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When he was 8 years old, Andrew Greenwell called his mother, Wendy Mack, on the phone. She was in a board meeting, but she left the meeting and answered the phone anyway. Greenwell had just learned to whistle, and he wanted to tell her.
“She always took my call, no matter how busy she was,” he says. “Family was always first. That always resonated with us.”
Mack died of a brain aneurysm on March 13. She was 62.
She was the CEO of Sarasota-based DM Constructors LLC, a female leader in an industry still heavily male dominated.
Her work in construction started over four decades ago. She served as accounting manager at DooleyMack Constructors before assuming the role of CFO at the firm.
Mack was also a member of Gulf Coast Builders Exchange. “Wendy was just such a valuable member — one of those people you would call on,” says GCBX Executive Director Mary Dougherty. “As a woman-owned business in a male-dominated profession, I just looked at her with such respect. She is truly a trailblazer.”
A few years ago, Mack led a GCBX community service project for Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue. The project involved building an obstacle course to help rescue dogs overcome their fears. Mack brought her team, supplies and food for everyone. She cared about the community, Dougherty says, and showed it by getting involved.
Chuck Evans, president of DM Constructors, worked with Mack for more than 36 years. He was a colleague of hers at DooleyMack Constructors and joined her at DM Constructors when she started the business, which now has about 20 employees. “She knew how to bring good quality people together to develop a good company that was able to move forward and build good buildings,” Evans says. “That was what it was all about — build good buildings and make a profit.”
Mack’s specialty, he says, was handling the accounting, bonding, insurance and contracts side of the business. “She was always there with the information and knowledge, but she led from in the background,” Evans says. “She didn’t have to be out in front of everybody to be able to lead the company. She just didn’t need all the recognition and the glory.”
Since 2014, Mack served on the Animal Rescue Coalition board. Executive Director Mary Dietterle says if she needed anything for the spay and neuter clinic, Mack would stop what she was doing and talk to her about it. “She was an executive director’s dream in that regard and just a wonderful woman.”
When Hurricane Irma approached the area, Dietterle says Mack went to the clinic with her husband, Roland Lamb, and Evans to put hurricane shutters on the building. She installed the shutters, Dietterle says, before taking care of her own house or her son’s house, and the clinic weathered the storm with no damage.
Mack is survived by her mother, husband and son. An only child, Greenwell says his mother was his best friend. “She was a CEO by day, but family was the most important thing to her,” he says. “No matter what the situation — a broken foot or a broken heart — there was no task too big she wouldn’t take on.”
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