P1 Senior Project Manager Alejandro Perez Turns Past Experience into Future Success

Senior Project Manager Alejandro Perez is sharing what he's learned over the course of his career in the trades, most of which comes from leveraging past experience, good and bad, to build a better outcome in the future.

The Overland Park, KS, native says that in his early career, he was in the carpenter's union, with plans to become a carpenter.

"My only knowledge of electrical at the time was car audio and maybe fixing an overloaded breaker at home," Alejandro says.

Back then, his fiancée (now wife) Whitney worked with the wife of Stephen King - the very same Electrical Senior Project Manager now working at P1.

Stephen offered Alejandro an entry-level estimating job at Mark One Electric, and thus began the career path leading him to his role today.

Alejandro later met P1 Operations Manager Casey Walsh through his work with R.F. Fisher Electric. Several years later, Casey connected Alejandro with P1.

Although originally hired to work as a senior project manager for the Mission Critical division in the Kansas City area, Alejandro pivoted to work with the Advanced Technologies (AT) team in Pryor, OK.

"P1 asked me to help manage the team in Pryor, and I agreed because it's a good opportunity to put my management experience to work," Alejandro said.

Even though his life is in Kansas City, Alejandro says he sees great career growth opportunities in Oklahoma due to the abundance of advanced technologies development happening in that region.

"My goal is to continue furthering my role by managing the opportunities in the Oklahoma market," Alejandro said.

Managing the team and navigating hyperscale clients has its challenges, but Alejandro says using his past experiences to help others improve communication and overall operation is what he enjoys most.

"My favorite part of my role is sharing lessons learned throughout my own career to help the team improve processes and achieve better results."

He says improving the professionalism, clarity, and efficiency of how everyone communicates with each other, and the customer, has been key.

"We've built a 'trusted partner' relationship, but we can always turn past lessons into future successes to ensure we continue bringing the advanced skills this market requires," Alejandro said.

And the P1 team has done just that.

"One of the things that sets P1 apart is our field talent, and I firmly believe we are here to support them. They are out there doing very demanding work every day, under the leadership of Doug Sunderland and Andy Lister."

"Their knowledge of this market, ability to manage big workforces, and ability to meet the customer demands is critical to our success."

Alejandro explains how the advanced technologies market differs greatly from the traditional P1 markets, noting that the race to build AI-ready data centers means hyper-compressed schedules, extreme data navigation, and specific safety procedures.

Much of the industry's success relies on navigating high-stakes environments where even minor errors can lead to massive financial and reputational losses.

"Unlike a standard construction site, many mission-critical projects involve building or expanding inside or adjacent to an operational data center," Alejandro said.

"This is completely different from traditional markets, like healthcare, education, and government services, due to intolerance for downtime, specialized infrastructure requirements for AI and 5G, and the sheer velocity of technical change."

Alejandro notes that P1's ongoing experience with AT customers, along with our single-source capabilities, have also set the company apart from competition.

"The Millwrights, for example, with the leadership of Marques Nisely, have been instrumental in Pryor, OK," he said. "We've been able to take on additional scopes in the millions."

"Our fabrication shops are outstanding at manufacturing and skidding equipment, with the support from Scott Bond Jr., Kevin Norris and their teams."

"All of this positions us for current - and future - success."

Cheers to taking on the opportunities today that will shape the next ten years and beyond, and the many associates at P1, like Alejandro, helping us get there!

OUT OF OFFICE

Alejandro and his wife of 21 years have two daughters . Alejandro enjoys coaching his daughter's soccer team and working on his 1963 Chevy Impala, which he enters in various car shows.

When it's time to "get away" he and his family visit his parents' 80 acres in KS to ride dirt bikes and side-by-side ATVs, shoot clay pigeons, and fish.