Therma: Keeping Bay Area’s Toughest Projects Moving
Thirty-two years ago, Jon Litle applied to the apprenticeship programs at Local 104 and 393, eventually settling in with Local 104. Today, he’s Therma’s Senior Vice President of Operations, where his experience has helped the company of roughly 1,700 through one of its most significant periods of growth.
Along the way, Litle worked his way from journeyman to foreman, general foreman and project manager before moving into operations leadership. That field experience still shapes how he leads — and how Therma works.
“Perspective matters, and I’ve been through it — the field team pain points, the PM pain points, I’ve seen it all,” Litle said. “My style is that those folks don’t work for me, I work for them. I’m there to help them be successful.”
That field experience is particularly valuable as Therma’s project scope expands across the Bay Area, from semiconductor and biopharmaceutical facilities to high-tech manufacturing and data centers. Since its founding in 1967, Therma has evolved well beyond its roots in mechanical construction and service, with fabrication now playing a major role in the work.
Therma’s 90,000-square-foot sheet metal shop uses CNC benders, lasers, mills and other advanced equipment, while its broader fabrication capabilities support custom mechanical, plumbing and metalwork.
“Our way of doing business has always been solution-oriented,” Litle said. “We don’t approach a project as one and done. We approach it as how we continue to build a relationship with the customer long term.”
That philosophy has helped the company build relationships that stretch beyond a single project. One began with a small startup developing an early multi-color LED array. Therma helped them find and build out a facility suited to its needs. The company grew, was acquired by Google and the relationship continues today.
Therma’s growth is also showing up in its physical footprint. Last fall, the company signed a full-building lease for 212,683 square feet at the newly built San Jose Logistics Center on North King Road. The additional space provides manufacturing and staging capacity as it takes on more work tied to hyperscale data centers and semiconductor clients.
But growth doesn’t come without challenges. Finding enough real estate, materials and experienced managers is increasingly difficult.
“There’s a short supply of contractors, and quality issues are starting to come up in the industry,” Litle said. “I suspect it’s tied to that short supply of managers.”
That makes Therma’s emphasis on developing people especially important. Average employee tenure is around 15 years, and many of the company’s leaders have spent years in the field. The company also regularly promotes union tradespeople into management, giving project managers firsthand knowledge of how work
actually gets built.
Therma remains engaged with Bay Area SMACNA, too, with President Mike Fisher serving on the board and employees taking advantage of SMACNA training and education.
For Litle, the next chapter is less about how big Therma can become and more about how well it can serve the customers and people who helped build it.
“What I see is expanding into new markets and becoming lifetime partners with our clients,” he said.