House 3D Printing Startup Mighty Buildings Appoints McKinsey Alum as New CEO

The Oakland-based additive construction (AC) firm Mighty Buildings announced that the company has appointed Scott Gebicke as its new CEO. Gebicke, a veteran officer in the US Navy and alum of global consulting giant McKinsey, was most recently part of the leadership of manufacturing services corporation Jabil Inc.

Gebicke replaces Slava Solonitsyn, a co-founder of Mighty Buildings, who will stay on at the company as a member of its board of directors. In addition to Gebicke’s advanced manufacturing background, his familiarity with green energy was a factor in his appointment as CEO. Among other areas in the renewables space, Jabil has an extensive track record in the solar panel market.

Gebicke’s latest role at Jabil was as president of its Global Energy and Industrial Conglomerates division. Along with manufacturing for solar and wind power, the responsibilities for that area of the company also include industrial automation, and grid infrastructure and power storage. Mighty Buildings recently built its first prefabricated home that qualifies as a zero net-energy (ZNE) product, a feat which the company achieves by using sustainable building materials and installing solar panels in the prefab homes’ roofs.

In a Mighty Buildings’ press release about the appointment of Scott Gebicke as its new CEO, Solonitsyn commented, “I am pleased to welcome Scott, who brings years of impressive industrial experience and a proven track record of developing and implementing large-scale business strategies. His unparalleled skill-set is precisely what Mighty Buildings needs from a CEO at this important stage of our growth.” Gebicke added, “I am proud to lead a company innovating through: green materials, innovative design, and automated precision. We will build homes with unparalleled resiliency and energy efficiency at revolutionary speeds.”

As with many other critical materials and products — especially those related to fuel reserves and energy grids — solar panel supplies have fallen victim in 2022 to a renewed flare-up in trade-related hostilities between the US and China. Gebicke’s background of working experience in the scale-up of renewable energy infrastructure, as well as a knowledge of Chinese markets, could certainly give Mighty Buildings an edge as it takes steps to expand its production capacity.

Moreover, Gebicke’s naval service makes him an apt choice to lead a company in the AC space, given that the military has been at the forefront of the technology’s evolution in the past several years. Militaries around the world have continued to show growing interest in construction printing, as the market segment’s overall proof of concept has become more solidified in a variety of ways.

Finally, as companies in the AM sector attempt to transition from startup to scale-up in coming years, a C-suite hiring trend could emerge of bringing in CEOs with consulting resumes that traverse a multitude of key industries. Thus, Mighty Buildings’ appointment of its new leader may be an early example of one of the key themes of AM’s next phase. Fortify, a Boston-based AM startup, recently made a similar hire for its new CEO in Lawrence Ganti, another McKinsey alum who has familiarity with the US military. The more prevalent these types of hires become, the more potential there will be for companies in different areas of the AM market to effectively synergize their efforts.

Images courtesy of Mighty Buildings.

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