Whyte

Donald E. (Don) Whyte is retired president of NCCER, the National Center for Construction Education and Research. He earned a degree in education from Virginia Tech.

He played a key role in the development of NCCER more than 20 years ago, and was instrumental in overseeing the evolution of NCCER’s standardized curricula into the leading craft training program for the industry. Under his leadership, sales of curricula for NCCER increased threefold to $20 million annually, between 2002 and 2009.

He also led the development of the group’s National Craft Assessment and Certification Program and the Pipeliner Training and Assessment Program. The craft program has now assessed over 500,000 craft workers, while the pipeliner program has assessed over 200,000 pipeliners and has covered more than 650,000 task performance verifications. Don recently oversaw the revamping of the “Build Your Future” campaign into a leading image enhancement and recruitment initiative for the construction industry.

He is currently directing the establishment of an NCCER-led Global Construction Workforce Development Initiative that will lead to the standardization of craft training and assessments with globally-recognized portable credentials.

He is married to Mabel, and they have one daughter.