Chief Financial Officer: Jeff Placek

PUBLISHED JANUARY 2025

Anyone who knows the rigors of construction accounting will fully appreciate what Jeff Placek had to achieve to become chief financial officer for McCownGordon Construction, the second-largest hometown contractor in this region. Anyone who knows the rigors of Division I football—check that: Division I football under legendary coach Bill Snyder—should appreciate what it took for Placek to earn that accounting degree in the first place.

“Being a part of Coach Snyder’s second recruiting class was an amazing experience,” Placek says. “Your entire life was broken down into minutes: 7 minutes to do this task, 22 minutes to do that task. The coaching staff was incredible (most became head coaches at other Power 5 teams). Constant exercises of breaking you down and building you back up. The learning experience prepared you for life on and off the field.”

From that experience would come qualities that Placek would embrace on his rise to the C-Suite: Teamwork, humility, being vulnerable, leadership development and continual improvement, for starters. “Now, throw in being a student-athlete,” he says, “balancing the time commitment between everything football with going to class, studying, learning your future skills, etc., was not an easy task.  But we got it done.”  

Placek didn’t stray far from home for that collegiate experience: He’s a Manhattan native whose high school team went 12-0 his junior year, winning the 6A championship and making USA Today’s Top 25 rankings nationally. Neither did he have to look far for career inspiration. 

“My Dad was an accountant and ultimately became CFO and COO of McCall Pattern Co.,” Placek says. “Dad worked his tail off and showed me that hard/smart work pays off. Mom raised me to be a gentleman and leader. I had great teachers/educators in both grade school and high school. My high school football coaches were instrumental in developing me as a leader, positive role model, team player, coachable, and humble”—all attributes, he says, that would help in college and beyond.  

“I come from a whole family of accountants,” Placek says. “I started early by taking accounting classes in high school, and then my first accounting class in college was taught by Dan Deines, and I was hooked. I always envisioned and strived to become a CFO somewhere. At the time I had no idea it would be in the construction industry.”

He moved to Kansas City after K-State and started crunching numbers for the global accounting firm KPMG, where an early client was engineering giant Black & Veatch.

“At the time, Karen Daniels was the controller (later became CFO), and she taught me everything about construction accounting,” Placek says, and he soon felt the call to that sector. His former KPMG supervisor, Gordon Lansford, recruited him to JE Dunn Construction, and after eight years there, “it was time for me to make something on my own,” Placek says.

It wasn’t exactly a planned connection: “At a sporting clay event, I was accidentally put on a team with Pat McCown,” his firm’s co-founder, Placek recalls. “A couple of months later, I received a phone call out of the blue from Pat. We had a long conversation, and after eight months of interviewing each other, the rest is history. Best decision ever, albeit not an easy decision.”

In his field, the accounting aspect is quite different than other industries, he notes. “Not many other industries use long-term contract accounting (i.e., percentage of completion accounting). I believe this makes it unique. In terms of the business, being able to have the business diversify our backlog is important to protect us from economic change. One year, the private sector might be up, and next year, the public sector might be up. Being nimble is paramount.”

Going from what was then a $2.5 billion company to a $100 million company had its challenges, Placek says, “but the development opportunity was incredible. Joining McCownGordon, I was exposed to not only everything finance/accounting but also HR, compensation and benefits, IT, legal, risk management, operations, insurance, surety, and the list goes on. The opportunity to learn all aspects of the business at a very young age was invaluable.”

But things happen on the way to billion-dollar growth. “As we continue to grow and create opportunity for all of our associates, it has been important to develop, train, mentor and delegate,” Placek says. His core leadership values haven’t changed—being open, honest and transparent, not micro-managing, showing trust and leading by example. Still, he says, “At $100 million, I was able to be involved in everything. At $1 billion-plus, I will no longer be involved in every aspect of the business. Learning to trust your team and lead is the key to success now.”