Stephanie Hickman

President & CEO

Trice Construction Company

After a career as a labor attorney, utility executive and lobbyist, Stephanie Hickman left Corporate America in 2006 to acquire the construction company her family started in 1967. Since the acquisition, she has led its transformation from a small residential construction company to an award-winning, utility infrastructure contractor serving Fortune 500 corporations, top 100 general and infrastructure contractors and major public entities. Hickman has combined her leadership skills with a team of seasoned operations professionals to position the company for continued exponential growth and success.

Hickman’s leadership acumen is illustrated by Trice’s accomplishments, including becoming the first African American woman-owned construction firm awarded prime and multi-year contracts with companies such as Ameren, ComEd/Exelon, Nicor Gas, Peoples Gas, and the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The company was ranked on the Fortune/Inner City 100 list of the fastest growing businesses for three consecutive years. Trice has earned numerous awards including 2018 Women’s Business Enterprise of the Year for Chicago Women’s Business Development Center; 2017 Minority Construction Firm of the Year from the U. S. Department of Commerce and the 2017 Urban Impact Award from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

Ms. Hickman holds a JD from the University of Mississippi and a business degree from Eastern New Mexico University. She also completed executive management programs at Dartmouth and the University of Pittsburgh. Hickman serves on the Boards of Trustees of the Museum of Science and Industry and Glenwood Academy. She is on the boards of the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce and the Law Alumni Chapter of Ole Miss Alumni Association. She formerly served on the national Boards of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and Women Construction Owners and Executives and completed two terms as a mayoral appointee to the advisory board for Chicago’s Department of Procurement Services. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Network and was recently named a 2022 Outstanding WBE CEO in Women’s Enterprise Magazine and 2021 Crain’s Chicago Business Notable Women in Construction and Design.

Hickman, a sought-after speaker, was selected in 2019 as a Chicago United Business Leader of Color, is a 2006 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and a Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She enjoys mentoring minority businesses in the early stages of their development. She believes it’s an ongoing responsibility to pay it forward.