NRMCA Holds 2021 Annual Convention Names Officers, Presents Awards for Outstanding Industry Service
Alexandria, VA – March 10, 2021
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association held its 2021 Annual Convention earlier this month, electing a new slate of officers for its 2021-2022 term of service and presenting a number of awards for outstanding industry service.
Succeeding John Carew as chairman of the Board of Directors is Abbott Lawrence from Martin Marietta, Lakewood, CO. Succeeding Mr. Lawrence as vice chairman is John Holliday of Holliday Rock Company, Upland, CA. Elected secretary/treasurer is Adam Manatt, Manatt’s Inc., Brooklyn, IA.
The convention, which was held virtually, featured an Awards Ceremony where NRMCA recognized individuals and companies for exemplary service to the ready mixed concrete industry. Please click here to access more background along with the history of each award for each of the winners listed below.
Robert A. Garbini Chairman’s Award – Ted Chandler is this year’s recipient of this award. He has been with Chandler Concrete Company for 35 years and has served on the NRMCA Board of Directors from 2004-2007 and again from 2009-2013. Mr. Chandler has also served on the Executive Committee from 2009-2012; was elected NRMCA secretary/treasurer in 2014, vice chairman in 2015 and chairman in 2016. He has been active in the NRMCA’s Safety, Environmental and Operations Committee, Workforce Development Committee and Government Affairs Committee. He is a past chairman of NRMCA’s Membership Committee and fervent supporter of CONCRETEPAC.
Mr. Chandler was also the chairman of the RMC Research & Education Foundation in 2020 and is a past president of the Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association.
Richard D. Gaynor Award – The NRMCA Research Engineering and Standards (RES) Committee recognized Terence C. Holland, a consulting engineer who has been involved in the concrete industry for more than 50 years. His expertise is in the areas of concrete materials, codes and specifications, concrete durability and concrete construction. Throughout his career, he has emphasized the practical side of concrete technology, always remembering that concrete is specified, made, placed and finished by people who are not materials scientists. He has degrees from West Point and the University of California – Berkeley and was an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers with service in Vietnam and Korea. Mr. Holland is a past president and an Honorary Member of ACI. He has been the chairman of the subcommittee on materials for the ACI 318 Building Code for more than 20 years.
Annual Safety Award – Shane Mayberry of Concrete Supply Company was the recipient of NRMCA’s 4th Annual Safety Award. He is the Statesville and Mooresville, NC, plant manager for Concrete Supply Company. During the past four years, Mr. Mayberry’s team has had no lost time accidents. This is a collection of 133,494 hours worked and 30,292 concrete loads hauled. In addition to NRMCA, Mr. Mayberry’s plants have been recognized for their outstanding safety records by the North Carolina Department of Labor and the Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association.
Joseph E. Carpenter Award – Eileen Dickson, NRMCA vice president of education, is this year’s recipient. Mrs. Dickson was recognized for her longtime support of OEM/OES/SEO Committee activities. She has been an integral part in every NRMCA Mixer Driver Championship since its inception in 2006; serves as staff liaison to the Workforce Development Committee, which includes oversight of issues, initiatives and third-party partnerships that impact industry employees. She manages the association training, professional development, certification programs, leadership programs, webinars, videos and their accompanying publications, the industry’s career-centric STEPS certification program, as well as legislative and regulatory issues pertaining to human resources and employment law. She also administers the annual Mixer Driver Recruitment & Retention Survey and the Innovation-in-Training award program.
Driver of the Year Award – Please note that a separate press release was issued earlier this year announcing the winners. The 2021 winner was William J. Youngers of VCNA United Materials. There were also three runners-up, Denise Barber, Ozinga-Ready Mix Indiana; Joseph Condello, U.S. Concrete/East Region, Eastern Concrete Materials and Mathew Burt, U.S. Concrete/West Region, Central Supply Co.
William B. Allen Award – The Financial Performance Improvement Group has named Pierre Villere of New Orleans as the 2021 William B. Allen Award recipient. Mr. Villere is president and senior managing partner of Allen-Villere Partners, an investment banking firm with a national practice in the construction materials industry. He has spent over four decades serving middle market companies in their mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and financing needs. Since 1996, he has focused his highly-specialized investment banking practice in the construction materials industry, specifically in ready mixed concrete, aggregates, concrete products and asphalt. As a member of NRMCA, he serves on the Manufacturers, Products & Services Division, and numerous other committees and task groups focused on benchmarking performance for the industry. He has made numerous presentations on various aspects of the construction materials industry to dozens of state and national trade associations and industry partners; he spent 15 years as a contributing editor at the Concrete Producer trade magazine, and now currently writes a monthly column for Concrete Products and Rock Products magazines where he discusses the business and financial issues facing the industry.
NRMCA Promoter of the Year – Pavements Award – The award this year goes to Jacob Gave, business development manager, Cemstone Products Company, Mendota Heights, MN. Mr. Gave has worked with Cemstone’s team of salespeople in promoting concrete and value-added products; served as a leader in adopting and implementing Cemstone’s Sales process; offered coaching and role playing for Cemstone Sales personnel when it comes to sales calls and given dozens of presentations to specifiers, contractors and owners on numerous concrete topics. As a result of his efforts, a Midwest-based national convenience store chain was considering concrete pavements for upward of 600 stores to be built in the North America in the next five years. Mr. Gave has also used his county engineering/consulting experience to build relationships with engineers and design firms that have led to discussion on concrete pavements and other concrete technologies.
