When Gilberto Neves, chief executive officer of Miami-based Odebrecht Construction, called Eloise Gonzalez in the middle of the night to come with him on an emergency trip to earthquake-torn Haiti, she was astounded. The owner of a small business, Commercial Interior Contractors, she says she had never worked outside Florida, let alone in a disaster zone. But she agreed, and within 18 hours Neves’ team was mobilized to begin restoring the American Airlines terminal at Haiti’s airport.
Gonzalez agreed to step out of her comfort zone thanks to the trust and loyalty bred from years of working with Neves, she says. “His philosophy is to bring people to the next level,” she says. “He pushes us to get better, even when we don’t want to.”