David Blackmore wasted no time in his climb to success. He began his career in construction at the age of 17, where he worked summers for the J.L. Wilson Co. as a bridge contractor, laborer and estimator. He not only gained experience, but also earned money to help pay for his Purdue education.
After earning his bachelor’s degree with honors, he landed a job as a project engineer with Atlanta-based Holder Construction. Within a year, he was promoted to project manager. After a few years, he left Holder to work for McDevitt & Street Co., where he held a variety of positions. While there, Blackmore worked on a $50 million renovation project for the Olympic Construction Program in Columbus, Ga., which involved a renovation of the baseball park, stadium and clubhouse.
In 1994, he became a founding principal of Integra Construction Inc. He has been involved with the construction of the Two Midtown Plaza office building in Atlanta and the Trade Centre South office building in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Blackmore is now involved with Integra’s controller on all financial, risk- management, taxation and benefit issues of the company, in addition to being involved with nearly every proposal or bid.
He credits Purdue with giving him the tools he needed to hit the ground running — and stay running all these years.
In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling and coach- ing his son’s baseball team. Blackmore and his wife, Dianne, reside in Marietta, Ga., with their four children.
This was originally written for the Distinguished Technology Alumni Awards in 2011.