NRMCA Promoter of the Year – Buildings Award – This year’s recipient is Lori Tiefenthaler, senior director of marketing for Lehigh Hanson. A longtime member of NRMCA’s Promotion Committee, Ms. Tiefenthaler has been dedicated to promoting concrete her entire professional life. She is member of NRMCA’s Sustainability Committee and Promotion Committee, among others. She has helped guide the association through her leadership as chairperson of the NRMCA Sustainability Committee in 2014-2016. Ms. Tiefenthaler has also helped shape NRMCA’s EPD Program by developing the Product Category Rule for Concrete and has steered many of Lehigh Hanson’s concrete and cement plants to publish plant-specific EPDs using the EPD program. Her efforts also include driving knowledge of market sustainability within Lehigh, by allowing NRMCA to discuss sustainability market trends and drivers to a cohort of sales, marketing and technical staff across the U.S.
State Affiliate Promoter of the Year Award – Brad Stevenson, executive director of the Utah Ready Mixed Concrete Association (URMCA), was honored this year. Mr. Stevenson had worked closely with the NRMCA promotion teams, along with supporting other NRMCA state affiliates to support the industry. He continues to fight against Tall Mass Timber (CLT), developing relationships with specifiers and decision makers that will ultimately lead to the use of more ready mixed concrete. He routinely meets with the state and local legislators and has hosted multiple Lunch & Learns utilizing the valuable talents of NRMCA experts to architectural, engineering and general contracting firms promoting concrete construction, proper jointing, concrete overlays and parking lots. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Stevenson has continued to lead the growth and expansion of URMCA.
Bruno Benna Advocacy Award – This year, Charlie Rohde, president of King’s Materials, Cedar Rapids, IA, was honored for his decades-long effort of advancing the industry by engaging in the political process. Charlie is a past president of the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association and Board member of NRMCA. Mr. Rohde has served on a number of boards, including those of the Entrepreneurial Development Center, Mercy Medical Center and the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.
State Association of the Year Award – The Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association was honored for a number of initiatives, including implementing a statewide Build With Strength campaign, incorporating social media, articles, blogs, video and a dedicated BWS Colorado landing page. CRMCA promoted the Build With Strength design center through ad campaigns that generated 46 leads for concrete buildings. CRMCA members have also taken positions on the Denver Metro Chamber’s Infrastructure Committee to cultivate business relationships and influence Denver’s building codes. Direct education has also been a fundamental part of its BWS program, with town halls, ICF training, participation in building trade shows and lunch and learn events, although they were limited this year with COVID safety priorities. CRMCA recorded an impressive record of paving promotion; when the Denver International Airport incurred cost limitations when planning to reconstruct asphalt pavement with full-depth concrete, a team of CRMCA, NRMCA and ACPA experts presented the more cost comparative option of a concrete overlay, resulting in 146,000 square yards of concrete pavement overlay and at least two new concrete overlay projects in surrounding states based on this project’s success.
Concrete Cares Award – Callanan Industries, a CRH Company, was selected for those NRMCA Producer members producing under 250,000 cubic yards. With the pandemic making many of the traditional elements of Callanan’s annual “Make a Difference Week” impossible, the company looked for ways for its employees to still help their communities. As a result, employees designed construction-themed worksheets for local kindergarten classes; wrote more than 100 thinking of you cards to residents of a local nursing home; cooked and served 140 to-go meals for people in need and helped to transform a local plot of land into a community garden.
Miles Sand & Gravel was chosen for companies producing more than 250,000 cubic yards. With the local economy being hard-hit by COVID shutdowns, Miles looked for a way to help and learned about the newly-formed EastWest Food Rescue Mission, which brings crops from eastern Washington that would otherwise be plowed under back to the western part of the state where they were badly needed. Miles repurposed two of its aggregate trucks to join the caravan east and those two trucks returned with 40 tons of potatoes to be bagged by volunteers and distributed to the local food banks to feed thousands in the greater Puget Sound community. A subsequent trip had trucks headed east loaded with supplies needed there – pinto beans, canned meats, baby formula and such, returning with yet more potatoes and onions.
Kids Art Contest – This year, NRMCA received more than 150 entries to its eighth NRMCA Kids Art Contest, sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau. Entries were judged against others in their grade category on originality, effort, creativity, composition and interpretation of the theme, Captain Concrete: My Essential Superhero!
Pre-K-K Winners:
1st: Brooke Bennetts, sponsored by Blake Bennetts, ACA Products
2nd: Lennon Soetaert, sponsored by Chris Soetaert, Geiger Ready Mix
3rd: Landry Smith, sponsored by Hix Smith, Smith’s Ready Mix, Inc.
1-3 Grade Winners:
1st: Tucker Lootens, sponsored by Daryn Bundtrock, GB Redi-Mix
2nd: Benjamin Marais, sponsored by Rene Marais, Aggregate Industries – LafargeHolcim, USA
3rd: Dominic Gutierrez, sponsored by Jose Gutierrez, Lyman-Richey Ready Mixed Concrete
4-6 Grade Winners:
1st: Beyona Bergan, sponsored by Bert Bergan, Capital Concrete, Inc.
2nd: Gabriella Sanchez, sponsored by Jose Estrada, Westside SJ – A U.S. Concrete Company
3rd: Aiden Thompson, sponsored by Art Thompson, North Dakota Concrete Council
7-12 Grade Winners:
1st: Carlie Wong, sponsored by Elisa Lai, CalPortland Company
2nd: Alexis Thompson, sponsored by Art Thompson, North Dakota Concrete Council
3rd: Brian Poon, sponsored by Tung Poon, Right Away Redy Mix – A U.S. Concrete Company
(Picture and graphic requests on any of the above entries should be directed to Frank Cavaliere.)