2025 C-Suite Awards
RISING STAR: Dominic Skrajewski
JPS Construction and Design Inc. | Chief operating officer and project manager
LEADERSHIP LESSONS LEARNED while captaining high school and college soccer teams are helping Dominic Skrajewski score millions of dollars in business for his company and promotions for himself.
Skrajewski, chief operating officer and project manager at JPS Construction and Design Inc. in Middletown, says he developed time management, mentoring, communications and other skills on and off the turf as a student-athlete at the college-prep Salesianum School in Wilmington, Del. Those skills also came to fruition while juggling the demands required of Division I athletes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with academics.
“Having that leadership role early on in my life has prepared me very well for where I am at JPS,” Skrajewski said.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in fine arts in architecture, he continued his education at Roger Williams University, where he volunteered as an assistant men’s soccer coach as he pursued his master’s degree in architecture. Skrajewski served four years as a project manager for a Wilmington, Del.-based architectural firm before returning to Rhode Island in August 2020 to be a designer with JPS.
“We hired him in the beginning of [the COVID-19 pandemic],” said Lindsey McCarty, JPS’ assistant vice president of finance. “It was such a crazy time for us. We became so busy and had a turnover in project managers. There was a need for people to step up.”
It wasn’t long before Skrajewski was managing the same custom projects he had designed at the full-service design-and-build construction company.
JPS owner Jamie Stebenne brought Skrajewski along as his assistant project manager on a trio of multimillion-dollar homes, each at a different building stage. McCarty says subcontractors and employees have a great respect for the way Skrajewski operates and communicates – clearly and professionally.
“He has a natural way about him,” McCarty said. “And clients love him.”
Now, Skrajewski has a hand in every aspect of the company, from human resources, mentoring and overseeing design work to managing multimillion-dollar construction projects.
Skrajewski’s accomplishments and successes with JPS include piloting the hybrid designer-project manager role the company is implementing to involve designers in its projects beyond the drafting table to the construction site. He also identified inefficiencies and problematic processes and brainstorming solutions before engaging employees to buy in and implement them.
Skrajewski also helped review, update, streamline and enhance JPS’ operations manual of best practices and processes and onboarding. Lastly, he regularly takes the initiative to improve operations, such as he did in March when he reviewed the company’s website and catalogued improvements he suggested in an email to colleagues.
Skrajewski has also twice received JPS’ Profit Pro award, given annually to the project manager who earns the highest gross profit on projects completed that year. Last year, Skrajewski eclipsed all previous winners by logging the highest gross profit in company history.
He also helped better position JPS to ride a boom in 2021 and 2022, when people were buying homes and wanting to renovate and expand with additions. Last year, the company grossed $15.7 million – up $2.7 million from 2021 – with projections to gross about $20 million this year. JPS also has seen its workforce grow from 50 employees when Skrajewski started in 2020 to now 62.
Skrajewski’s contributions aren’t limited to JPS. He participates in career fairs at Roger Williams University, networks weekly with other professionals in the Aquidneck Business Connections organization and often represents JPS at Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce events.
Skrajewski’s community involvement includes helping build multiple Habitat for Humanity sites, working on an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant playground in Portsmouth, and speaking with students about how he identified and seized different opportunities that proved beneficial to him.
“Building a home and building a business are different things, but the basis of it is very much the same – planning and managing people,” Skrajewski said.
