Author: Allison Barwacz
Polydeck Screen Corp.
CDE Global
Washington Samuel Tyler
The secret to success is one simple concept.
This phrase rang true for Washington Samuel Tyler, who founded his wire-weaving mill in September 1872. Tyler sought to create products that were not an end in themselves, but means by which his customers could complete something useful and profitable.
This simple notion would be the building block of a successful business that still thrives today.
Starting out
Tyler, a descendant of a Connecticut family, was born on April 10, 1835, in Cleveland. His parents settled in Ohio City, on the west side of Cleveland, because the northeast part of Ohio was allocated to Connecticut during the course of a resettlement policy.
Even though he grew up in Ohio, Tyler returned to his family’s roots in Connecticut for his education. After completing his studies, he worked at a textile store in Hartford, Connecticut, for three years.
Working at the textile store negatively affected Tyler’s health, so he returned to Cleveland, where he opened his wire-weaving mill, originally dubbed Cleveland Wire Works, in 1872. The company was renamed W.S. Tyler that same year.
The company started with only 11 employees, and the plant – built adjacent to the Cleveland Pittsburgh Railroad – was an old two-story building that measured 40 ft. x 75 ft.
Despite its small size, the company flourished. Tyler’s business and moral standards greatly contributed to the company’s success. At a time when customers had to be on guard about the products they purchased, Tyler upheld the notion that a successful business should generate a profit but also give customers their money’s worth.
Early innovations
After a year of operating in his tiny facility, Tyler’s company grew from 11 employees to 30. As the number of employees grew, so, too, did W.S. Tyler’s level of innovation and success.
The company originally produced woven wire cloth for a number of uses, such as garden fences, flower lattices, protective devices for fireplaces, woven screens for mines, elevator linings and more. The products were woven on wooden looms until, in 1878, Tyler introduced mechanical weaving looms to the operation – as well as wire crimped in stages. This helped to increase efficiencies and offer customers greater durability in their screen decks.
In 1910, Tyler introduced the Tyler Standard Scale Sieve Series, a scientifically designed testing sieve series that later became the basis for the development of the ISO standards used in particle analysis today.
According to Haver & Boecker, W.S. Tyler’s parent company, the principle of the sieve series became so essential that the United States and a number of foreign countries adopted it as a national standard.
In 1914, the company launched the Ro-Tap Sieve Shaker, an industry laboratory standard that further complemented the product line and, in 1916, Tyler developed the hook strip for screen tensioning.
Tyler recognized a need to continue moving forward, and he saw an opportunity in vibrating screens. At the time, woven wire cloth was advancing and improving, while vibrating screen developments were stagnant.
In 1917, W.S. Tyler produced the first fully mechanical vibrating screen. Tyler died that year at the age of 82. He had more than 500 employees at the time, and his drive to innovate the screening industry remained a staple of his company as it moved forward.
Eighteen years after his death, Tyler’s company purchased the Niagara screen patent and developed its first four-bearing screen, the Ty-Rock. This was the first collaboration between W.S. Tyler and its future parent company, Haver & Boecker. The screen, which integrated positive screening action – coarse to fine – played a pivotal role in the evolution of screens in the years that followed.
W.S. Tyler today
While Tyler paved the way for woven wire and a number of screen developments, he was also attentive to opportunities for expansion and growth.
In the early 1900s, W.S. Tyler ventured into Canada, Mexico and South America. Following a discovery of gold, South Africa also became a market for W.S. Tyler products, followed by China, Australia, India and Malaysia.
In 1930, the Tyler family built a factory in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, to capitalize on the country’s booming mining industry. The family moved the Cleveland production site midway through the 20th century to Mentor, Ohio.
The new sites improved the company’s efficiency, convenience, material processing and working comfort, expanding the company name around the world.
Tylinter, more formally known as W.S. Tyler International, was established in 1958 through a joint venture between W.S. Tyler and Haver & Boecker, a manufacturer based in Oelde, Germany, that offers diversified processing, storing, handling, mixing, packing, filling, palletizing and loading solutions. The partnership catapulted the companies into a two-way international trade.
