Meet Shannon Coomes of Hill Fire Protection
Ask Shannon Coomes how she became the owner and president of Hill Fire Protection at the age of 30, and she will tell you, “I’m self-made and self-motivated.”
Raised by a single mother who encouraged her to go to college, Coomes learned to work hard at an early age and always had a knack for science and math. One industrial engineering degree, two kids, three acquisitions and expansions to northwest Indiana and Indianapolis later, Coomes heads up one of the largest fire sprinkler contractors in Chicagoland, with 175 employees – 110 in the field and an office staff that is 28% women.
Under Coomes’ leadership, Hill Fire Protection has grown from $3.5 million to $54 million in revenue over the last 10 years. Hill came on-site at the Obama Presidential Center (“the Center”) in the spring of 2023 to begin work on the fire sprinkler system.
For Women’s History Month, Lakeside Alliance spoke with Shannon about how she motivates her teams, her greatest hope for the outcome of the Center and more:
How did you get to where you are today?
I was raised by a single mom of four. I decided I was going to become an engineer, so I moved to Chicago when I was 19 years old and went to community college before continuing my studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago. I worked three jobs to put myself through school – bartending, waitressing and I did energy assessments and landscape estimating. After earning my degree, I worked in Minneapolis for a year, then moved back to Chicago where I built my reputation and relationships. I made the leap to Hill in 2010. In 2014, I became an owner and president. I was 30 and pregnant at the time and they actually hadn’t had anyone have a baby and come back. It’s such a male-dominated business! I get asked frequently if my dad or family was in the business, but that’s not the case for me. I’m self-grown and self-motivated.
What is something you like to do to motivate your teams?
We've grown so fast that there's a lot of youth in my business, whether that's in age or experience level. There's a lot of mentoring that I’m heavily involved in. I help empower my team, so there's a trust level there, and I think that gives them ownership in their own projects. We'll sit with a client, and we'll have the conversation as a team instead of just me leading it and then relaying what happened. A win for me is when they can have these meetings without me. That’s how we’ve grown.
What does it mean to you personally to participate in this project, and what does it mean for your business?
Personally, it’s pretty exciting to be involved in something so high profile and to have the reputation and ability to perform a job of this scale. For the business, there are a lot of moving parts to this and a lot of management, so it’s both a challenge and something we’re really proud of. We sit monthly with our subcontractors and we’re mentoring one, minority-owned World Class Fire Protection, on this project.
What is your greatest hope for the outcome of the Center?
I think it’s going to be an amazing place. For the community in general to have that space and that prestige in our city, it represents so much. I can’t wait to visit the Center with my children and show them, ‘Hey, we built part of this. And you're fully protected because it's got a great sprinkler system!’
Recent data shows more women are entering the construction industry. What has your experience been?
When I first started, I was the only woman in the room. I’m not the only woman anymore. I’ve seen more women and more diversity overall, but a lot of the top positions in construction and other industries are still dominated by men. Being at the top, there is always a curiosity about how I got to where I am. I’ve had to prove myself over and over, whereas men tend to get that benefit of the doubt. This is an amazing industry and I hope things continue to shift and change, but we have to speak to young women and girls at the middle or high school levels to encourage more women to go into construction and engineering.
What would you say to women who are considering a career in the construction industry?
It’s probably one of the more challenging careers, yet so dynamic and fulfilling. When you can see what you’ve done and have been a part of, it’s a pretty amazing feeling. You don’t get that in many businesses.
“This is an amazing industry…but we have to speak to young women and girls at the middle or high school levels to encourage more women to go into construction and engineering.”