Upper Chesapeake Chapter, the Harford County Contractors Association, the Upper Chesapeake Health Foundation board and the Harford County Government Spending Affordability Committee.

Melissa Drew leads a construction firm ranked No. 1 in the mid-Atlantic on the Inc. Regionals list and has been recognized through Inc. Female Founders 500. She holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Science in civil engineering from Stanford University.

Drew serves on Salisbury University’s Perdue School of Business Executive Advisory Council and on the board of Symphony 21. She has been named a 2025 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman, a 2025 MCE Entrepreneur of the Year and a two-time Daily Record Top 100 Woman.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

The construction industry is facing a significant workforce challenge as a large portion of experienced professionals approach retirement, with too few younger workers entering the trades to replace them. This growing talent gap will have real consequences on project timelines, costs and the industry’s ability to meet demand. To address this, we must rethink how we attract and develop talent. Increasing engagement and access for women in construction is a critical opportunity to expand the workforce, bring diverse perspectives and strengthen the industry’s long-term sustainability.

Another big challenge facing our industry today is balancing growth and opportunity with the realities of capacity, both financially and from a talent perspective. There is a strong pipeline of complex, meaningful work, especially in the public sector. However, firms must navigate limitations in bonding, access to capital and the ability to scale teams at the pace the market demands.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

That I would never make a bad decision if I had truly thought it through. It gave me confidence during a big career shift to trust my process and move forward without hesitation. Even if something doesn’t turn out exactly as planned, it’s still progress. That mindset has stayed with me and continues to guide my decision-making today.

How do you define success?

I define success as building something that creates real impact while staying true to who you are. It’s about delivering work you’re proud of; building strong, lasting relationships; and creating an environment where people genuinely want to be part of what you’re building.

On a personal level, success means helping others see what’s possible for themselves. It’s about building the confidence to use the power we already have and being the kind of person who reinforces that others belong, are capable and can go after bigger opportunities.

I try to reflect that in how I lead every day. In a male-dominated industry, I want other women to see that you don’t have to change who you are to succeed. I lead with empathy, focus on real relationships and stay grounded in my own approach. If that helps someone else feel confident enough to be bold, to be authentic and to pursue something they might have held back from, that’s success to me.

A Navy veteran and construction industry leader, Chris Eccleston has spent nearly two decades managing commercial construction projects across the Delmarva Peninsula. Since entering the field in 2007, he has overseen more than $200 million in projects throughout the region.

Before his construction career, Eccleston served six years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear machinist mate aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, during which the ship completed three tours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.