Chairman retires after leading Fort Myers contractor to nearly $250M in revenue

Gary Griffin, chairman and longtime executive of Fort Myers-based B&I Contractors, which has some 1,200 employees and had nearly $250 million in revenue last year, has announced his retirement. 

Griffin’s last day with the company, which specializes in mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, will be Oct. 31, according to a statement. 

Griffin joined the company as an intern while a University of Florida student, then got hired on full time in 1986. By 1995, when he was 32, he was named CEO. In a 2021 interview with the Business Observer, Griffin recalled that the co-founder of the company, Gordon Harbuck, and the next CEO, Hugh Clark, were influential mentors and helped groom him to take on the CEO role. “They made sure I got a lot of training and was well prepared to take over,” he says. “I probably wasn’t ‘ready,’ but I was more ready than I would have been had it not been for them taking a personal interest in getting me ready.”

Griffin was named chairman last year, when the company promoted then president and COO Jason Grabowski to CEO.

B&I was founded in 1960 and the company, employee-owned since 1987, has offices in Fort Myers, Tamarac, Sarasota and Tampa. 

The last decade of Griffin’s tenure as CEO was marked, to some extent, by big revenue growth. To wit: revenue grew from $58.74 million in 2106 to $247 million in 2024 — an increase of 320.5%. 

“Beyond the titles, Gary has been a mentor to many, a steady voice in uncertain times, and a tireless advocate for our employees, partners and community,” Grabowski says in the statement. “He leaves behind not just a legacy of business accomplishments, but a workplace culture shaped by values that will continue to define us for years to come.”