Spotlight On: Greg Padalecki, President & CEO, Alterman Inc
August 2025 — The future looks bright for electrical contractors like Alterman Inc., according to the company’s president and CEO, Greg Padalecki, especially when it comes to renewables and alternative power sources. “There are going to be a lot of opportunities to play in that power-source environment, and I’m thrilled to be part of that,” Padalecki told Invest:, while also discussing San Antonio’s attraction as a business location and trends in the construction industry.
What makes San Antonio an ideal location for businesses?
From a business standpoint, the cost of labor is well below national averages. Also, the workforce here is becoming increasingly skilled in the technical aspects of things, more than it used to be. We’re ramping up in that direction, and we’re attracting the types of businesses that weren’t here 25 or 30 years ago. There’s a lot of momentum. The greater:SATX team does a great job of convincing businesses to move their headquarters and facilities to San Antonio.
We also have a top-notch quality construction community here. An example is the building we’re in now. When we built it, I told our workers on this job site that, on the one hand, they were building the facility of a big subcontractor in San Antonio. But on the other hand, I also said that this facility is a testament to the sophistication of the contracting community in San Antonio. We have the talent here, and companies are calling us, so they see what we have. The sophistication of the contracting community has grown in parallel with the city. At this point, the San Antonio construction community could build anything here.
We’ve proven that over time with big facilities like Toyota and the big JCB plant on the southside of San Antonio. Alterman is also neck-deep in data center work in San Antonio. Of course, with all that development comes lots of infrastructure demand around water, wastewater, power infrastructure, and those kinds of things, which we’re doing. The more we have of that, the busier Alterman is.
What trends are you seeing in terms of construction demand in San Antonio?
Healthcare is big here, and there’s a handful of big hospital projects going on. You can drive down the street and see some of the bigger projects that are specifically related to healthcare.
On the data center side, those jobs are less conspicuous. They are on the edge of town, and they take a lot more resources than people realize. There are a whole lot of people working on those job sites. Those projects are drawing labor resources away from all the other work that’s going on. If you’re a contractor who’s not working on data centers, I guarantee you’re feeling the influence of what the data centers are doing to the skilled trades construction market locally. It is a challenge.
All I can say is that we all work best when we plan the best. The sooner you get your trade partners involved, the better chance you have for success. For a big contractor like Alterman, we’re planning our workload a year or a year-plus in advance. If you get on our list early, then we will allocate accordingly and focus on the success of your project.
It is a world where there is more work than there are people to do it. You need to choose your partners early. When you think about lead times and the uncertainties around tariffs and things like that, the quicker you can get in, the quicker you can order material, the quicker you can secure the workforce, and the better chance you have for success. The old way of designing a project up until the end, getting three or four bids, and then awarding the project is not the successful path in today’s world. You need to get the trade partners in earlier to help plan.
How is the new federal tariff policy affecting your business?
It’s like the big bad word. I do my best not to watch the news, but it’s interesting. We’ve gotten a lot of letters about these tariffs. Interestingly, though, none of them offer any concrete numbers. They’re more like shots across the bow, saying, watch out, they’re coming, but nobody has come to us and said that this particular piece of material that you buy a lot of is going to go up 5% or some real hard number. It’s a bunch of talk and threatening language. At the same time, we need to position ourselves for when it is a reality and the exceptions to the tariffs are planned out in writing, because that’s a moving target. If you need to get an order in for a product, you have the best chance of not paying a tariff if you order it right now. It goes back to pre-planning.
Having said that, it seems the tariff policy may be beginning to influence manufacturing trends, potentially encouraging some production to return to the United States. We’re starting to see some early signs—companies exploring or investing more in domestic manufacturing. Is it a challenge? Absolutely. But being the optimistic CEO that I am, I believe it’s an opportunity. We need to be poised to take advantage of it.
What opportunities are you seeing in the construction electrical contracting space?
The big stuff for Alterman is around infrastructure. For us, that means data, power, and water. We’re focused on those areas. That’s where we’re going. On the power side of that, I’m excited to take part in the alternative power sources that are being talked about, such as small nuclear, more renewables with solar facilities and wind, and even upgrades to current generation plants, whether it’s coal or natural gas or whatever it may be.
There appears to be a major shift in the way that we generate and receive electricity. I think that it’s going to look a whole lot different in 10 or 15 years. There are going to be a lot of opportunities to play in that power-source environment, and I’m thrilled to be part of that.
From a recruitment point of view, young people want to be part of that, too. Nobody likes the coal plant pushing smoke into the sky. There is an opportunity to be part of replacing that, and being an electrical contractor is a cool place to be if you want to make the world a better place.
What will be your priorities for the next two to three years?
My top priority, hands down, is developing the workforce. I believe that the macro trends are going to outweigh some of these shorter-term factors. The drive for data centers, for development in Texas, and for renewable energy sources is going to outweigh any short-term, smaller event.
We will continue to be busy, and we are going to need more skilled electricians. We’re going to need more field supervisors, more project management, and all the support it takes to build these projects.
I’m excited to bring more people into our industry and become a much more capable and sophisticated organization because of it. Those contractors who figure out how to do that, and then how to utilize that workforce most productively, are going to be the ones that win.
For more information, please visit:
