As a girl, Jena Wolthuis explored the bridge building job sites of her father’s company, Formula Alberta Ltd., pressing the clay-like backfill from culvert pipes into small figurines – an early, instinctive bond with the materials that would define her career.
Today, Jena Wolthuis serves as vice-president and general manager of the family business, overseeing the design, supply and construction of bridges, roads, trails, multi-plates, retaining walls and large-scale infrastructure projects across the region.
“Basically, I’ve been on construction sites my whole life, except for a couple of years when I went to school to become a construction engineering technologist,” said Wolthuis. “I was looking to go back and work in bridges, which was my passion and still is today. It’s what I grew up with.”
Wolthuis spent a stint at Amrize, formerly Lafarge Precast, where she experienced a much more corporate environment than she had known at the smaller, close knit Formula Alberta.
“I saw that they were trying hard to make sure women were treated equally. It was more of a task-oriented situation, trying to substitute for a lack of experience with equality policies, training and awareness. That’s all good, but any woman going into a team – as with any inexperienced person, male or female – must realize that they have a lot to learn. They have to earn respect, not expect it based on anything other than the work they do and their commitment to the job,” Wolthuis said.
“You have to leave any male-female bias at home, and that applies to everyone, not just men toward women, but the other way around as well. People are people first, a team, and they all want to do a good job.”
Jena Wolthuis
Working summers on construction sites from a young age, Wolthuis learned that respect was earned, not given, by doing the job well, learning the trade and taking pride in the work. She put in her time with a shovel, holding herself to the same standard as everyone else on the crew. “Men are generally physically stronger than women, although not always. As a woman, I needed to accept that and not see that difference as being disrespectful,” she said. “Was I good on the shovel? No. But we were both there, both labourers, both doing the job as best we could.”
Those lessons stayed with Wolthuis as her career progressed and her responsibilities grew. They also shaped how she approached one of the biggest challenges of her professional life – balancing leadership with raising a family.
Wolthuis is the mother of four young children, yet she took barely any time away from the job after each birth, bringing her babies to work and, in doing so, earning a level of respect she hadn’t anticipated. “I took the babies to work, and I would say that me having kids and doing that brought me more respect from my field guys and the office people than one would have thought,” she said. “They see my level of commitment to being there, to my children, and to making sure everything flowed nicely.”
Respect is the foundation of any team, but in construction, where everyone depends on each other to get the job done safely, it’s everything. “True respect is non-gender,” said Wolthuis. “You have to leave any male–female bias at home, and that applies to everyone, not just men toward women, but the other way around as well. People are people first, a team, and they all want to do a good job.”
Wolthuis credits this belief to the advice of her father, Wes Erickson, president and founder of Formula Alberta Ltd. “Years ago, my dad told me, ‘Unless you know what you’re talking about, stay quiet. If someone thinks you’re stupid and you don’t open your mouth, they can’t prove it.’” Wolthuis carried that lesson with her throughout her career, focusing on learning the job, building expertise and letting her work speak for itself.
“There are women out there who have gone into the industry […] and made a name for themselves,” said Wolthuis. “They make their ground and stand their ground, keeping things professional always. They believe and behave as though they deserve as much respect as they have earned. And they don’t ever cross the gender line because it’s so easy to lose that respect.”
“If you can develop a team that knows they’re valued and respected, then in turn they will show that same respect to each other … You reap what you sow from the top all the way down to the newest member.”
Jena Wolthuis
As general manager of Formula Alberta, Wolthuis has come to see her perspective as a woman not as a barrier but as a distinct advantage.
“I manage our crews and our equipment, a sort of bridge between the office and the field. It can get a bit political at times. There might be a field guy and a project manager who butt heads and can’t come together,” Wolthuis said. “I take the words from my field guy, mull them over, soften them and then take them to the project manager in a way that explains how it might make sense the way the field is seeing things. Oftentimes, men can be more set in their ways, and a softer go-between can smooth the waters and help find a solution.”
At the end of the day, it all comes down to respect and not just the kind that flows upward. Perhaps most importantly, it’s the respect that management shows for the people on its team that sets the tone for everything else.
“Management serves the field; we serve our people first because without them, nothing happens – no job is completed and no money is earned,” said Wolthuis. “This must come from the top down. Management needs to remember the vital importance of the people in the field. If you can develop a team that knows they’re valued and respected, then in turn they will show that same respect to each other, including to women and the inexperienced. You reap what you sow from the top all the way down to the newest member.”
Throughout her career, Wolthuis has occupied spaces where different perspectives don’t always meet easily – field and office, labour and management, men and women, experience and inexperience. Her approach has remained remarkably consistent: listen, learn, earn credibility and treat people with respect.