About Guild
Guild has a 65-year+ legacy of getting the job right. We’re a big organization, but we retain the people-oriented values we began with three generations ago. Everyone’s role here is equally important, and all of us take pride in what we do.
Powerful Capacity
As one of Canada’s most successful electrical contractors, Guild has a reputation for industry-leading expertise across a wide scope. We have over 800 employees, including highly skilled field crews and a core group of managers, engineers, and supervisors, all working together to deliver cost effective and timely service.
Our team-oriented internal culture means less hierarchy, less red tape, faster decision making, and a multi-faceted approach that allows us to leverage all our business divisions to meet the specific requirements of each project. We’re a well-rounded organization, with an exemplary workforce, sophisticated prefabrication capabilities, and a safety-first focus that benefits customers and employees alike.
Our History
Guild was launched in 1954 by Andrew Lengyel. Young at the time, Andrew was already a skilled electrician who knew he wanted to start something of his own, and was very clear about his values: excellent work, satisfied customers, and thriving employees. Those founding principles have served us well.
Growth
Under Andrew’s able leadership, Guild enjoyed years of steady growth. Through the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, our roster of projects became larger and more varied, shifting from multi-unit residential buildings to a full ICI mix of manufacturing facilities, shopping malls, theatres, hospitals and a thriving tenant division doing fit-outs for major banks, law firms, and other corporate clients.
Legacy
In time Andrew’s son Gary took a key leadership role in the business, and like his father he got his start out in the field. It was Gary who saw the potential in the highways and traffic projects Guild had begun in the 1980s, and with the help of key employees, he developed that work into a core division of Guild’s business. Gary’s open-mindedness, creativity, and calm decision making became an increasingly important part of Guild’s operations, and his ability to identify and respond to opportunities guided the company through a second era of growth.
Gary Lengyel CEO/Vice President
Andrew Lengyel Founder/President
George Docherty Executive Vice President
Today
Even though Guild has been a large organization for a long time now, the sense of family we began with remains at the heart of our culture. Completing high-quality work at competitive prices will always be paramount here. We’re continually exploring new ways of getting better, with an increasing focus on prefabrication techniques, risk management, sustainable construction, and innovations in safety and training. And of course the emphasis Andrew Lengyel placed on people – customers and employees – grounds everything we do.
Dan Camilleri COO
Stephen Lengyel President and CEO
The history behind the word “guild” had a lot of significance for Andrew. He admired the idea of a proud association of skilled tradespeople…and so he named his business Guild Electric.
Our Culture
We often describe the organizational structure at Guild as an inverted pyramid. It’s understood that the most important job for people in leadership positions is to support their team, providing guidance, problem solving, and all the resources required for the safe and efficient completion of exceptional work.
Guild is people- and career-oriented: we’re successful together. We value creativity and resourcefulness at all levels of the business, and we’re always looking for outcomes that allow us to exceed our customers’ expectations.
People first: how you do something can be just as important as what you do.
Going from something on paper to something built – that’s the motivation.
Field Staff
Putting together the best crews in the business has been a Guild priority from the beginning. All our field staff are unionized, a practice that respects our history and aligns with our ongoing commitment to quality, training, and workplace safety. We count on the savvy and skillful troubleshooting of our field staff to keep projects on track under the most challenging conditions.
Management Team
The expertise of our management team is second-to-none. Across the board we have decades of skill, experience, and inventiveness.
Estimating
Thorough and accurate estimating is a huge part of managing risk and controlling costs. We get the details right. And the strength of our long-standing supplier relationships is a huge benefit for our customers.
Project Management
Effective project management requires a steady hand: planning, oversight, logistics, communication, responsiveness, and inventive problem solving are key. Depth of experience is irreplaceable, and each of our project managers has a significant portfolio of achievement. Our open-door culture means that mentoring from senior staff is readily available – there’s always an answer at hand.
Superintendents
Our Superintendents are the conduit between field staff and management, getting the right crews in place and ensuring that they have exactly the materials and equipment they require every day.
Quality Control
Guild’s commitment to high-quality work is one of our defining characteristics and is a key driver of our process and organizational structure. Every project team – field personnel and management - is guided by a Quality Control Program (QCP) specific to the job. Our Quality Assurance Manager monitors each team’s adherence to its QCP, makes recommendations to the appropriate Project Manager, and reports directly to the COO to ensure a proactive approach to quality assurance. Thorough documentation of all QC/QA measures is integrated into our workflow, and we’re always making refinements to improve the excellence of our service.
Health & Safety
We’ve always had a health and safety mindset at Guild, and our COR certification is proof that we’re methodical and disciplined in our commitment to safe workplaces. Our company-wide practices include meticulous documentation, ongoing training sessions conducted by IHSA-qualified instructors, regular safety audits, and many other measures as well. Guild’s Joint Health and Safety Committee meets quarterly to monitor all aspects of our program and make refinements if required.
Policies and procedures are vital, but there’s also a personal aspect to health and safety: we truly care about the wellbeing of the people who work for us and with us. It’s a shared outlook and responsibility. All our managers, supervisors, and staff are tasked with identifying and mitigating any hazard to health and safety – because everyone deserves to feel secure on site, and everyone deserves to arrive home safely.