GCAO recognizes Brad Morley with Integrity and Ethics Award

brian morley Matthew Swain
GCAO president Matthew Swain (left) presents the award to Brad Morley's brother Brian, who is current president of Morley Hoppner Construction.

Ottawa Construction News staff writer

After two long years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, members and guests of the General Contractors Association of Ottawa (GCAO) on June 1 on resumed an annual tradition – recognizing a construction industry leader for integrity and ethics at a Rideau Club cocktail party.

This year, GCAO president Matthew Swain presented the recognition for former Morley Hoppner Construction president Brad Morley. His brother Brian, who is the company’s current president, accepted the award. (Brad is travelling on the West Coast.)

Swain said the GCAO received Morley’s nomination in November, 2019, with what “might have been the most robust (nomination) package we have ever seen.”

Brad Morley is second from the right in this 2016 picture of a cheque presentation for $100,000 from Morley Hoppner Construction to the Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation’s Hopes RisingCampaign for Mental Health. Also in the photo (from left to right): Lee Pigeau, Director of Philanthropy QCH Foundation, Brian Morley, Kim Lackey and, Ken Hoppner (Image from Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation.)

The nomination documentation contained “no less than 20 letters of reference or recommendation across architects, consultants, subcontractors, project owners, suppliers, colleagues, friends and family,” he said.

Brad Morley is the second Morley family member to receive the Integrity and Ethics Award.  His father Glen was honoured in 2000. Notably, Glen and Brad also have held leadership positions as previous GCAO presidents.

Brian Morley read a message from Brad, saying:

“I’m very fortunate that values like integrity and honesty are part of who I am. My father Glen and mother Donna have always lived by these values. And they became installed in me during my time growing up as well as in my business life.”

Morley described how he made the transition in the 1988 from his career as a professional engineer to starting the contracting and construction management business with other family members.

“In my early days of Morley Hoppner, which was then Morley Construction, I remember how hard it was to take the high road when we desperately needed new projects,” Brad Morley wrote. “When you are young and inexperienced, it is difficult to rationalize your choices easily.

“It’s difficult to see the bigger longer term picture, realizing your goals and dreams can be a long hard road. The fruits of your labour are well worth their weight and it means so much more when you can hold your head high and be proud of what you’ve produced.”

‘For all the young entrepreneurs and business people here to night, I urge you to continue to grasp the concepts of integrity, ethics and honesty. The long-lasting relationships that you will develop as a result of this mentality will pay dividends in the long run.

“How you conduct yourselves with people, employees, clients, subcontractors and consultants speaks volumes about who you are as a person. You will be remembered not just for the buildings you’ve developed and constructed, but more so by the process in which you have completed them.”

Morley said “reaching your goals is not success if you compromise your values along the way.

“Getting ahead shouldn’t force you to leave people behind,” he wrote. “No accomplishment is worth sacrificing others or your moral principles.

“We’ve had many business partners since we started our company in 1988. And we have continued to gravitate to those clients who have held similar values and business practices that reflect our own.”

Morley concluded with a quote from Adam Grant: “Ambition shapes what you achieve. Character is defined by how you achieve it.”

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