NEW CASTLE — Jennifer Cohan will soon take over the reins of the Delaware Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) as longtime president Ed Capodanno recently announced he will retire in August 2025.
After she exits her current role as CEO of the professional development organization Leadership Delaware Inc. by the end of the year, she will undergo training and orientation through ABC until the end of March 2025. Capodanno will remain with ABC as a lobbyist through the 2025 legislative session, which ends on July 1.
“I’m really excited to get back to my roots in construction. It’s almost like a homecoming,” Cohan told the Delaware Business Times. “It’s an honor to follow in the steps of Ed, he’s an icon in the Delaware construction sector. And it’s a new challenge for me at this stage in my career.”
ABC is a national construction trade association with roughly 60 chapters across the nation and includes 22,000 members that work in the industrial and commercial sectors. In Delaware, the ABC represents 503 companies in road and building construction, including engineers, environmental engineers and more. Chapters of ABC also focus on education and professional development, as well as sharing information on best practices as well as offering membership programs like a 401K retirement plan and an insurance trust.
Most notably, ABC Delaware, like other chapters across the nation, is also a political organization with a political action committee. Over the years, Capodanno was also a strong voice in the General Assembly on bills that would have an impact on the construction industry here. His leadership has also grown ABC Delaware’s membership and developed scores of rising professionals in the trades.
Capodanno first reportedly announced his intention to retire at the end of 2023. The ABC Delaware Board of Directors formed a succession committee, led by then-chairwoman Angela Mariano, to write an accurate job description and identify a candidate.
“[Cohan’s] visionary leadership and deep commitment to Delaware’s development make her the perfect choice to lead our organization. We are confident that Jennifer will continue our mission of supporting the construction industry in our state,” said Brian Martinenza, chair of the board for ABC Delaware, in a prepared statement.
Cohan, who has been wrapping up her final months and working side-by-side with incoming Leadership Delaware CEO Michael Eppehimer, said that the job description just came across her desk and thought it was a good fit due to her 35 years with the state government, including decades of service with the Delaware Department of Transportation.
“My entire career was in vertical and horizontal construction, and not just the major players. We worked with subcontractors, women-owned businesses, minority owned businesses. I think there’s a good chance that I’ll be able to hit the ground running in my first months,” Cohan said.
Cohan worked her way up through DelDOT, and was appointed by then-Gov. Jack Markell 2015 to be the third woman to serve as state secretary of transportation. DelDOT oversees 14,400 miles, three highway intersections, E-Z Pass operations that see more than $110 million in revenue, the Division of Motor Vehicles which registers 766,902 drivers.
“I’ve almost worked with all those involved in the construction industry, be it through road construction and engineers and everything in between,” Cohan said. “I do see this role as a way to protect and promote the construction industry and its interests, and that’s what I aim to do when the session starts.”
Looking to the future, Cohan said that she hopes to expand opportunities in ABC Delaware’s workforce development programs with contractors and subcontractors, as well as identifying other members that may have been overlooked in the past. She also plans to dig deep in what challenges the membership faces when it comes to market forces like inflation as well as government regulation.
