EJ Burke admittedly started in aggregates with zero knowledge about the industry.
His entrance was not a planned one, but it nonetheless led to a fruitful and ongoing 54-year career in explosives, coal, metal and, of course, aggregates.
Burke’s father died suddenly while he was in college, leaving him to take care of his widowed mother. Shortly before that life-altering event, Burke passed an OCS (Officer Candidate School) exam for the Marines and planned to train in Quantico, Virginia. Given the circumstances, however, Burke knew he needed a job right away.
In 1968, Burke applied for a job that ultimately changed his life. He interviewed with DuPont for a technical sales trainee position and, when asked why he wanted the job, answered bluntly.
“I said: ‘Because you can pay me big bucks and I need it,’” Burke says.
That honesty paid off, and Burke’s career was off and running from there.
“I never would have worked at DuPont if I hadn’t lost my father,” he says. “I had to take care of my mother. It’s a miracle I was hired by DuPont. They were hiring chemical engineers [and] Ph.D. scientists. They weren’t hiring guys with a political science degree.”
Twenty-eight years at DuPont left a lasting impression on Burke.
“So much of my personal and professional success in life, I trace back to DuPont,” he says. “The way I was trained, the people I worked with [and] for – it was a privilege.”
Dedicated to DuPont
Although acclimating to a new industry was a challenge, Burke had role models who guided him in his early years.
“I picked up very quickly that there were wonderful people in the industry,” he says. “I watched them, I saw how they handle their business, how professional they were and they were role models for me.”
Ward Nye, now chairman and CEO of Martin Marietta, is one of those role models. The two friends have a tremendous level of respect for one another.
“EJ Burke is iconic in the world of mining and explosives,” Nye says. “The aggregates business is blessed that he chose explosives. EJ effortlessly models what it means to work safely, how to treat customers, colleagues and others; and how to prioritize competing and complex aspects of life and work.”
After training in Georgia, Burke took his first official DuPont assignment in Texas. Living in San Antonio, he covered an area ranging from El Paso to Houston.
A 22-year old Burke loved every minute of it.
“It was a territory designed for a bachelor, which I was at the time,” he says. “I would plan my trips to be gone for two weeks. I was with customers, golfing with them, having dinner with their families and it was a great, great experience.”
During his first four years there, Burke learned about the stone business, pipeline work, infrastructure construction and seismic exploration for gas and oil.
“I was blessed to really see so much of the industry there,” Burke says.
His next assignment kept him in the Lone Star State but shifted him to Dallas. There, he was responsible for DuPont’s construction business in the company’s Southwest headquarters.
It was during this stretch that Burke met his wife Barbara. They married in 1974.
“I would become immersed in my job, whatever it was,” Burke says. “Barbara would always find a home, build the relationships, find the church, school, doctors. We’ve been married for 47 years, 48 in November, and none of this would be possible without Barbara.”
Shortly after getting married, Burke was transferred to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he served DuPont as a financial analyst. He also worked with explosives product managers.
“They all had MBAs and a lot of great research background, but they really didn’t know the customer,” Burke says. “They brought me in to represent the customer to the business, and I learned a little bit of finance along the way.”
Burke’s DuPont career continued internationally across Central and Latin America, Australia and Canada.
For the better part of 19 years, he held positions in management, marketing and human resources. His international career began in the Caribbean and South America, including Venezuela and Guyana.
“Back in the late 70s, Venezuela was blessed with a lot of petrol dollars,” Burke says. “They were a rich economy and, to their credit, they were trying to build hydroelectric projects to come into the 20th century. A lot of explosives were consumed there.”
From there, Burke moved to Sydney to oversee marketing in DuPont’s Australasia region. Due to Australia’s population at the time, Burke says coal mining and iron ore were larger economic drivers than quarries.
While the Burkes lived in Sydney, DuPont purchased Conoco for $7.2 billion.
“We got a telex that said to stop all capital expenditures because of this acquisition,” Burke says. “Growth slowed down an awful lot.”
Burke returned to the U.S., taking an HR job with the company and remaining there until the DuPont explosives businesses were sold to Canadian Investment Capital in Toronto in 1987. He followed the company up north for another eight years.
