Published November 11, 2016
“As you can tell, I’m America first.”
Michael Moreira is the design-build and estimating pro at PSI He has a soft spot for American manufacturers, the company’s primary customer base. His desire to help domestic manufacturers started decades ago while he was an automobile mechanic.
“There were some plants that would take the machinery out, put it overseas. I said, ‘This is crazy.’ Over 40 years it’s been going on.”
Now, he helps American manufacturers in a different way: design build.
One thing that Moreira’s customers appreciate the most is his ability to stay on budget, even when quoting is at the very early stage of development.
“You have to know who the end user is and how to price it. If they’re working with a contractor who’s working with an architect and an engineer, and it’s in a conceptual stage, and it’s just kind of getting budgets as this process rolls forward, your pricing can get out of hand if you’re not careful.”
His ability to conceptualize the job before it even begins allows him to be much more accurate when predicting budget than many of PSI’s competitors. “When they ask me for a budget, they know I’m going to be pretty much where they should be. It’s not going to be 50% high or 50% low.”
Moreira’s main objective is to be fair, but not simply under-bid his competitors. “I try to give my customers a fair price. What I to do is, if it’s a new contractor, if he’s doing something that I feel it’s not correct, or if he needs advice, I’m always going to give advice. Even if I don’t get the work.”
His reputation for quoting fair prices and foreseeing job requirements in advance is one that many other contractor’s recognize.
It’s also a talent that his co-workers have come to rely on.
Jason Taylor, VP of Operations says, “Honestly, Mikey’s knowledge in this company is huge to me. I think that that’s one of our definite selling points to sub-contractors.”
Like many of PSI’s employees, Moreira has withstood the test of time. Since 1978, he’s worked his way up, starting as a piping apprentice. He immediately fell in love with the feeling he got from working with his hands.
“Once you work with your hands, you like building things. It’s natural… I enjoyed it because at the end of the day you feel like you did something. You build something. No better feeling than that.”
His love for the job shows. Among contractors, Moreira has a positive reputation. But he doesn’t take all of the credit for himself. “Our guys do quality work, and we stand behind it 110%.”
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