Phillip McDavid
Senior Project Manager / Design & Construction
- 7 years of experience
- 3 years at KDC
Phillip McDavid
Senior Project Manager / Design & Construction
When people find out that Phillip McDavid grew up in Russia, that’s usually all they want to talk about. McDavid is happy to indulge everyone’s curiosity by sharing his journey from Tver, a small(ish) city about two hours north of Moscow, to Dallas-Fort Worth.
As you might expect, McDavid is bilingual – he speaks English and Russian. His father is from Houston, and McDavid relocated to North Texas to seek out better educational opportunities.
“Growing up outside of the U.S. and seeing certain inequalities makes me more appreciative of what we have here,” McDavid says.
As a boy, McDavid dreamed of studying architecture. But when he moved to the U.S., he realized architects play a different role here than they do in Russia.
“In Russia, architects have more direct involvement in project management,” McDavid explains. “I’ve always been interested in project management, so I gravitated more toward construction than design when I arrived in the U.S.”
Early on, McDavid was interested in residential construction, but an internship with a homebuilder opened his eyes to what he really wanted to do: commercial construction of large, impactful buildings.
As a project manager in KDC’s design and construction group, McDavid interfaces with customers and represents them when coordinating with general contractors and design firms. He describes himself as very detail-oriented, curious, and analytical.
“If I don’t have the answer, I have to find a way to figure it out,” McDavid says.
McDavid came to KDC after a brief stint as a senior project engineer with Hage Construction. He was responsible for the planning, organization, and management of day-to-day operations while maintaining constant communication with all stakeholders regarding project needs and goals.
After he graduated with honors from the University of North Texas with a degree in Construction Engineering, McDavid immediately joined Austin Commercial. He spent several years with the general contractor, working on some of the largest and most prominent projects in DFW in the corporate office and healthcare sectors including KDC’s marquee project – Toyota’s North America headquarters.
As an outdoorsy kind of guy, McDavid’s preferred methods of unplugging are camping and hiking the forests, canyons, and parks of Texas. He’s traveled all over Europe and hopes to visit Asia in the near future with his wife, Sarah.