In 1969, when no family members were found to continue the business, W.S. Tyler underwent two ownership changes. It was owned by Combustion Engineering – now ABB – and known as C-E Tyler for 10 years, and then sold to a leverage buyout firm that ran the company for nine years. Haver & Boecker bought W.S. Tyler in 1998.
More than 140 years since Washington Samuel Tyler established his wire-weaving mill, W.S. Tyler and Haver & Boecker continue to hold true to their founder’s principles of integrity, value and outstanding customer service.
Today, the Tyler name lives on through a number of products, including the company’s signature vibrating screen, the Tyler F-Class. Tyler also continues to offer particle analysis equipment, wire mesh, filters and filter cloth, screen printing and architectural mesh.
W.S. Tyler continues to operate in Mentor, Ohio. Its Canadian manufacturing facility, which focuses on screening, washing and pelletizing technology for the mining and aggregate industries, rebranded to Haver & Boecker Canada in 2015.
“Haver & Boecker was born from innovation, and we continue to embrace it in everything we do,” says Karen Thompson, president at Haver & Boecker Canada. “The Tyler name is a reminder of our roots and the importance of putting the customer first.”
George Sidney
Long before George Sidney was named president and COO of McLanahan Corp., and before he became a sales engineer at the storied company, he was a youngster with a grand vision for his future.
Growing up, Sidney had strong interests in engineering and geology. He considered pursuing a career in each of these fields yet ultimately chose engineering, concluding that the pathway into the workforce was simpler.
Fortunately for Sidney, McLanahan contacted him shortly after he graduated from Penn State University, giving him the perfect opportunity to fulfill both of his boyhood dreams.
“Little did I know that I was getting into a company that worked with rocks,” says Sidney, who’s collected rocks since he was a kid. “I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”
More than 45 years since joining McLanahan, Sidney looks back on his career with great satisfaction. He started as a design engineer and soared to the highest ranks of a family-owned company that’s now in its sixth generation of executive leadership.
Over the years, Sidney innovated equipment, mentored the industry’s young aspirants and brought the construction aggregate industry together at critical times. He was a visionary who helped his company expand beyond U.S. borders, and he was a leader the greater industry in the United States could continuously count on through his association contributions.
“He’s very smart, very hard-working, very reliable and very productive,” says Ron DeDiemar, a longtime competitor of McLanahan who now serves on the company’s board of directors. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s one of the five or six strongest leaders that I’ve ever met.”
Humble beginnings
Sidney spent his first few years at McLanahan on a four-person team designing equipment. He loved being a design engineer, but an opportunity surfaced early on that put him on a track to bigger things.
“Along the way, the president of the company, Roy Rumbaugh, approached me and asked me to consider going into sales,” Sidney says. “I wasn’t really interested in that, but he said I needed to think about this a little more.”
Sidney thought about the opportunity over a weekend, deciding he wanted to remain as a design engineer. Rumbaugh, however, wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I said, ‘Let me get this straight,’” Sidney says. “’Even though you’re asking me if I’d like to do this, I really don’t have much of an option.’”
Sidney reluctantly accepted Rumbaugh’s offer with a stipulation that he could return to engineering if he didn’t enjoy sales. Looking back, Sidney regards his decision as the best move of his career.
“It not only allowed me to be involved in the design effort, but to truly learn the application of all of our equipment,” Sidney says.
Sidney spent about half of his time on the road during these days, calling on customers in the Rocky Mountain region. His weekends were often spent at the office putting in extra hours as an engineer.
Several years like this piled up before Rumbaugh proposed another opportunity to Sidney.
“He said, ‘I got to have you managing the engineering department,’” Sidney says. “I said I felt uncomfortable doing that because we had hired a lot of really smart engineers since I left the department. These guys were so much smarter than me.”
Rumbaugh laughed and responded plainly: He wasn’t asking Sidney to be smarter than the engineers; he was asking Sidney to lead them.
“That was a real lesson in life for me,” says Sidney, who became McLanahan’s director of engineering at this time. “He truly put it in perspective.”
Rising up
As engineering director, Sidney added staff and put his department through a wholesale reorganization.
“We came out with a lot of new products, a lot of innovation,” Sidney says.
