At KCM Group, project success depends not only on plans and schedules, but also on the people who bring all the pieces together. For Kinter Van Horn, serving in that role has been central to his entire career.
Kinter joined KCM as a Senior Project Manager with more than two decades of experience in the construction industry, including nearly 20 years in the field as a superintendent. That hands-on background continues to shape how he approaches his work today.
“What I’ve always enjoyed most is working with people,” he says. “You’re coordinating between owners, designers, contractors; everyone has a role, and you’re helping bring it all together.”
He describes the role of an Owner’s Project Manager in simple terms: the conductor of an orchestra.
“The contractors are the musicians, the architect is the composer, the client is the audience, and we’re the conductor,” Kinter explains. “If it goes great, everyone claps and all you do is give credit to everyone else. If things go wrong, you eat a tomato.”
That mindset—equal parts responsibility and collaboration—is rooted in experience. Kinter spent years leading complex projects in the field, developing a clear, practical understanding of how construction projects actually come together day to day, and how each decision ripples across the broader effort.
“When you’ve been through those pressure situations, not much rattles you,” he says. “You learn how to communicate, how to solve problems, and how to keep things moving.”
His path into construction started early, influenced by a childhood spent building and fixing things alongside his father. He remembers stumbling upon an old, abandoned moped in a puddle while hiking with his childhood friends. Kinter rolled it home and his father took one look and said “let’s go get a book”
“So we did,” Kinter recalls. “We took that bike apart and spread it across the garage – piston, cylinder, ring, everything. We put it back together again and it ran. That’s where I realized that I liked the idea of how to put things together.”
That curiosity about how things come apart and go back together has ultimately defined his career.
Today at KCM, Kinter applies that same mindset to every project. Whether coordinating teams, managing challenges, or arranging priorities, his focus is consistent: doing what’s right for the client.