The Shinn's Legacy of Professionalism

Original article appeared in Pro Builder

Chuck and Emma Shinn are retiring, leaving a 50-year legacy of helping professionalize the home building industry

It’s difficult to assess the impact of people whose influence is threaded through almost every nook and cranny of the home building industry.

But Charles (Chuck) Shinn Jr. and Emma Shinn, who are retiring after 50 years serving as the co-founders of Shinn Group, can look on their life's work and see home building companies that grew and prospered, neighborhoods those companies created and the families raised there, and the livelihoods of dozens of people who worked for and with them.

They also can look back at the immense value they added to the home building community and can appreciate that the professionalism visible on jobsites and in office settings today evolved from what was only a hope when they started 50 years ago.

Much of that came from their work in Shinn Group—the premier consultancy to home builders—and Builder Partnerships, a spin-off that fosters collaboration between builders and building product manufacturers and service companies. The experience and knowledge behind the company, though, came from years of learning and deep involvement in the industry.

The Partnership

The Shinns met in the late 1960s while they were both in the MBA program at American University, in Washington, D.C. Emma was the only woman in the program and her skill and background in accounting proved essential to the success of the other students wanting to complete projects that were more than just theoretical.

They got married in her native Panama in 1970, “Right after the [NAHB] home builders' convention,” Chuck says, who at the time was working at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) while Emma was working for Deloitte, the audit, consulting, tax, and advisory service.

Their working collaboration kicked off when Chuck put together the first “Cost of Doing Business” study and report for NAHB. That experience made him realize the need for a standardized accounting and reporting system for home builders.

Emma began that process, providing the groundwork for the survey. It eventually led her to write Accounting and Financial Management for Residential Construction, the definitive accounting book for home builders, now in its sixth edition.