The new role also positioned Sidney to work closely with Mike McLanahan, who became company president in the late 1980s. Sidney assumed other job titles over the years, including executive vice president, COO and president, succeeding Mike McLanahan in 2004.
“When Mike asked me to take over, one of the things I said to him was I’d like to make some changes,” Sidney says. “If I can’t make some changes there’s no sense in me having a job.”
Together with Mike and his son, Sean McLanahan, who was named executive vice president and CFO at this time, a goal was set to double the company within five years.
“We wound up doing it in two,” Sidney says, “and then we doubled it again in three – and then again. We’ve grown the company tremendously. We grew from one global office in Australia, which Mike McLanahan started, to three offices in Australia and an office in Santiago, Chile; two offices in India; an office in the U.K.”
Acquiring Universal Engineering Corp. and the assets of Eagle Iron Works in 2012 contributed to McLanahan’s growth, as well.
“We recognized if we were going to go other places that we needed more product line,” Sidney says. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to go after the Universal Engineering line – a more comprehensive line of crushing and feeding equipment.”
Through these years, Sidney kept the customer top of mind. He learned in his earliest years as an engineer that the customer’s input was central to everything McLanahan does.
“If you don’t know what your customer is thinking, then you cannot do your job as an M&S (manufacturers and services) entity,” Sidney says. “You have to know what they want and what their desires are if you’re going to be successful as a company.”
Sidney certainly made the commitment to bettering aggregate-producing businesses.
“George Sidney is the type of person you want to be around and exchange ideas with,” says Rob Everist, president at South Dakota-based L.G. Everist. “His easygoing personality combined with his knowledge of the industry has made him an invaluable resource to countless producers and manufacturers in the aggregate world.”
Greater commitment
Although the inner workings of McLanahan required his everyday attention, Sidney also regularly invested himself in aggregate industry organizations. Sidney first got involved in the National Stone Association (NSA), the predecessor to the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA), in 1987.
“I could see that they were sorely lacking in keeping track of things at their meetings,” Sidney says. “So I volunteered to be the secretary.”
Sidney kept all of the minutes from meetings. More importantly, he kept things moving.
“I was the continuity in the effort because they were changing chairman every year,” he says.
Sidney also participated as a speaker at regional NSA seminars on operations topics, educating producers on subjects of interest. And he’s been one of the key proponents of ROCKPAC, NSSGA’s political action committee, canvassing the industry for donations.
Sidney retired at the end of 2018, but he remains on the company’s board of directors. He’ll continue to attend industry trade shows and meetings to maintain his network of friends.
“I have been immensely rewarded through the friendships I’ve made in the construction aggregate industry,” Sidney says. “They are a unique people. This industry attracts salt of the earth people; honest, upstanding, good people.”
Of course, Sidney’s success at work would not have been possible without the support his wife, Leanne, continuously offered at home.
“When you consider that I have surpassed 2 million air miles during my career, that is a bunch of time away from home,” Sidney says. “She has never one time complained. The reason being is that she gets it. She knows and understands my commitment to the company and the McLanahan family of employees.”
Manfred Freissle
“You learn by doing.”
Polydeck Screen Corp. adopted this simple adage from its co-founder, Manfred Freissle. The adage not only serves as a motivational tool for the company, but it is a way of life for Freissle.
From leaving a broken Germany after World War II to working after hours in a garage developing an innovative product that set a global standard for screen media, Freissle made a lasting impact on the aggregate industry.
His determination, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit, was the driving force behind the development of synthetic modular screen media – an innovation that changed the screening universe forever.
Freissle’s contribution to the aggregate industry is the product of learning by doing. An electrical engineer by trade, Freissle jumped head first into the aggregate industry with no experience, and he emerged as a worldwide leader and expert in screen media.
The beginning
Freissle grew up in Germany during World War II, when he completed his electrical engineering apprenticeship. After experiencing Switzerland for a year of work, Freissle moved to South Africa to work as an electrical engineer on the railroad lines connecting major cities in the country.
While Freissle struggled with his English in South Africa, a fellow German, Helmut Rosenbusch, helped him communicate. A friendship developed between the two and led to Freissle’s introduction to the aggregate industry.
