Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brendan Bechtel


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep.  Sandstein  12:04, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Brendan Bechtel

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Not notable. Being a CEO is not enough for WP:anybio Driodr (talk) 17:12, 5 October 2022 (UTC) UPE spammer strike. MER-C 19:13, 20 October 2022 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz Read! Talk! 17:24, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete I agree with the nominator. Haven't received any significant coverage. Not notable. Fifthapril (talk) 18:03, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Businesspeople and Women . Shellwood (talk) 18:11, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep: I agree just being a CEO of a company is not grounds for notability, we get too many of those COI created articles from people who think this is linkedin.  But we do have some articles profiling him already in the references. And this is not a surprise because Bechtel is one of the largest engineering/construction companies on planet Earth, and one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. Most people haven't heard of it because business news coverage doesn't highlight all the "boring" companies who make more money than God every year.  (The fact that this guy looks a lot like Conan O'Brien is just a bonus. ).--Milowent • hasspoken  19:22, 5 October 2022 (UTC)
 * @Milowent He looks more like Andy Richter. Cielquiparle (talk) 15:59, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
 * @Cielquiparle, whoa he's a mix of both!--Milowent • hasspoken 12:28, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.


 * Weak keep Forbes has an article about him, but most of what I find are press releases or just his name in relation to another construction story. Oaktree b (talk) 20:17, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep This isn't someone who is the CEO of a startup firm with a dozen employees, Bechtel is the largest construction firm in the United States and operates worldwide on major construction projects. I'm sure we have articles on CEOs of companies that are at the top of their industry. I realize that this isn't a strong reason to keep but I read over the article and I would argue that the subject is notable as a businessman and for his position in his industry. The article could use more independent reliable sources (as would most articles) but I think the Fortune references are strong. Liz Read! Talk! 22:55, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Delete Keep I understand the arguments that he's head of a major company etc., but I can't find any sources - he's the invisible man. The only source that seems substantial (not by this company or a mere mention) might be the one Fortune magazine article actually about him. I can only see the first paragraph before the paywall but let's assume it's good. Still, that's only one significant source. In all of the other third-party sources he is just name-checked. With the Washington Biz Journal article there are now two significant sources, which puts him into GNG territory, and the other less significant sources fill in some of the article's data. Lamona (talk) 03:42, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Brendan Bechtel said in the Fortune magazine "40 Under 40" 2016 feature that he would tell his 20-year-old self "to be very suspicious when someone tells you a problem is impossible to solve, or that a current situation can't be changed." I thought this was an apt way to describe this particular AfD discussion overall. Cielquiparle (talk) 11:53, 16 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep as Brendan Bechtel easily passes WP:GNG, with significant coverage in Fortune magazine (multiple articles, including the June 2016 "Master of Megaprojects" feature and a paragraph in the October 2016 "40 Under 40"); the in-depth 2018 feature in Washington Business Journal (although it includes many quotes from Brendan himself, it is a very lengthy article that also includes a lot of factual information compiled and checked by data editor Carolyn M. Proctor); and last but not least, some investigative reporting by ProPublica (which is a reliable source according to WP:Reliable sources/Perennial sources). When this article was nominated for deletion, it was indeed rather short and dull, so I've tried to expand it with more content to differentiate it from his boilerplate executive bio, including information about his involvement as chair of the infrastructure committee of the Business Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group, and more detail about his career inside of Bechtel, starting with his summer internship in corporate IT when he was 14 years old, and his development path through field construction, project management, and executive leadership, drawing on additional sources such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Engineering News-Record (ENR). Cielquiparle (talk) 12:32, 16 October 2022 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.