Gaines Makes Room on the Awards Shelf, Adding Another NCI Risk Control Award of Excellence

62 Award Recipients at the 2026 NCI Awards Ceremony

On behalf of the entire Gaines and Company organization, Safety Director Dominic Pope once again accepted the National Contractors Insurance Ltd. (NCI) Risk Control Award of Excellence. This is now the 5^th time that Gaines received— no, earned— this prestigious recognition.

The Risk Control Award of Excellence is given to organizations that meet or exceed the captive’s benchmarks for a company’s overall safety performance regarding effective safety programs, favorable claims experience, and participation in risk control workshops and other loss prevention activities. This performance spans a company’s entire organization. For Gaines and Company, that means that all employees throughout its three divisions (Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware/Eastern Shore divisions) are committed to the company’s comprehensive, employee-driven safety culture.

“A safety culture is not going to be successful spanning multiple divisions if it is ordered top-down,” said Safety Manager Tommy Trent. “Instead, we believe that employees should steer the culture, fitting it directly to their needs. That’s how we achieve success year after year.”

In addition to our noteworthy company-wide safety performance, the NCI Executive Board also recognized one of our exemplary employees at the ceremony. Dominic Pope, who was most recently an NCI Executive Committee Member (Vice Chairman of Risk), was board-approved as NCI’s Risk Chairman. In this new role, Dominic will now serve NCI member companies by working directly with NCI’s Senior Vice President of Risk Control and insurance carrier representatives to set benchmarks and address risk-related issues within the captive. He will also represent the captive’s member companies at board meetings.

“I don’t look at this as a position I am filling,” said Dominic. “Instead, I look at it as an honor to serve the captive in a way I know I can truly make an impact. I can reach outside of Gaines and Company to have a small – but hopefully impactful – part of making sure every employee within our captive goes home safely at the end of each day. It is truly a privilege to assume this role.”

Gaines and Company is a full-service grading and excavation company with offices in Maryland, North Carolina, and the Eastern Shore. The organization has over 70 years of experience in underground utilities, grading and excavating, sediment and erosion controls, and road work. Gaines and Company delivers safe, reliable, turnkey site development services in Maryland, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Delaware on time and within budget.