Rosenbusch worked as a woven wire master weaver for a South African company that manufactures wire cloth screen media for the aggregate industry.
Freissle, now introduced to screen media and the aggregate industry, decided to start a wire weaving company with Rosenbusch.
With Rosenbusch’s expertise and Freissle’s entrepreneurial spirit, the two created Screenex – a woven wire screen media company – inside a garage. The two worked after hours on a self-built weaving loom, fulfilling woven wire screen media orders for aggregate producers that larger wire cloth companies were reluctant to take.
Whereas larger companies preferred to take bulk orders, Screenex fulfilled orders for just one or two screens.
Freissle was involved in all aspects of wire screen manufacturing, from the initial order to delivery to installation. His heavy involvement around Screenex led him to question if there was a better way to approach screen media.
“My dad would hand deliver [the woven wire screens],” says Peter Friessle, Manfred’s son and the president of Polydeck. “When he would make the deliveries, he would cut his hands hauling these screens because they are heavy and cumbersome to handle. He said, ‘You know, if there was an easier way that you didn’t have to haul this big piece of metal around, that would be a gamechanger.’”
Ultimately, a call from a customer paved the way to Freissle’s solution.
The start of a revolution
According to Peter, a customer called Manfred saying he was using polyurethane, or synthetic, material on wear parts. Manfred saw the potential and thought: “How do we use this material in the screen media arena?”
“He thought to himself, ‘If I broke a tile, I wouldn’t have to change the entire floor; I would just have to change one tile,’” says Peter, explaining his father’s thought process. “‘If I could somehow take the polyurethane high wear material but do it in the form of a tile, you could take one tile out and put one tile back in.’”
Thus, the synthetic modular screen was born.
Manfred developed modular synthetic screen media, and each modular panel had “pins” that were used to hold each tile on the screen frame. The original model Manfred developed had 20 pins, but only four pins per square foot are used today.
Selling this innovative product was at first a challenge for Manfred.
“As with anything that is new, there is a resistance to change,” Peter says. “There was a big reluctance to even try the concept in the beginning. People would say, ‘You’re crazy, this is never going to work.’”
To convince aggregate producers in South Africa, Manfred gave several of these synthetic screens to producers for testing. It was slow to start, Peter says, but the product eventually built momentum with producers.
“It is not a little more expensive,” Peter says. “It was about 10 times more expensive, but it would last about20 times longer. That was the selling feature.”
The development of modular synthetic screen media led to less downtime, less cost of ownership for producers and to more than 40 worldwide patents for Manfred.
After receiving a U.S. patent on the screen media, Manfred made the move to Spartanburg, South Carolina, with Polydeck co-founder Dieter Egler. According to Peter, the Chamber of Commerce in Spartanburg offered incentives to establish Polydeck Screen Corp. in the city. The German community, German club and German beer festival were also helpful in the decision to move to Spartanburg.
“We wound up here in Spartanburg because of the German beer,” Peter jokes.
The legacy
To Peter, his father’s greatest career accomplishment is the globalization of modular screen media.
Outside of his work, Freissle is a family man anchored by charity and his strong faith. Even considering the globalization of his work, Manfred measures his success through his family and charity work.
“He left a broken Germany and [his family] thought he wouldn’t amount to anything,” Peter says. “There was this huge drive in him to succeed. One day his dream was to buy his mom a house to replace the one that was bombed. His goal was to be successful enough to buy his mother a house. That is what drove him.”
Manfred’s Catholic faith was also important to him. From age 8, Manfred went to church every day and lived near a Sisters of Mercy convent. Because Manfred came into some success in South Africa, he donates to a local Sisters of Mercy convent to show his support. He is still active in philanthropy events today.
These experiences were the root on which Polydeck lives out its vision statement: “To serve our customers and stakeholders with excellence, to achieve profitable growth which enables us to care for people in a way that honors God.”
Manfred, a father of five, devoted his life to his family. His faith and family are major driving forces behind his determination.
“He is an awesome dad and his hobby is his family,” Peter says.
Gene Fisher
In 1952, at the age of just 24 years old, Fisher established Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. and laid the foundation for what would become one of the largest sand and gravel producers in the United States.
