13 Jun Findorff delivers cutting-edge building for biotechnology firm Illumina
When Bob Hougard embarks on a construction project, he thinks about more than the concrete, steel and stone that goes into it.
Hougard, who leads J.H. Findorff & Son’s science and technology team, builds projects for clients who are developing products at the forefront of medicine and science. And these facilities are often a crucial component in a company’s ability to make products that could save and improve lives.
For instance, when Hougard completed a project in 2013 for Exact Sciences, a Madison company that makes cancer screening tests, Kevin Conroy, the firm’s CEO, said new capabilities made possible by the building could save 5,000 lives a year.
“If you think about it, there are hospitals that don’t save 5,000 lives a year,” Hougard said.
“The impact that we can have for these clients is huge.”
Likewise, a new building Findorff recently completed for biotechnology firm Illumina will help the company achieve its mission of improving human health.
Illumina is a San Diego-based company that moved into Wisconsin in 2012 after acquiring Madison-based Epicentre Biotechnologies. The firm is the world’s largest manufacturer of DNA sequencing machines, which are used to read DNA. The company’s work broadly focuses on the human genome, or the genetic information in a person, and makes products that could treat illnesses and help investigators solve crimes, among a range of other uses.