Kenny Torres
Kenny Torres has poured his heart into bettering the Northeast Ohio Latino community and has both professional and personally dedicated himself to these efforts. Kenny’s experience is similar to many in the local Latino community after moving from Puerto Rico to the states and arriving in Cleveland at seven years old. Seeing first-hand the struggles his family and friends encountered, Kenny has continued to make it his mission to give back and improve the local Latino community.
Kenny is involved with many organizations aimed at impacting both diverse individuals and firms. Having served as the program director for the Spanish American Committee, Kenny now sits on the board and helped establish the Latino Construction Program. This program, established in 2017, is focused on job readiness and entails a six-week course. Over 115 individuals have been placed into a construction trade, with 90% union, and over $1 million in payroll has been generated. Kenny teaches for the program and also leads another program to help Latinos start their own construction companies.
Kenny sits on the board for Cleveland Builds, a Construction Employers Association partner, and supports the creation of opportunities for minorities in construction trades throughout Northeast Ohio. He is a founding member of Rising Hispanic Professionals, a new program that will help more Hispanic professionals enter the architecture, engineering and construction fields.
In his position as project engineer at Gilbane, Kenny is instrumental in the diverse business tracking, reporting and payments for the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center Phase 2 project in Beachwood, Ohio. He also focuses on several major packages for the project such as steel, elevators and flooring through managing submittals, RFIs, quality control and budget control. Kenny supports the project’s Community Outreach team through activities such as the recent schools supplies drive which donated 6,886 items to five schools in the area. He also supports several Gilbane programs such as the Rising Contractor Program, aimed at providing diverse and disadvantaged trade partners an opportunity to develop and broaden their industry skills and knowledge, while also gaining first-hand insight on working with Gilbane.