“Dad finished up with his high school education and people said ‘you became very successful without a college education,’” says Tommy Fisher, Gene’s son and the current president of Fisher Industries. “He missed his high school picnic to screen gravel. Dad was always an entrepreneur.”
Gene, who died in 2013, realized that maintaining and repairing equipment was costly. Faced with a business challenge, he did what he was best at: solving problems.
“He saw problems very differently than the average person,” says Florian Friedt, vice president at Fisher Industries. “He didn’t look at them as ‘we have to deal with this,’ but rather as an opportunity. It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity. Problem solving was what he lived for, along with helping others.”
Industry innovator
In 1967, Gene launched General Steel & Supply Co., the equipment support arm to Fisher Sand & Gravel. This allowed him to be innovative when building custom and top-quality aggregate processing equipment.
“That was always Dad’s greatest move,” Tommy says of General Steel & Supply. “Crushing is an abusive sort of business. When you break rock, it’s hard on equipment. So when you have your own equipment and can build it a little more heavy duty, it makes you that much more successful.”
General Steel & Supply made it possible for Gene to design, fabricate, field-test, demonstrate, assemble and deliver custom equipment not just for Fisher Sand & Gravel, but also for aggregate companies throughout the industry.
“Dad always had a knack on the engineering side to draw designs for screens or how to set up crushers on napkins,” Tommy says.
The establishment of General Steel & Supply not only introduced Gene to new business opportunities, but to his wife, Sheila. Gene and Sheila married in 1969 when the company opened.
“They put everything on the line for the business and made it through,” Tommy says.
Water shortages in the region posed yet another challenge for Gene. Once again, he solved a problem.
Using his ingenuity and problem-solving skills, Gene curtailed water shortages by patenting his own classification system – the Fisher Air Separator. The signature piece of General Steel & Supply, the Fisher Air Separator helps to remove fine particulates from manufactured sand using air instead of water.
This development not only solved water shortages in the region, but it put Fisher Industries on the global map with equipment sales in 14 countries.
“The air separator is so important to us because, as road specifications changed, a lot of areas wanted cleaner material in their hot-mix,” Tommy says. “A lot of places don’t have adequate water that you can use to wash out finer particles. There were classifiers out there, but they didn’t work the way they should, so [Dad] and the staff invented the [Fisher] Air Separator and it’s been a godsend.
“It’s very portable, and it even works if your material has a bit of moisture in it – more than a regular classifier would work,” Tommy says. “It’s inspired us to come up with new ideas for patents.”
Remembering his roots
Even with an established, successful business, a signature product and a name known throughout the industry, Gene maintained his simplistic approach to his work while setting an example for those around him.
“He was relentless with his work ethic and he was very hands-on working right alongside you doing projects – it didn’t matter if it was shoveling, welding, bolting,” says Friedt, who started working at Fisher Industries in 1974. “He never asked you to do something he wouldn’t do himself.
“One day he said, ‘You guys overcomplicate it. We’re taking big rocks and making them little rocks.’ He was always teaching, and he would go into the details of how everything worked or why it didn’t work.”
Even as Fisher Industries expanded beyond domestic and international borders, Gene never forgot where he came from.
“Dad was very proud to be from North Dakota, especially Dickinson,” Tommy says. “He called Dickinson the Sun Belt of North Dakota. If it was minus 30 [degrees] in Grand Forks, it was only minus 10 [degrees] in Dickinson.”
As a kid, Tommy saw firsthand his father’s tireless work ethic and dedication to his business and the industry as a whole. Gene’s passion for his work wasn’t just what he did, but it encompassed who he was.
“Growing up, Dad was always working,” Tommy says. “A lot of people said he was a workaholic, but in the end it was his passion and he was a good dad and supported us. As a young kid, we always had Tonka trucks under the [Christmas] tree. We got to go out in the field with Dad and we ran real Tonka trucks – big loaders and big trucks. I really enjoyed sitting on his lap and running the dozer or loader or excavator and feeling that power.”
Lasting legacy
As Tommy grew up, he learned the business and worked closely with his father.
The two often attended equipment auctions as Gene taught Tommy the ropes of the aggregate industry.
