The Midwest’s largest contractor announced a major leadership change Wednesday while also unveiling a new business unit to accelerate data center construction efforts.
Russ Burns
Permission granted by Clayco
Russ Burns, CEO of Chicago-based Clayco, retired from his post at the end of last year and has been replaced by Anthony Johnson, formerly executive vice president and head of the company’s industrial business unit. Johnson, a 17-year Clayco veteran, grew the unit into a top-ranked builder in each of its market segments, per the announcement.
Burns helmed the design-build firm, which recorded $5.3 billion in 2023 revenue, for over 17 years. He will continue to serve as chairman of the board of advisors.
“Russ Burns has been a transformational leader for Clayco,” Bob Clark, founder and executive chairman at Clayco, said in the release. “In his time as CEO, Clayco has rapidly expanded to become one of the largest builders of technical, mission critical projects in the United States, and we are beyond grateful for his contributions.”
The leadership change coincides with the launch of Clayco Compute, an integrated data center delivery business unit focused on exclusively highly specialized construction of advanced technology centers.
The expansion is designed to capitalize on growing demand for advanced data center and quantum computing construction projects, according to the release. Clayco claims to have completed or currently undertaken over $12.7 billion in advanced technology projects. In 2024, Clayco generated $3.6 billion in revenue on data center projects, accounting for half of the firm’s total revenue, the firm said.
Clayco Compute is projected to continue that growth, per the announcement, expecting to reach over $4.5 billion by 2026.
Other changes
In addition to Burns’ retirement and Johnson’s promotion, the company announced other leadership changes. They include:
Anthony Johnson
Permission granted by Clayco
- Shawn Clark, CEO of CRG, Clayco’s real estate development arm, will take on the newly created role of Clayco’s chief strategy officer.
- Steve Sieckhaus, enterprise COO, has also assumed the role of enterprise president.
- Kevin McKenna, the current president of construction, will also assume the newly created role of chief administrative officer of the Clayco Enterprise.
- Bret Litton, senior vice president of finance, has been promoted to chief business officer.
- Mike Pierle has been promoted to COO, Construction.
- Jim Havel, Clayco Enterprise’s CFO, is retiring after more than 40 years in the financial sector. He will continue to serve on Clayco’s board of advisors.
- Justin Lienemann has been promoted to succeed Havel as CFO of Clayco Enterprise.
First established in 1984 in St. Louis, Clayco has grown substantially in the last 40 years. The contractor moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2013, and today has over 3,500 full-time employees.
