Katie Kafarakis has always been involved in her family’s construction business. A third-generation employee, she spent her childhood on jobsites with her father and her adulthood in marketing, sales and operations. In a family business, love and support abound, and Kafarakis was always supportive of her family’s company, Millstone Management Group—although that support came from afar for a portion of adulthood. Working full-time for a technology firm in Arizona, Kafarakis led Millstone’s sales and marketing efforts on a part-time basis, handling proposals, marketing materials, the company website and more from 2008 to 2019, when a tragedy struck and flipped her priorities. She would soon leave the tech firm and enter into the family business full-time, taking on the role of vice president with a path to ownership.
“Our family legacy of construction has been with me since I was a kid,” says Kafarakis. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she shared her construction-coded childhood with an older brother, Chris Huntley, who is a big part of her success in this male-dominated industry. While she always admired her family’s business and remained emotionally close to home, Kafarakis knew she had to prove herself, to herself, by herself. So, she did what many aspiring, ambitious career-oriented women do: headed west.
“I wanted to get exposure and experience in other areas and at other businesses to have a greater understanding of how the strongest companies operate,” she says. “It’s hard to gain perspective when you only work one place for your whole life. So, I wanted to have a well-rounded experience before taking on a larger role at Millstone.”
OUT WEST
Following a degree in journalism from Kent State University in 2009, Kafarakis found herself in Arizona. While working remotely part-time for Millstone, she earned a job working full-time at a large technology company, serving the public safety and law enforcement sectors. While expanding her horizons, Kafarakis managed to find her niche in these male-dominated sectors.
“Personally, I thrive in that environment,” says Kafarakis. “I love the challenge. Yes, there might be a little bit more pressure or there might be some inherent objections to overcome when I first walk in a room. The thing that I love the most and the things that excite me in general are being able to quickly overcome that stigma; being able to speak intelligently about the industry, and how quickly people realize I actually know what I’m talking about as a woman in a male-dominated industry. As much as I would like to say it doesn’t exist, it does, but I try to overcome that hurdle quickly.”
Just as Kafarakis was hitting her professional stride, she found herself facing the largest hurdle of her life—the passing of her brother in 2019.
Of course, Kafarakis had always hoped for and anticipated one day returning home and climbing the ladder at Millstone, “but,” she says, “it came more unexpectedly than intended. While I handled marketing remotely, my brother handled day-to-day operations here. We had always planned on us both taking over, and now it’s solely on my shoulders.”
The word hurdle doesn’t even begin to describe the gravity of the challenge Kafarakis and her family—and her family business—would soon be facing in the wake of her brother’s passing and on the horizon of the pandemic, but her previous experiences prepared her for the road ahead.
PIVOT
In addition to the entire company grieving the loss of her brother, Kafarakis says, “Not only are you coming into a pandemic and having to think fast on your feet and make decisions quickly and try to hope for the best because you don’t know what’s happening next in the market, but also transition from the old-school construction company mindset—there were of course pieces and parts I thought were really, really good and that I wanted to maintain—into a growth mindset.” That also just happens to be her favorite book—“Growth Mindset,” by Carol Dweck—and something she has all of her employees read. “Growth mindset is really about the difference between having a fixed mindset—we’ve done it this way forever, and so we have to continue doing it this way forever—versus a growth mindset—how can I adapt? How can I be flexible? What if we did it this way instead? Growth comes from being okay with making mistakes,” says Kafarakis.
This growth mindset included adapting Millstone’s business model from one of traditional bid-build to design-build and construction management. “We are definitely transitioning to a business where we’re seen as an expert to our customers,” says Kafarakis. “One where they come to us for repeat business, and they trust us to consult in addition to build. And that transition’s been excellent. It’s opened up new opportunities for us, new lines of business.”
PERSONAL GROWTH
While Kafarakis began implementing her new strategy for business growth, she was doing some growing of her own. “Just to add a little more complication at the time,” she says, “I was pregnant.”
So, to reiterate: Kafarakis moved to Arizona; excelled at a career in the male-dominated technology industry while working remotely for her family’s business; suffered the tragic loss of her brother; moved back to Ohio to go to work at Millstone full-time, assuming the role of vice president with trajectory for becoming president and owner; navigated her company through a global pandemic; and had a baby. Of course, Kafarakis had the resume and personality to prepare her to face adversity, but it was her support system that really got her through.
“I have an incredible team around me who are amazing,” says Kafarakis. “They’re smart. They have the grit and passion for the industry, as well. We’ve all won together. And so that creates this really exciting, palpable camaraderie here. I just feel grateful.”
There was a lot for Millstone to navigate through the last few years, but Kafarakis is happy to report the company has come out of it successful and is excelling today. “We’ve been able to find opportunities that allow us to position ourselves differently in the industry,” she says. She’s also found opportunities to position herself within the industry as an example for other women. Women are still often stigmatized for being empathetic or compassionate, but Kafarakis aims to show that those are actually what make women strong. It is important for women to know their strengths and—in order to grow stronger—their weaknesses.
“I have my strengths and certainly my weaknesses, as we all do,” says Kafarakis, “but the key is surrounding myself with team members that are smarter than me and stronger than me in areas where I’m weak. The collaboration of different mindsets is what builds an amazing team, and bringing more women into the industry makes the industry in general more well-rounded.”
Under Kafarakis’ leadership, where is Millstone going next? Maintaining Millstone’s familial integrity is important to Kafarakis while also ensuring its maintenance of women-owned status and continued growth as a premier construction company overall. While she hasn’t taken majority ownership of Millstone just yet, it is never too early to start thinking of her own succession plan.
“Absolutely I would love to maintain a women-owned business designation. I would love to keep it within the family, as well. As a mom, you start to think about the legacy that you leave, and that’s something that’s so important. My grandfather and my mom and my dad have left a legacy in the community, and they’ve established a great reputation for quality, for honesty, integrity and so on. And so those values are really important for me to not only continue but take to the next level.”
Millstone’s growth mindset has led to its expansion. Projects have taken it from Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati and other parts of Ohio, with plans to venture beyond the state border soon, and hopefully into other business capacities as well.
“My goal is to get us into development,” says Kafarakis, “because one thing that’s critical to me is truly developing and building our community, getting way more engaged in how to build it and how to bring people to live here and work here and be here and make it a great place to live.” Millstone is also involved in work for local education, nonprofit and charitable causes. “It’s work that is meaningful.”
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