“I got to know my Dad so much more when we became partners and worked together,” Tommy says. “I think the best memory I ever had is that Dad had faith in me at 25 years old to basically turn the company over. He said, ‘There are going to be things that you sink or swim [with], but I trust you, you’re smart and you have it.’”
Not only did Tommy get to know his father from the standpoint of a business partner, but he watched his father become a grandfather to his own kids.
“I really enjoyed him getting to become a grandfather with the kids; the grandkids really softened him up,” Tommy says. “Today, the third generation of this company has the chance to really make it. Before Dad passed, I said ‘you’re in great hands and have a few grandkids who are even smarter than I was at that age.’ What more can you ask for?”
Gene’s legacy lives on in the aggregate industry and through the foundation he laid at Fisher Industries.
“He lived a great life,” Tommy says. “Coming from nothing and building what he did, it was never about the money. It was always about the equipment, the quality, to be the best. He was the catalyst that started what we are today. I remember his last day and I told him, ‘you left no stone unturned or uncrushed.’ My hope is I end up the same way.”
Franklin E. Squires
February 2018 marked 61 years for Frank Squires in the aggregate industry.
Through it all, Squires has proven to be an innovator and a world-renowned expert in the field of washing and classifying technologies, earning five patents as a co-inventor of next-level control systems for single and multiple classifying tank systems.
Squires became a leading figure in the aggregate industry over a long, storied career. After graduating from Des Moines Technical High School in 1957, Squires started as a draftsman at Eagle Iron Works. He drew up washing equipment during his 16 years at the company before transitioning into more technical work.
Eventually, Squires moved into more of a sales role.
“I was very fortunate and lucky that I was a very young man in 1960,” Squires says. “It was an exciting time in road building and a lot of construction was going on.”
Squires took on a position fully dedicated to sales in 1971. He had the opportunity to engage with customers like Martin Marietta and Luck Stone. Squires traveled throughout the northeastern United States and Canada for several years before becoming sales manager at GreyStone in the early 1990s.
In 2014, Superior Industries acquired GreyStone. Squires currently serves as Superior’s aggregate specialist for its Washing & Classifying Division.
Throughout his career, Squires developed a reputation as a “go-to-guy” in an industry he describes as “full of incredible people.”
“These customers in the aggregate industry are some of the most loyal people,” Squires says. “The aggregate industry must be one of the best industries to be in. Our customers are fantastic to work with.”
When Squires works with his many customers, he brings experience and an innovative touch to every visit.
The early days
In the early 1960s, Squires and a colleague developed an automated system for classifying tanks for sand and gravel washing.
“Computers were coming around slowly into their use, so we came up with automation for classifying tanks for controlling sands,” Squires says.
The project is something Squires is still working on today.
The patents Squires earned were some of the first in washing technologies, as changes were being introduced into the aggregate field that required tighter specifications in highway, building and bridge construction.
Additionally, Squires helped to develop a dewatering screen. This was an addition to the dewatering screw and represented a solution to reduce water that reaches stockpiles.
“The dewatering screw was always in use for years,” Squires says. “With Superior, we were able to incorporate what was called a dewatering screen to the industry that was added to the dewatering screw itself.”
The advancement helped users reduce water levels at stockpiles from about 20 percent on average to about 10 percent moisture content.
These advancements were among the developments that led to Squires’ five patents. Earning a patent is quite the achievement, but it was never anything Squires set out to accomplish.
“You saw a problem and you wanted to make a piece of equipment that can fix that,” Squires says. “If you receive a patent on equipment, it is like receiving an honorary award. It was an honor to receive [a] patent, but mostly you’ve accomplished something for our customers – to provide them a better product.”
Overall, customer service is the component Squires enjoys most about the aggregate industry. Helping others and solving problems is the reputation the 61-year veteran has earned.
“When the customer tells us what’s going on and we find the answer and the customer calls back to tell us it worked wonderfully and says ‘thank you’ – that’s the thing I like most about the industry,” Squires says. “It is the customer thanking you for solving their problems.”
The customer level is not the only area Squires has impacted greatly. John Bennington, a colleague at Superior Industries, considers Squires to be a mentor.
