PolyEarth Construction International: Alaska firm helps rebuild Iraq, train Iraqis.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

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When the principals of PolyEarth Construction International (PCI) decided to launch the company, its primary focus was on leveraging prior relationships with key vendors and professionals in Iraq and the Middle East to participate in the rehabilitation and upgrade of oil and gas infrastructure. Beyond the business opportunities, the four principals (Lee Nunn, senior managing director; Samuel Pelant, managing director; Paul Johnson, director of global logistics; and Jeff Mekinda, director of operations) could not disregard the brotherly bond they had already established with the local Iraqis during prior work efforts after the second Gulf War.

After completing several projects working for a large Alaska Native construction management firm, the Iraqis-whom the PCI principals had previously hired and trained--maintained contact with PCI. "They were asking us to find a way to return," Pelant says. "They told us none of the big U.S. contractors had worked with them the way we had."

DRIVEN TO WORK

This became a driver for the creation of PolyEarth Construction International. The name PolyEarth is a conjunction that comes from the words "polyurea," which is used in blast technology, and "earth" referring to the soil stabilization technologies.

When their former employer pulled out of Iraq and the Middle East, the four men decided to make a move, also bringing other colleagues from Alaska. Leading the break, Pelant said, "Heck with it guys, let's start a company."

Positioning themselves as global experts with local experience and local resources, in 2007 PCI was one more development that cropped up through the dry, desert sand. In June of that year, the principals formed PCI to be able to continue working together, and in response to requests from their Iraqi associates to return. The decision was also encouraged when one of the Iraqi subcontractors working overseas found a project for building a Navy pier and sea wall facility at the Port of Umm Qasr. After the Americans arrived in Iraq, it was the first construction project funded primarily by Iraqi money through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. As a new company, PCI did not have the required certifications to compete, so it partnered with others and they were the successful bidders.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS

"Our collective experience has been derived from years of successful projects in the harsh, remote and challenging conditions of Alaska and the Middle East," Pelant...