Michael D. Bellaman

President and CEO

Associated Builders and Contractors

Michael D. Bellaman has served as president and chief executive officer of Associated Builders and Contractors, a national trade association representing more than 22,000 members from 68 chapters across the United States, since 2011. In his role, Bellaman leverages the merit shop philosophy to help members develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically and profitably for the betterment of the communities in which they work. He leads the association to deliver on the following long-term strategic goals:

• Establish ABC members as the world-class standard for total human health, safety and environment;

• Increase the political influence of ABC;

• Be the leading force for workforce development and education; and

• Continuously grow and deliver value to a diverse and committed membership.

Under his leadership, ABC has deployed a five-year, associationwide strategic planning framework to align all chapters and members. Over the last decade, it has led to such results as growing contractor membership by 7%, increasing the number of fair and open competition states by 1,100% and the number of right-to-work states by 22%, and expanding Free Enterprise Alliance fundraising by 200%. In 2021 alone, ABC members invested $1.6 billion to provide 1.3 million course attendees with craft, leadership and safety education.

Bellaman has also launched initiatives that have strengthened ABC members’ value proposition, including a construction technology and innovation initiative, a grassroots political advocacy app, growing national recognition for the National Craft Championships and National Construction Management Competition and deploying an inclusion, diversity and equity strategy called IDE the Merit Shop Way.

Bellaman is dedicated to helping ABC members and the entire construction industry achieve world-class safety. He is a co-founder of the Construction Coalition for a Drug- and Alcohol-Free Workplace and has championed a roadmap for companies whose leaders want to transform their safety programs through ABC’s STEP Safety Management System, which has grown participation by nearly 42% and has decreased total recordable incident rates among participants by 58% under his leadership.

A 1985 graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Bellaman earned a bachelor’s in architectural engineering and spent more than two decades in the construction industry before joining ABC.