Laura M. Nee Email & Phone Number

I am the CEO of a construction tech firm, specializing in digital transformation for the AEC industry. I got my start in the industry around 25 years ago. I had an opportunity to buy a business. It was a business that my father, a civil engineer turned ‘techy’ started of necessity. After I held a few positions after graduating college, I was eager to start my own business and he was ready to sell his. So, I bought a company called The Simplex Group, which at the time was a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) of a software company focused on the AEC market called Primavera. I began my career as a Business Analyst working in the IT department of a utility company. Recognizing that I was overhead to the organization, I transitioned to a revenue-generating position as a consultant with a firm that built custom business applications using Microsoft technology. I worked on some cool projects; we built an app for a transportation company to schedule pickups for seniors before there were any GPS-based apps around. Another project I worked on was a psychology-based test that evaluated people’s work styles. I later realized that this was an app before Predictive Index was a thing. I love solving problems and using technology to improve people’s lives. Today, I know I am an entrepreneur at heart. I thought I was crazy to buy a business early in my career. I've found great fortune in learning how large companies need to manage projects more effectively. While I started my AEC career around scheduling with Primavera, I realized there was so much more to solving the puzzle of managing projects well. What’s unique about the construction industry is that multiple companies come together to build a thing. They don’t work for the same organization – they are only bound by contracts. When an opportunity to build our project management system came along, I went back to my roots of problem-solving, leveraging technology, and taking an innovative solution to market with VPO. VPO is our project management system and I love that I get to change the lives of people managing large, complex projects more effectively.