Lia Benevides VP Of Finance

Bio

Joshua Arruda VP of Operations

Bio

Doug Fingliss VP of IT/MIS

Bio

Neil Swift Residential

Bio

Nicole Dame Controller

Bio

Blaise Erker Project Coordinator

Bio

Laura Vaillancourt Assistant Project Coordinator

Bio

Randy Gifford

Originally from Ohio, Randy graduated from the International Union of Operating Engineers in 1982. Over the years, he has continued his education receiving certificates from Harvard University in construction management and landscape design. Randy has worn many hats over the years, working as an Operating Engineer, Superintendent, Project Manager, and Vice President of Operations. His expertise is in coordinating and scheduling projects to complete on time and on budget. Randy holds licenses in 25 states across the country and founded Innovative Construction in 2005 with co-owner Jim Carlson.

Lia Benevides

Lia has over 20 years of experience in public and corporate accounting as well as internal auditing. A Rhode Island native, she graduated from Salve Regina University with a BS in Finance and a MS in Accounting. She began her career in public accounting through auditing not-for-profit, real estate, construction, healthcare and government agencies. Serving as the Manager of Internal Audit for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation and supporting the airport’s Board of Directors; she went on to become the Controller for a defense contractor in Middletown, Rhode Island. A Certified Fraud Examiner, she joined Innovative Construction in 2016.

Joshua Arruda

A Rhode Island native, Joshua graduated from the New England Institute of Technology in 2012 with an Associate’s Degree in Architectural Engineering which followed with a Bachelor’s Degree in Construction Management. Joshua has worked in the construction industry since 2000 performing renovations and new construction in the residential and commercial sectors. He started his career with Innovative Construction in 2011 as a Superintendent. Joshua is consistently developing his skills along with numerous client relations as an estimator and project manager.

Doug Fingliss

Doug graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in “Business Information Systems” from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His early work experience included managing a computer services establishment to a later position with a self-service kiosk solutions company. Here he did everything from project management for large clients (including PepsiCo, the US military, the Washington Football Team, and more) to ongoing technical support to developing a product and sales channel aimed at self-service solutions for the banking industry. Eventually he left this company, becoming part owner of a technology consulting company. From this experience he then began his own technology consulting firm specializing in solutions for small to mid-sized businesses.
Throughout this consulting time he had the pleasure to work with Innovative Construction. As he continued through life he found himself spending considerable time working with ICI and their amazing team. Watching the company grow consistently, he became an employee in 2011 and, later, a full time employee. He now enjoys his time planning, deploying, and maintaining various communication and other technologies for Innovative and their family.

Neil Swift

A Rhode Island native, Neil owned and operated a successful general contracting company for the past 25 years, based in Warren, RI. Neil Swift Construction was a multi-faceted business, taking on a wide array of projects, including but not limited to the building of custom homes, home renovations, additions, commercial projects, and often multiple at the same time. Prior to this, he was a foreman for another local general contracting business. Outside of construction, Neil enjoys playing golf and spending time with his six children. Neil started working at Innovative Construction in February 2020.

Nicole Dame

Nicole began her career as a Computer Programmer and Software Architect for the Pharmacy Data Warehouse at CVS Corporate. Before joining CVS corporate, she was a pharmacy technician in the stores and was hired to work on a special project that's focus was to help pharmacy operations run more smoothly and efficiently. One of the highlights working for CVS was spearheading a project working with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of RI to create a Beta program that would allow customers to have their monthly maintenance prescriptions automatically re-filled. She designed the Auto Refill program and how it would work. She wrote the initial code in an Access database and started out with a handful of medications. It was then tested in a few local stores and it is now a nationwide, CVS Program. Nicole then became a IT/Accounting consultant, for a national consulting firm, Supporting Strategies.

Nicole has a passion for physical fitness and nutrition and is also a Certified Personal Trainer. Nicole has her Bachelor of Science from Rhode Island College with a major in Computer Information Systems and minor in Business Management. Nicole was a consultant with ICI in 2017 and became an ICI employee in 2018.

Blaise Erker

Having a lifelong interest in mathematics, Blaise attended the University of Rhode Island graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering in May 2019. Before joining Innovative Construction in September 2019, Blaise worked at the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority as an engineering intern while simultaneously waitressing at The Black Pearl in downtown Newport. With a passion for sailing inherited from her father, Blaise spends much on her warm-weather free time working on and delivering sailboats. She spends much of her cold-weathered free-time snowboarding at Killington mountain.

Laura Vaillancourt

Laura is a Tiverton, RI native and holds a BFA from the Maine College of Art with a concentration in photography. Laura has been working as a professional photographer since 2001 and has over 30 years of experience in sales and customer service.
Laura brings a strong team work ethic and that, coupled with her organizational skills, make her invaluable to Innovative Construction. Laura began working at Innovative Construction in 2017.