- February 11, 2026
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What happens when a 20-something and a 70-something meet at a luxury hotel?
In the case of Mackie Myers and Butch Shull, an impactful mentoring relationship develops. where the veteran has learned just as much as the rookie over the last five years.
Shull, an operations manager in the Estero office of construction firm Suffolk, first took notice of Mackie Myers on a project at The Tampa EDITION hotel. “I watched this young lady and I’m thinking, ‘Man, she’s on fire,’” recalls Shull, 76, who has more than 50 years of construction experience.
He asked Myers, now 29, to join the Suffolk team working on the Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte County, and a bond was born. So much so Myers jokingly calls Shull Grandpa — though it’s clear the impact they’ve had on each other, both professionally and personally. While Shull has the field experience, Myers, not surprisingly, has the tech chops, so there is a lot to learn on both sides. Suffolk officials call the unusual pairing reverse mentoring.
“I’ve taken a real shine to her,” says Shull. “She’s personable and she knows what she’s doing. And if she doesn’t, she asks.”
“What I appreciate about Butch is how much he has committed to my career and my growth,” says Myers, a superintendent in Suffolk’s Estero office. “And how much he pours into me. He has made it clear from day one that if you’re good at what you do and you work hard, he’s going to elevate you as far as he can.”
Myers knows that as a relative newcomer to the construction industry, she doesn’t have all the hands-on experience yet Shull does. So she happily soaks up all the insight he can provide. Myers has a master’s degree in construction management from the University of Florida, which she earned in 2020. She interned for several firms before joining Suffolk, including Naples-based DeAngelis Diamond. Suffolk is one of the biggest construction firms in the country, with some $8 billion in annual revenue and 16 offices nationwide.
“My experience with Butch has fast-tracked my actual experience,” says Myers. “That’s the most frustrating thing when you’re young in your career, especially in construction, is a lot of things you only learn from experience and time. My career has fast-tracked because Butch has taken the time to share from his previous experience to try to help me learn things ahead of me having to experience them.”
While working on projects together, Shull will walk her through different phases of the construction process, pointing out common issues or things to consider. They’ve been working together for the past couple of years at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Naples, and Shull made sure she got first-hand insight on building a structure from the ground up. “He’s very good about getting me exposed to all aspects of the project,” says Myers.
Myers, in turn, has helped Shull get up to speed on technology, something that’s increasingly becoming a part of the construction industry. “She helps me a lot; I have hands the size of a baseball bat,” he laughs.
“When we’re walking out in the field, there are things that Butch is asking because he knows from experience that there are potentially issues, or he wants to see what it looks like,” says Myers. “And how I am helpful is I’m able to pull it up very quickly, whereas that information would take a little longer if Butch was looking for it. We work well like that, building off each other in that way.”
Shull can convey a plan or schedule, and then Myers can quickly synthesize that into a spreadsheet or another kind of tool for tracking it. If there are problems or issues to be fixed, it’s easy to see. “Her having the ability to do that so quickly gives us more time to spend in the field,” says Shull. “And that’s where everything happens, in the field.”
They’re also using Siteaware, an AI-driven quality control platform for construction, at the Ritz-Carlton Residences project in Naples. The technology has been verifying work in real time to help flag deviations in deck pours, which allows the team to address issues early and avoid costly rework.
“You’re scanning a deck and you’re getting a report back within four hours, usually, of anything that’s in the wrong place,” says Myers. “For us to go out there and hand check everything, it would take at least three or four times that amount of time.
“With the builds these days, you just don’t have that time,” she continues. “We’re building faster; we’re building more complex. AI and Siteaware and tools like that are not something that we solely rely on; we still need to be pulling tape and be checking. But it’s really a secondary set of eyes and a great QC tool to use in addition to what you’re already doing.”
Shull admits it took a bit for an “old dinosaur” like himself to fully understand and embrace the benefits of technology in construction. And Myers has helped ease his learning curve. “The construction industry has come so far over the last 25 years, and it will be the Mackies who bind with AI and all the new systems to help,” he says. “And they help a lot.”
Shull’s going to keep doing his part to advance Myers’ career, and Myers appreciates the impact he’s had so far. “My whole career I’ve built really based on mentors, on finding people who are good at their job and then take an interest in me and are good teachers and want to spend time with me teaching,” she says. “And Butch has been the biggest impact, for sure, on my career.
“There are people who are good teachers and who want to help, and it’s latching on to those people and just soaking up their knowledge,” she continues. “And not having too much pride to be a know-it-all. It’s being open and, to me, it’s gravitating to the people that I want to be like. Those are my mentors. And I’m just blessed enough that it was mutual and that Butch saw something in me and we created this relationship.”
Myers is now mentoring a younger employee herself and gravitated toward him for some of the same reasons Shull connected with her.
“It’s looking for the people who are driven and are hard-working; it’s finding the people who have that drive within themselves,” she says. “I’ve got a young guy who I’m a mentor to, and it’s because I see the drive and I see the fire in him. You’ve got to have the fire inside. That’s not something people can teach.”