“I learned the technical details from him and my experience,” Bennington says. “He pointed me in the right direction. He put me in the right situation so I could learn from other people in the industry who also knew a lot.”
Bennington also spoke about the invaluable lessons Squires taught him about problem solving and troubleshooting equipment in the field.
“He taught me who to ask the right questions to and what to be quiet about and observe,” Bennington says.
As his career winds down, Squires is proud of the time he’s spent in the aggregate industry.
“We have had our slow years and our great years in the aggregate industry, but each year has been exciting,” he says. “It has really been an enjoyable time for me in the industry, and it continues to be. Every day I learn something different.”
William J. Sandbrook
William J. “Bill” Sandbrook is vice chairman, president and CEO of U.S. Concrete, a publicly traded company with several aggregate operations.
Since arriving at U.S. Concrete in July 2011, Sandbrook has taken the company’s price per share from under $2 to around $83 (as of press time). This accomplishment is even more remarkable considering the company filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
Upon his arrival, Sandbrook realized U.S. Concrete suffered from a culture of centralized decision-making, thus stripping local management of both responsibility and accountability for results. In order to overcome that, it was imperative he listen to employees so he could provide them the tools they needed to thrive, as well as provide support for decentralized decision-making.
Sandbrook developed a personal connection with as many of his employees as possible, spending 80 percent on his time on the road his first year at U.S. Concrete, traveling the country to meet with employees at many of the company’s operations.
He re-instituted the principle of accountability, which has been a fundamental part of U.S. Concrete’s improvement efforts. Suddenly, the company’s employees were responsible for their own decisions again and were rewarded for their efforts.
In addition, Sandbrook’s remarkable turnaround effort at the company involved selling off low-margin businesses (precast concrete and concrete block), and refocusing the company on producing ready-mixed concrete in four core markets with high barriers to entry and population growth: New York City, San Francisco, Dallas and Washington, D.C.
Today, U.S. Concrete holds the top market position in the New York metropolitan area, a top two position in Dallas and a top three spot in Washington. Sandbrook used the proceeds from those dispositions to acquire a ready-mix business in San Francisco, which set the course for a turnaround, as it symbolized the company was ready to be a major player in the industry again, buying at a time when no one else was.
The company has made more than 20 acquisitions under his leadership, and his leadership qualities go beyond U.S. Concrete. He was named the Rockland County, New York, 2002 Business Leader of the Year; the Dominican College 2002 Man of the Year; and the American Red Cross 2003 Man of the Year for southern New York in recognition of his efforts at Ground Zero after the September 11th bombing of the World Trade Center.
Positive outlook
About his company, Sandbrook says, “Our market strategy continues to prove successful and has enabled us to achieve our 27th straight quarter of year-over-year revenue growth and 26th straight quarter of ready-mixed concrete pricing growth. We remain very optimistic for the future as the economic fundamentals across all of our markets continue to indicate a very positive outlook.”
Sandbrook adds, “We continue to remain active in the acquisition market with our recently announced acquisitions in northern California and Philadelphia and plans to acquire Polaris Materials. We are excited about our opportunities for growth both organically and through acquisitions. Our disciplined execution of our strategic-growth plan will allow us to capitalize on the solid fundamental growth metrics in our markets and further enhance shareholder value.”
In June 2008, Sandbrook was named CEO of Oldcastle’s Americas Products & Distribution with continued responsibility for architectural products, in addition to all precast, glass, metals and distribution businesses.
Sandbrook joined Tilcon New York as vice president in 1992 and became president and CEO three years later. In 1996, Tilcon was acquired by Oldcastle Materials.
Sandbrook was appointed president of Oldcastle Materials’ West Division in 2003. In July 2006, he was promoted to CEO of Oldcastle Architectural, responsible for the group’s U.S. and Canadian operations, as well as CRH’s businesses in South America.
Military life
Sandbrook is a 1979 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After receiving his bachelor of science in management, he spent 13 years in the U.S. Army.
His service included a four-year tour in Germany in cavalry and engineering units, three years as an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Military Academy and two years as the Army Program representative to Raytheon. While teaching at West Point, Sandbrook also served as a social aid to President Ronald Reagan and earned his professional engineer’s license in Industrial Engineering.
