Photo: Alonso Nichols

DOERS’ PROFILES

Jay Calnan, E87

HOME: Norwell, Massachusetts.

OCCUPATION: CEO of the construction firm J. Calnan & Associates Inc.

RECENT HONOR: The Corporate Real Estate Service Provider of the Year Award for 2011

BASH TO REMEMBER: The J. Calnan & Associates fifteenth anniversary celebration—“a casino night at the Boston Harbor Hotel, with over three hundred guests.”

MANAGEMENT STYLE: Collaborative. “I truly enjoy assembling a team, establishing common goals, devising a game plan, and bringing the team around the table to update that plan as the work progresses. And once each goal has been achieved, I enjoy pulling everyone in to acknowledge our accomplishment.”

COFOUNDER OF: Team IMPACT (Inspire, Motivate, Play Against Challenges Together), which cultivates relationships between college athletic teams—including Tufts women’s soccer, Brown men’s hockey, and Boston College men’s basketball—and children faced with life-threatening illness. The kids become a real part of the team that adopts them, hanging out with the athletes at practices and joining them on the bench during pregame activities. “Everyone should have a sense of belonging, a sense of working together toward the greater good. Sports teams provide this sense to athletes, and the athletes benefit greatly. For sick, isolated children, who have seen most of their peers move on with their lives, the feeling that they belong is even more precious.”

HUGE FAN OF: The New England Patriots. “The organization epitomizes the right way to do everything—the right way to conduct your business, support your community, market your product, and win.”

PERPETUAL WORK IN PROGRESS: “Being a father.”

ESCAPIST READ: The Dennis Lehane thriller Shutter Island, in which two men trapped on the grounds of a hospital for the criminally insane battle a hurricane—and their own demons.

DEFINING TRAITS: Savvy, competitive, gregarious; thrives on human connection.

FED UP WITH: Negativity toward strivers. “People who attempt to excel or make a difference should be encouraged. Discouragement is a slow-acting poison that saps our vitality, enthusiasm, and determination. Stay positive.”

HIS EDUCATION: B.S., Tufts (civil engineering)