STEPHANIE HICKMAN
President & CEO
Trice Construction Company
Trice Construction Company
Biography
After a twenty-five year career as a labor attorney, utility executive with Exelon Corporation and lobbyist, Stephanie Hickman left Corporate America in 2006 to acquire the construction company her father and uncles had operated since 1967. Since the acquisition, she has led its transformation from a small residential construction company to an award-winning, utility infrastructure and commercial concrete construction firm serving Fortune 500 corporations, top 100 general and infrastructure contractors and major public entities. Hickman combined her leadership skills with a team of seasoned operations professionals to position the company for continued significant growth and success.Hickman’s leadership acumen is illustrated by Trice’s accomplishments, including becoming the first African American woman-owned construction firm awarded prime contracts on Exelon/Commonwealth Edison projects, a multi-year contract with Peoples Gas as a prime restoration contractor and prime contracts for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
Her company has earned numerous awards, including the 2015 Chicago MSDC Supplier of the Year and 2014 Outstanding Minority Contractor of the Year from the Chicago Department of Transportation. It also received the Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business of the Year from the Small Business Administration. In 2012, the Construction and Transportation Group of the March of Dimes recognized Trice as its Subcontractor of the Year. Hickman also hosted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a minority business roundtable where he announced the City’s Small Business Mentoring Program. In 2011, again under Hickman’s leadership, Trice became the first construction company in the country selected for the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation/Inc. Magazine Entrepreneurship Mentor Program.
Hickman holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi and a business administration degree from Eastern New Mexico University. She also completed the Management Program for Executives at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. Hickman is a member of Chicago’s Business Leadership Council and on the board of directors for the Teen Living Program, a non-profit organization that provides support to Chicago’s youth experiencing homelessness. In 2012 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed Hickman to serve on the Affirmative Action Advisory Board for the City’s Department of Procurement Services. She also sits on the national boards of directors of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and Women Construction Owners and Executives. Hickman, an active mentor and sought after speaker, is a 2006 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and a Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Hickman enjoys working with other minority businesses in the early stages of their development. She has been very fortunate to have had advice and counsel from more seasoned business owners and believes it to be an ongoing responsibility to pay it forward.