Yihao Zhou

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Academic Credentials

M.S., Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 2016
B.A., Construction Engineering and Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2015

Professional Honors

SIGMA LAMBDA CHI Honor Society, 2014

Languages

Chinese

Mr. Zhou has over seven years of experience in the electric utility, heavy civil, and data center construction sectors. As the program manager of an electric distribution program, Mr. Zhou oversees multifaceted development and upgrade projects from inception to completion. His expansive portfolio showcases a command over critical projects in areas such as interstate highway widening, paving operations, transportation program management, and cutting-edge data center construction.

Mr. Zhou has proficiency in all phases of the project management lifecycle, from feasibility and initiation through execution to project closeout. He brings a wealth of preconstruction knowledge to his clients, leveraging his skills in estimating, bidding, subcontractor management, contract negotiation, contract management, value engineering, and portfolio scheduling. His operational expertise in construction management is comprehensive, covering project management, field logistics planning, process improvement, quality assurance and control, schedule preparation and management, change order management, project budget control, and dispute resolution.

A notable highlight of Mr. Zhou's career was his significant contribution to a $130M design-build highway expansion project. As a project engineer, he played a crucial role in the successful completion of the large-scale project. This accomplishment demonstrated his ability to effectively collaborate in high-stakes, complex project environments, and it also provides him with invaluable insight for managing similar projects in the future.

Before joining Exponent, Mr. Zhou worked for one of the largest heavy civil contractors in the Mid-Atlantic region. He transitioned through roles as a field engineer, project engineer, and estimator, eventually leading projects as a project manager. His endeavors ranged from managing $4M traditional design-bid-build contracts to mega million-dollar design-build projects.

Electric Utility Program Management — As the program lead, Mr. Zhou oversees an electric distribution program of utility development and upgrade projects across multiple phases. His responsibilities include financial forecasting, project coordination, facilitating decision-making, and project planning. He liaised with a wide network of stakeholders, ensuring dependency-driven predecessors are complete for a smooth progress from environmental considerations through to design, engineering, permitting, construction, commissioning, and testing. His effective approach to program management led to the development of program-level reports, dashboards, and specialized tools that ensured transparent communication regarding program and project progress, stakeholder dependencies, risk identification and mitigation, performance tracking, variance analysis, and resource forecasting. Through his systematic approach, Mr. Zhou consistently aligned project stages with organizational objectives, ensuring deliverables met quality standards, timelines, and budgetary constraints.
Data Center Construct Schedule Managemenion Programt — Mr. Zhou played a key role in supporting a global data center construction program. He worked closely with cross-functional teams to maintain and optimize program owner's schedules a network of data centers. Mr. Zhou utilized his combination of expertise in program management and schedule analysis to ensure the program schedule model was accurate and effective in analyzing changes and the impact of various scenarios. In addition, Mr. Zhou developed and maintained process documents to standardize long-term program operating procedures. These included program dashboard, live trackers, project change logs, and monthly program reporting presentations. Mr. Zhou's attention to detail and excellent communication skills allowed him to manage multiple priorities simultaneously and deliver high-quality work on time and within budget.
Government Contracts Management — Mr. Zhou bid and managed government paving contracts involving interstate, primary, and secondary roadway work in the northern Virginia region. He analyzed and managed project scopes, developed project schedules, reported financial performance, and settled construction claims. He acted as a liaison to maintain subcontractor relationships and led the resolution of all project-related disputes between the owner, subcontractors, and general public.
Preconstruction Services — Mr. Zhou generated bid proposals for a large construction corporation. He created reports, performed technical analysis and quantity take-offs, set up the budget & baseline schedule, and assisted superintendents in site evaluation, recommendation, and selection. Preconstruction services were administered on government and commercial paving projects.
Transportation Program Assessments and Management — Mr. Zhou provided project advisory services to a large construction corporation's transportation department. He led and managed the conversion program of the traditional trucking platform to a cloud-based system to improve transportation program efficiency, operational productivity, and information transparency of over 16,000 trucks yearly. In addition to the program conversion, Mr. Zhou provided preventive operation suggestions to six different teams, established weekly performance reports on cost control, led cross-functional teams to improve operating methods, and presented data to the senior leadership group. He also negotiated and collaborated with multiple external providers to establish a cost structure and dispatch system to support paving projects in the region.
Highway Construction Project Management — Mr. Zhou assisted project managers in generating monthly forecasts for an interstate widening project comprising nine bridges and 28-lane-miles of roadway. Mr. Zhou performed cost analysis, optimized performance reporting, proper invoices coding, and precise quantity claiming of fourteen crews between roadway construction and paving operation to increase project-wide equipment utilization and control equipment and trucking costs.
Quality Control Services — Mr. Zhou served as QA/QC engineer on a large interstate widening design-build project. He created, coordinated, and managed multiple quality control workbooks, provided change order management, and managed the disputes of project deficiencies.

Project Experience

Prior Experiences