Joe Donarumo Honored with 2026 LCI Pioneer Award
The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) has named Joe Donarumo, Senior Vice President, Client Development at Skiles Group, and Principal of The Lean Builder, as the recipient of the 2026 LCI Pioneer Award.
Presented annually, the Pioneer Award recognizes individuals who have moved the design and construction industry forward in embracing and implementing Lean tools and techniques. For Donarumo, the recognition reflects more than a decade of service to LCI and a career spent helping make Lean construction practical, approachable, and useful for the people responsible for delivering work every day.
“I’m humbled and incredibly honored to receive this recognition from LCI. Lean has fundamentally shaped the way I lead, build, teach, and think about our industry, but the people I’ve met through this community have shaped me just as much. I’m grateful for every person who has taught me something, challenged me, trusted me, or given me the opportunity to share what I’ve learned along the way.”
Bringing Lean to the field
Donarumo learned Lean where he spent much of his career: in the field.
Over nearly two decades in construction, he has served in operational leadership roles ranging from superintendent and senior superintendent to director of Lean application and vice president of field operations. Today, at Skiles Group, he works with clients and project teams to advance collaborative project delivery and build stronger alignment among owners, designers, builders, and trade partners.
Throughout his career, Joe has focused on moving Lean beyond theory and into the daily work of project teams. His project experience includes six Integrated Form of Agreement/Integrated Project Delivery projects, where he has helped teams put Lean principles into practice through collaborative planning, reliable commitments, visual management, and continuous improvement.
For Joe, however, the tools have never been the point. The goal is creating the trust, communication, reliability, and shared accountability that allow teams to work better together.
Spencer Seals of Cook Children’s Health Care System has worked alongside Joe for more than a decade on complex healthcare construction projects.
“I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Joe Donarumo for more than a decade, delivering on the most complex healthcare construction projects at Cook Children’s,” Seals said. “Throughout that time, he has consistently demonstrated the principles the Lean Construction Institute exists to promote—not simply in presentations or meetings, but every day on active projects where collaboration, trust, and accountability truly matter.”
Making Lean easier to understand, teach, and use
That field experience also led Joe to identify a persistent challenge: Lean could transform project delivery, but only if the people expected to use it could see themselves in it.
In 2019, Joe and Keyan Zandy launched The Lean Builder: A Builder’s Guide to Applying Lean Tools in the Field at LCI Congress. Written specifically to translate Lean concepts into practical, recognizable jobsite situations, the book went on to receive the 2020 Shingo Publication Award for its contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding organizational excellence.
What began with a book has since grown into a much larger learning platform. Through The Lean Builder, Joe and Keyan have developed workshops, a Master Class, podcasts, articles, videos, training resources, and university partnerships designed to help field leaders and project teams put Lean principles into practice.
More than 35,000 copies of The Lean Builder have been distributed, with its resources reaching professionals in more than 35 countries. The work has expanded into hundreds of organizations and university programs, extending practical Lean education to experienced industry professionals and the next generation of builders alike.
Seals believes that accessibility is central to Joe’s impact.
“His practical mindset is reflected in The Lean Builder. Rather than presenting an ‘Academic’ Lean, Joe and Keyan created resources that builders, owners, designers, and trade partners immediately recognize as relevant to their daily work,” he said. “The book, Master Class, workshops, and supporting resources have helped thousands of professionals develop a common language around collaborative project delivery. For me, Joe’s greatest contribution is making Lean approachable for entire teams to embrace.”
More than a decade of service to LCI
Joe’s contribution to Lean Construction extends well beyond his own projects and The Lean Builder.
He has been involved with LCI since 2013 and became active in the Dallas-Fort Worth Community of Practice the following year. He served as secretary in 2015 and chair from 2016 through 2018 before going on to chair the 2019 LCI Congress Planning Team.
From 2019 through 2025, Joe served on LCI’s National Board of Directors, including service as Congress board liaison. His contributions have also extended behind the scenes, supporting initiatives related to LCI’s marketing, website, branding, and digital visibility.
Perhaps most representative of his commitment to teaching, Joe has presented at every LCI Congress from 2017 through 2025 and has presented annually through the Dallas-Fort Worth Community of Practice since 2014. Beyond LCI, he has shared Lean practices through AGC, TEXO, universities, workshops, industry conferences, international programs, and direct work with owners and project teams.
That combination of field application, teaching, and service has allowed Joe’s influence to reach well beyond the projects he has personally built.
“As an owner, I can confidently say Joe has changed how I think about project delivery,” Seals said. “Joe earns owner trust because he consistently connects Lean principles to better project experiences, making Lean not just understandable, but indispensable. We deliver better care to our patients and their families because of Joe!”
Honoring a 2026 LCI Pioneer
The Pioneer Award recognizes people who help move the industry somewhere new. Joe Donarumo has done that by helping close one of Lean Construction’s most important gaps: the distance between understanding Lean and practicing it.
Whether on a jobsite, in a classroom, at an LCI Congress, in a workshop, through a book or podcast, or in a conversation with an owner or field leader, Joe has consistently worked to make Lean something people can understand, adopt, and carry forward themselves.
That work has strengthened project teams, organizations, LCI, and the broader Lean community, and continues to help develop the next generation of Lean builders.
LCI will present Joe with the 2026 LCI Pioneer Award during the LCI Award Ceremony at the 2026 LCI Congress in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, October 15.
About the Lean Construction Institute
The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) is a non-profit organization whose overall objective is to advance Lean principles and practices within the design and construction industry. Through its educational offerings, events, webinars, Communities of Practice and certification programs, LCI empowers professionals to deliver projects with greater efficiency, collaboration, and sustainability. LCI’s community of members and partners work together to shape the future of design and construction by embracing innovation and Lean practices.
LCI advances its mission through a range of initiatives, including research, education, and events. Its flagship events, LCI Congress and the Lean in Design Forum, bring together industry professionals from across disciplines to share knowledge, build community, and accelerate the adoption of Lean practices. Learn more about LCI and its mission.
