Gail Warrior-Lawrence – Business

GailWarrior Group, based in DeSoto, Texas, was formed in 1997 when Mrs. Gail Warrior-Lawrence found an unmet need among corporations and government agencies for a reliable provider of permanent, modular buildings. Warrior can attribute much of its growth and success to its role as a member of a collaborative team building substantial projects including the U.S. Army headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Fort Bliss, Fort Carson and Fort Sam Houston as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC). Warrior also expanded its expertise into construction management in 2009.

Under Warrior-Lawrence’s leadership, Warrior Group has grown to be one of the largest minority- and woman-owned construction services company in the country. Warrior’s dynamic and diverse group of employees with more than 100 years of combined construction experience, have been instrumental in positioning the company for phenomenal growth and were key drivers in Warrior’s annual revenue growth of over 300% in the last two years.

Through Warrior’s vision of sustainability and controlled quality, it has played a major role in the transformation of the permanent modular construction industry as a whole. The result is an evolved product that is comparable to site construction in durability, lifespan and appearance. Warrior has built (first) one- and two-, then three- and four-story permanent modular buildings and helped expand the adoption of permanent modular construction for most applications, including school buildings, dormitories, laboratories, military residences, administrative offices and clinics in more than 30 states. Since its inception, Gail Warrior-Lawrence and Warrior Group have won more than 30 national, regional and local awards, as well as several other nominations. Most recently, Warrior Group was included in ICIC/BusinessWeek SmallBiz magazine’s 2009 ICIC Inner City 100 list – a ranking of the fastest-growing inner city companies in the country; the 2009 Inc. 500|5000 – Inc. magazine’s annual ranking to honor America’s fastest-growing privately held companies; listed as one of the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies in North Texas by SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship; and ranked as one of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Businesses in North America by Entrepreneur and the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO).

As an entrepreneur, Warrior-Lawrence has also received several recent honors including: The Top Women Entrepreneurs in North America by Enterprising Women; the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)/Wells Fargo award; and the coveted Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Inside the offices of Warrior Group, Gail created, and works to maintain, a workplace culture of volunteerism, philanthropy and service that permeates Warrior Group. Through her long history of community involvement, she leads by example. Additionally, Gail created a company- wide book club that focuses on reading and discussion to facilitate business growth. Within her community, Gail is a major contributor with an unwavering commitment to provide educational enrichment to underserved children through her own foundation, Heart of a Warrior Charitable Foundation, founded in 2007. In just two years, under Gail’s leadership, Heart of a Warrior developed a highly effective Summer Learning Program for local children and successfully hosted two Celebrity Golf Tournaments, raising over $230,000 in support of community outreach programs, including Girls, Inc.

Mrs. Warrior-Lawrence is a frequent public speaker for business and community organizations, and serves on several boards including the Women’s Business Council-Southwest, Dallas Housing Authority Advisory Board, Dallas Regional Chamber and the African American Museum as well as the Women’s Enterprise Leadership Forum for WBENC. She graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a B.A. in accounting and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Dallas. She is also the mother of a wonderful little boy, Corey.