Rafn Company - The First 10 Years (1978-1987)

Jack Rafn founded the Rafn Company in 1978 to consciously avoid the often times adversarial nature inherent to hard bid contracting. By personality and attitude, Jack was driven to a collaborative process in which shared goals and mutual commitment to the development process could achieve a successful, high quality, cost-effective outcome — and could continue to cultivate lasting friends. It was a novel and visionary idea that we have championed over the past 35 years. 

Initially, the renovation of historic buildings was the testing ground for this team approach with owners and architects, years before the industry bantered about the terms “partnering” and “team building”. These principles were then applied to both public and private commercial projects with such great success that it has become the de facto standard in our market segment. The Rafn Values born from these beginnings are: 

Character – integrity to guarantee the quality & delivery of our work 
Competency – the best people & the skill to lead the construction process 
Courage – to achieve the highest standard and to make the right decisions 
Commitment – to our people, clients, environment, and community 

For more than three decades, the Rafn Company has grown successfully on these values with a focus on negotiated work. Rafn’s leadership team is committed to guiding the company to greater success by building on these values. Tom Ambrey has been a part of the Rafn team for more than 30 years as a carpenter, superintendent, COO and now CEO. Kim Bottles, Shawn Rhode, and Heather Bunn join Tom on the leadership team. Together these four carry the mantle of integrity, depth of experience, and commitment to Rafn’s continued success. 

The Rafn Company’s presence and reputation throughout the Northwest is built on a very simple concept: make the client’s interests the center of our business. Our customers are frequently surprised to discover that we often have a greater understanding of their needs than do many in their own organization. The needs of our customers led us to become pioneers in negotiated GC/CM work and the first in the Northwest to implement sustainable standards into every project we build. When you layer onto that firm foundation our company of people whose average tenure spans over 13 years and whose supervisors have been here for over 18 years the result commands respect. 

The sum of the parts equates to a world class culture of integrity; competitiveness; intelligence; innovation; and consistent, quality delivery. That’s why when asked about the Rafn Company, clients, subcontractors, suppliers, regulatory agencies and even competitors say, “they are good people... and they do great work.”