In addition to his work as an Army Ranger, Sandbrook earned four master’s degrees while in the service. He received an MBA from Wharton, a Master of Science in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master in Public Policy from the Naval War College, and Master of Arts in International Relations from Salve Regina University.
C. Howard “Ward” Nye
The leader of one of the largest aggregate-producing companies in North America, C. Howard “Ward” Nye has served in important roles in the industry, including his work with the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA).
Nye has been chairman of the board of Martin Marietta Materials Inc., the second-largest producer in the United States, since 2014. He has served as president since 2006 and as CEO and a director since 2010. He also worked as COO from 2006 to 2009.
Nye was appointed CEO of the company in January 2010 in the midst of the global economic downturn. Since that time, he has led Martin Marietta as the company carefully executed its strategic plan and delivered a strong performance for investors.
Of the company’s future, Nye says, “We remain confident in Martin Marietta’s long-term outlook, with the fundamental drivers for broad-based construction activity supporting a steady and extended, yet somewhat slower than anticipated, cyclical recovery across our geographic footprint.
Nye adds, “The United States is experiencing the third-longest construction recovery since the Great Depression, and we see this recovery continuing for the next several years. The building blocks to address the undeniable need for significant investment exist; however, we have yet to see meaningful growth in heavy construction activity, particularly in the public arena.”
Yet, Nye remains upbeat: “Looking ahead, our leading positions in many of the nation’s most attractive and otherwise vibrant markets should allow Martin Marietta to capitalize on the durable, multi-year construction recovery.”
Life before Martin Marietta
Prior to joining Martin Marietta in 2006, Nye served as executive vice president at Hanson Aggregates North America. He worked as president of Hanson Aggregates East from 2000 to 2003 with operating responsibility for more than 150 facilities in 12 states, and with annual revenue of more than $500 million.
He served as the vice president of business development for Hanson Building Materials America from 1997 to 2000. He began his career in the aggregate industry as general counsel for Hanson Aggregates East, with additional responsibility for environmental, safety and health.
From 1987 to 1993, Nye worked for the Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, firm Nye & Wolf P.A., a boutique construction and commercial litigation law firm with a practice primarily involving representation of owners, contractors, subcontractors, architects, engineers and suppliers in all aspects of the construction and construction materials process, including sophisticated land-use and development matters.
In 2006, global parent company Hanson was the world’s largest producer of aggregate. Nye’s role was in the North American segment of Hanson’s business, which was number three at the time in the United States, behind Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta.
Association work
Nye is a past chairman and current executive committee member of NSSGA.
At the time of Nye’s chairmanship, then NSSGA President and CEO Gus Edwards had this to say: “Ward Nye’s chairmanship comes at a critical time for the association and the aggregates industry. This year will be fraught with challenges, but if anyone has the wherewithal to convert them to opportunities, it’s Ward. His leadership will continue to advance the interests of NSSGA as the single, strong voice of the aggregates industry from coast to coast.”
In his address to the NSSGA board of directors, Nye said, “We must build new bridges to our constituencies in order to carry out the mission of the association to advance the interests of the aggregates industry before the federal government, to achieve a safer and more healthful workplace, and to support sustainable communities.”
He emphasized “building bridges” on policy issues with like-minded groups, coalitions, state associations and state governors in pressing for a new long-term highway bill and dismissing short-term extensions.
In addition to his educational, professional and executive roles, Nye has been a gubernatorial appointee to the North Carolina Mining Commission.
He also currently serves as vice chairman at-large of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and as a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business organization representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses.
Nye has further served on numerous other state, community and charitable organizations, including the Duke University Alumni Association Board, Wake Forest University School of Law Alumni Board, and as vice chairman of UNC Rex Healthcare’s board of trustees.
Nye also is an independent director of CREE Inc., a multinational manufacturer of semiconductor light-emitting diode materials and devices, where he is chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee.
Nye completed his undergraduate studies with honors at Duke University in 1984, and he received his law degree from Wake Forest University in 1987.
Nye and his wife Laura reside in Raleigh, North Carolina, and they have three children.