Dave Cyr: Business leader is ‘where God wants me to be’

Dave Cyr, CEO of Perry-based Parrish Construction Group, says that when he retires he hopes nobody notices he’s gone.

“I’m fixing to turn 53, and I’ve got 10 more years at least,” he said. “I already know who is going to take control when I leave.”

Cyr said he’s cultivating his replacement.

“When I step out, I want to say I was proud to be associated with the company, but now I’m gone they’re doing great,” he said. “I’m gone, but they’re not skipping a beat.”

Cyr said the business started in 1995 with himself and three people who lived in Florida. He was working for a large contractor in Atlanta at the time. The owners of a business in Florida wanted to open an office in Georgia. A vice president of the company was an old high school and college friend and told them if they wanted to open an office in Georgia they needed to talk to Dave. After about a year of talking and deciding it would be a good deal, Cyr was hired to open the Georgia office, and the company was established in 1995.

Parrish is strictly commercial construction, Cyr said, and the company’s niche is educational construction.

“Education is a big part of our portfolio,” Cyr said. “Medical construction is a growing part of our business, and everything else that makes sense for us. We don’t actively go pursue other markets.”

The company is going to do a new animal shelter in Perry.

“Anything local we certainly look at and want to be a part of, and nothing’s too big, nothing’s too small,” he said. “We always want to be involved in the community and building in the community. Those are our niches.”

The focus on local is something Parrish had from the onset, but the first five years was all about the business and not so much on the community, he said.

“The community was very welcoming, and I knew that to build a successful business you had to get active, so I got active in the chamber’s Leadership Perry quite early,” he said. “There wasn’t time for a lot of community involvement, charitable involvement. You have to make it before you can share it.”

The first five years were difficult and filled with a lot of hard work.

“You learn along the way and you start building something that becomes more about one person and then it becomes about a group of people. And when an organization starts growing like that, then it gives someone like me an opportunity to step back, set the tone for what I want the business to be doing but also take the time to make sure that we’re involved in our community. That’s just part of our core beliefs.”

Sharing is a large part of the company’s core beliefs, he said.

The charities Cyr has been involved with include The Methodist Home for Children and Youth, The Ronald McDonald House of Middle Georgia, Children’s Hospital in Macon and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Cyr said he recently got involved with FCA.

“It’s been a blessing. I had an epiphany there when the director of the FCA came to speak to me. Their ministry is more than just reaching out to athletes; they’re trying to reach coaches. That was my epiphany with that ripple effect,” he said.

Coaches had a great influence on Cyr when he was younger, he said.

“I remember back when I was in high school coaches had so much influence over me, and if we get Godly men in position of being a coach, or get people who are coaches to be Godly men, their ministry can touch so many lives,” he said. “Yes, FCA has been a blessing. I’m finding that our local one is a very strong organization compared to some others.”

Cyr has been married to wife Mary for 27 years, and they have two sons – Nathan, 22 and Adam, 20. Nathan works for Parrish and Adam is a junior at Georgia Southern University.

“Adam still hasn’t decided what he wants to do. Right now he’s thinking that he wants to be a firefighter,” Cyr said. “That’s one of those things that I think might be unique for our company is that I’ve set it up where it feels like a family but it’s not necessarily run like a family company.”

Company employees know that his sons aren’t necessarily going be the next generation of owners of the company, he said. “If they become an owner it’s because they’ve earned it through somebody else.”

Cyr said he’s told his sons to find their passion and he would help them fulfill their dreams.

“That would be a great investment for me in time and energy, just to help them find their dream,” he said.

Cyr’s two partners, Rodney Smith and Charlie Griffis, are his succession plan, he said.

“Rodney has been with us for 12 years, and Charlie has been with us eight years,” he said. “They both started in entry-level positions. They both proved their work ethic ability in different ways, at different times, and both proved their trustworthiness, which is huge for me.”

When asked what it is like to work for Dave, Smith and Griffis said “Working with Dave has taught us that a successful business is about identifying good people, trusting, and investing in them. Whether it’s the clients we work for, or the employees that work for us, Dave always puts people first.”

Cyr said he got into construction after finding out he didn’t think like an architect, his first major. He then tried out construction.

“Those guys thought like I did, looked like I did and talked like I did. I fell in over there and ever since … I think God puts us in places … He’s so far ahead of us,” Cyr said. “I want to be remembered as a guy who was honest and worked hard and loved his family – that’s the most important – and loved God.

“I’ve got a great friend who’s a pastor and we’ve talked before about him being called into the ministry and how he felt that calling. I told him that I’ve never felt that calling. He said that in his opinion I’m exactly where God wants me to be and he’s the one who put me on to the notion that being a businessman is my ministry.

“It’s not a church, it’s not a Christian organization, but God needs good Christian businessmen as leaders.”

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