With each stop he made, Burke embraced the culture and atmosphere of his homes.
“You need to remember that you’re a guest in somebody else’s home,” he says. “In Australia, the first thing I did was sit in front of a television set and learned cricket, Australian rules football and rugby. Nobody in Australia wants to hear about the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys.
“In Guyana, it’s 50/50 minerals and agriculture,” Burke adds. “Most people, when they dealt with Guyana mining, which is a very large bauxite mine, would stay in Georgetown, Guyana. They’d go up to the mine and go back at night. I didn’t do that. I went up and stayed at the mine and drank beer with those guys. They respected me for that because I was trying to be a part of their company and their society.”
Caring for customers
Jim Hurley, president of White Rock Quarries in Florida and one of Burke’s longtime friends, describes Burke as the ultimate salesperson and a constant leader who knows how to build relationships.
Hurley first met Burke over a business lunch nearly 37 years ago. Their friendship started there and has blossomed ever since.
“If you went to the dictionary and looked up ‘class,’ you’d see EJ’s face there,” Hurley says. “He is a first-class individual. You go through life and you have a lot of acquaintances but, at the end of the day, you don’t meet a lot of people like EJ.”
Burke’s emphasis on people and customers drew the attention of Dyno Nobel. He joined the explosives manufacturer in 1996 to put together a team of industry managers looking after metal construction, seismic quarries and coal mining.
In the 24 years he spent with Dyno Nobel, Burke more than left his mark.
“EJ, with his unique level of passion commitment and energy, [was] instrumental in refocusing the company’s efforts back on our customers,” says Braden Lusk, president of Dyno Nobel Americas. “The customer relationships that EJ has established and strengthened over a long period of time will endure as part of his legacy.”
Lusk praises Burke for other contributions, including the establishment of quarry and mining academies and the Major Customer Health & Safety Forum.
Current Dyno Nobel employees Kelly Arnold and Ed Gallagher say Burke’s door was always open.
“EJ is just a fantastic human being,” Gallagher says. “He genuinely cares about people. EJ had time for anybody in the company that needed to talk or had questions. He made time. It could have been the janitor, and EJ would make time for them.”
Arnold shares Lusk’s view in terms of how Burke approaches customers. Both vividly recall one unique phrase Burke is famous for.
“When he would start a meeting, it didn’t matter where the meeting was, he would play a little musical theme and say: ‘In the beginning, there was the customer,’” Arnold says. “EJ approached life with both humor and humility. It didn’t matter what role. Even as a senior vice president of the company, EJ would always represent himself as having a staff position in the business, supporting those who support the customer.”
Looking back on Burke’s time at DuPont and Dyno Nobel, Hurley says Burke’s representation of the industry is a large part of his legacy.
“He was proud of that trade name that he represented and he was proud of what they could provide,” Hurley says. “Most importantly, he knew how to make the connection.
“He’s the kind of guy that you develop a trust with,” Hurley adds. “If he tells me the sky is black, I don’t look up.”
Back in the game
Burke retired from Dyno Nobel in 2020. That retirement lasted all of 11 days.
“My phone rings and it’s John Hale who owns Quick Supply Co.,” Burke says. “I knew John’s father, who was with DuPont when I started. He called me and asked if I would consider coming to work for Quick Supply. I said: ‘John, I’ve been retired 11 days and I’ve got some trips planned. Let me talk to Barbara and I’ll get back to you.’”
Burke joined Quick Supply in April 2021 as general manager for national accounts – and he’s been there since.
While Burke isn’t yet eyeing a second retirement, he says he wouldn’t change a thing as he looks back on more than 50 years in the industry.
“With the way it turned out, how can you be disappointed,” he says. “I don’t have any regrets. I’ve always believed that God answers our prayers or he does something better for us. Just do your best and everything will work out. I look back now with my father dying and that watershed event. That put me on a direction that never changed.”
P&Q interviewed Burke in 2018 to hear about his career, the aggregate industry’s evolution and how blasting has changed over the years. Read the Q&A here.