Full Name
Sean McGarvey
Job Title
President
Company
North America’s Building Trades Union
Speaker Bio
Sean McGarvey started his career with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) in 1981 in Philadelphia. He subsequently worked his way up through various IUPAT leadership positions. In 2005, Sean was elected Secretary-Treasurer of NABTU, and in 2012, he was unanimously elected to NABTU’s office of president.
Sean is a respected union construction expert among labor, government, corporate, and private sector leaders. His strategic focus gives the livelihoods and career opportunities of current and future rank and file members and their families primacy and has strengthened NABTU’s impact and value to owners, contractors and whole communities.
A graduate and proponent of construction registered apprenticeship, Sean has led the development of Apprenticeship Readiness Programs, which focus on recruiting communities of color, women and veterans into the building trades. Alongside his governing board of presidents, he established Capital Strategies, a program to advance high-road standards in procurement practices and grow partnerships with top Wall Street and Bay Street investment firms supporting job-creating enterprises in commercial, industrial, and residential construction and public-private infrastructure. His bipartisan approach to policy and politics has navigated the building trades through some of the toughest fights to protect and advance labor, training, and industry standards, lower barriers to entry for new energy infrastructure and promote investment in rebuilding public infrastructure.
Sean serves on several private and public sector boards, including the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) Advisory Committee, Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Diabetes Research Institute (DRI), the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), and the National Workforce Policy Advisory Board. He is a member of the Gates Foundation Post-Secondary Value Commission and the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. Sean co-chairs labor-management committees of the American Petroleum Institute, American Chemical Council, Southern Company Power and Gas, and Nuclear Power LMCC. He chairs the boards of Helmets to Hardhats, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training, and the National Coordinating Committee for Multi-Employer Plans (NCCMP).
Sean has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Trade Union Program. Married to his lovely wife, Shari, Sean has two daughters, two step-daughters, and three grandchildren named Lucas, Leah and Liam.
Sean is a respected union construction expert among labor, government, corporate, and private sector leaders. His strategic focus gives the livelihoods and career opportunities of current and future rank and file members and their families primacy and has strengthened NABTU’s impact and value to owners, contractors and whole communities.
A graduate and proponent of construction registered apprenticeship, Sean has led the development of Apprenticeship Readiness Programs, which focus on recruiting communities of color, women and veterans into the building trades. Alongside his governing board of presidents, he established Capital Strategies, a program to advance high-road standards in procurement practices and grow partnerships with top Wall Street and Bay Street investment firms supporting job-creating enterprises in commercial, industrial, and residential construction and public-private infrastructure. His bipartisan approach to policy and politics has navigated the building trades through some of the toughest fights to protect and advance labor, training, and industry standards, lower barriers to entry for new energy infrastructure and promote investment in rebuilding public infrastructure.
Sean serves on several private and public sector boards, including the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) Advisory Committee, Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), Diabetes Research Institute (DRI), the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), and the National Workforce Policy Advisory Board. He is a member of the Gates Foundation Post-Secondary Value Commission and the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. Sean co-chairs labor-management committees of the American Petroleum Institute, American Chemical Council, Southern Company Power and Gas, and Nuclear Power LMCC. He chairs the boards of Helmets to Hardhats, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training, and the National Coordinating Committee for Multi-Employer Plans (NCCMP).
Sean has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Trade Union Program. Married to his lovely wife, Shari, Sean has two daughters, two step-daughters, and three grandchildren named Lucas, Leah and Liam.
