Summer 2004
|
|
Summer 2004 |
|
By Dale Long Call it insight, good fortune or just plain luck, but Mickey Hines has been at the forefront of revolutionary changes in the asphalt pavement road industry that are changing the landscape of transportation across the United States. As vice president of engineering for Koch Performance Roads,
Inc., Hines, a 1984 civil engineering alumnus, leads an engineering
team providing integrated pavement design for new and reconstruction
highway projects. These projects have helped open pathways for
economic development, Integrated pavement design is a relatively new strategy of roadway construction that’s beginning to sweep the country after achieving remarkable success in Europe. That’s where Hines learned about the concept while working as an exchange engineer at Elf Asphalt Inc.’s research center in Lyon, France (1992-93). Koch Materials Company bought the ideas, and Elf Asphalt, in 1993, bringing Hines back to the U.S. After gaining further experience in product development and management, Hines was named a KPRI vice president in 2001. KPRI is a project development, performance engineering and pavement design firm that approaches projects with a basic principle: to design and build roads, layer by layer for specific site conditions. The Wichita, Kan.-based company believes that its staff’s knowledge of materials, pavement and Koch-developed technology systems results in better performing pavements. “Our focus is on finding the best engineering solution for each particular road we design. That makes each road unique in its own special way,” Hines states. Unique to the design concept is the establishment of desired service levels and performance criteria. KPRI then backs its work with performance based rehabilitation and reconstruction services to ensure the completed road meets or exceeds those pre-determined requirements. The concept results in long-term performance and lowest life-cycle costs. “What the Europeans learned is that you want the designers to have a long-term perspective,” Hines said. “The better job we do up front is better for us and the client. That’s the ultimate win-win situation.” KPRI’s alternative delivery system moves construction ahead of the agency’s programmed date; provides faster construction due to proactive engineering-construction relationships; reduces costs by minimizing maintenance costs; and ensures higher performance through fiscal obligation, resulting in a shift of public agency risk to the private sector. “We’re on the cutting edge of change in the pavement industry, at least in the U.S.,” Hines states. “We have tried to be responsive to those state agencies that are trying to meet their transportation needs.” Hines has helped oversee projects in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Illinois, and Virginia with over 500 lane miles of pavement under warranty and performing at or beyond expected performance levels. The $314 million reconstruction and widening project involving 119 miles of U.S. Highway 550 (a NAFTA corridor highway) from Farmington, N.M., to Albuquerque, N.M., completed in 2001, featured a 20-year limited pavement rehabilitation and reconstruction contract. A unique Public-Private Transportation Act project will soon
complete a new, four-lane highway of Virginia Route 288 around
Richmond, Va. The $236 million project extends 17.5 miles with 38
bridges and 10 interchanges. KPRI provided pavement design, quality
assurance/quality control, Future endeavors include proposed improvements to all 325 miles of Interstate 81 through Virginia, a $7.9 billion project. Truck traffic sometimes exceeds 40 percent of the number of vehicles on the road -– more than double what the road was designed to handle. “I have been lucky enough to work long enough to know how to implement this system in the U.S.,” Hines said. “We’re not done learning by any means. You continue to learn where you can be aggressive in your design, where you have to be more careful and when you can help the contractor complete the project to everyone’s satisfaction.” Joe Kunkel Advances "No Hassle" Approach For Carmax By David Piker Joe Kunkel tried to get kids to eat healthy snacks. Now, he's trying to change the image of used car dealers. This is a guy who likes a challenge. Kunkel is in charge of marketing and strategic planning for CarMax, a Fortune 500 company that is trying to persuade consumers that there is a new, no-hassle way to buy a used car. As the company's senior vice president, Kunkel is part of a business story that he believes will be “the biggest retailing success in the next 10 years.” CarMax, based in Richmond, Va., recorded $4.5 billion in sales in 2003. His career started on a traditional path when Kunkel worked for two years in the General Electric manufacturing management program at plants in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Louisville, Ky. “I started to drift away from engineering,” Kunkel says about his job duties. “First it was a move to manufacturing, then I started to learn more about the business side of the company.” Kunkel left GE to earn an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1987, and was recruited by McKinsey, a worldwide management consulting company. During a seven-year stint with McKinsey, he developed a strong interest in creating his own business. “I consulted with dozens of companies and learned how business really works,” the 1984 Rose-Hulman electrical engineering graduate recalled. As parents of two small children, Kunkel and his wife, Nancy, were frustrated with a lack of ready-to-eat snack food that was nutritious for kids. After talking to other parents, the Kunkels decided they had an idea for a new product. “I did a lot of consulting work for companies in the packaged food industry,” Kunkel noted. “And, we wanted to start a business that we would feel good about.” Kunkel left McKinsey, and Wholesome Kidfoods was started in 1995. The healthy snack food was soon available in 450 supermarkets in the Chicago area, and parts of Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. The product sold well. Sales were so good that national food companies took notice. “Within a year, we went from having two, national competitors to nearly 15. Healthy snacks for children became one of the hottest food products,” Kunkel explained. Unable to compete financially with the national brands for space on major grocery shelves, Wholesome Kidfoods ceased production after less than 18 months.
The next opportunity for Kunkel would still satisfy his taste for being an entrepreneur. An executive recruiter for CarMax was searching for candidates who had worked for a major consulting firm, and had been an entrepreneur who knew how tough it was to compete with a new product against national brands. He found the right person in Kunkel. “I really liked being a consultant because of the constant challenge. The same was true in starting and managing our own business. At CarMax, I was faced with the challenge of a company with an entrepreneurial environment that was struggling and was trying to be reborn,” Kunkel said. “It's been an exciting and rewarding time because the business has improved and really taken off.” Kunkel is also challenged to change the negative image of the used car salesman. “CarMax is the white knight in an industry that needs an improved image,” Kunkel says in describing the 10-year-old national company. As head of strategic planning, Kunkel manages activities that include analyzing economic factors impacting the used car business, studying what markets to enter, how to improve the sales process and measuring customer satisfaction. Marketing is aimed at explaining how the CarMax concept of selling used cars differs from what most consumers perceive it to be. The concept is designed to be an easy, no-haggle pricing, guaranteed quality and a large selection of cars. Redefining an industry's image is a difficult goal. But then, Joe Kunkel likes challenges. Gregg Lowe Manages $1.5 Billion Texas Instruments Business Unit By Bryan Taylor Gregg Lowe expects more. While that may sound like some catchy marketing slogan, it is the operational philosophy for Lowe in his career as senior vice president of Texas Instruments’ high-performance analog business unit. A 1984 electrical engineering graduate, Lowe manages a $1.5 billion business that includes 1,700 employees, with 1,100 of them in engineering and design positions. The business sells 15,000 parts to 32,000 customers. “Our products go into every imaginable end-equipment that exists – MP3 players, fiber optic transmitters, wireless base stations and even a rover on Mars,” Lowe explained. “Basically anything that has an electron in it probably needs one of our parts.” The bottom line demonstrates the depth of Lowe’s business unit. Its total sales make up an 18-percent chunk of Texas Instruments’ overall $8 billion business. His business unit has offices and design centers throughout the United States and world, including Europe, Tokyo, India, Dallas, Tucson, Chicago, and New Hampshire. Such global emphasis translates into extensive travel for Lowe, who will have crossed the 5-million-mile mark with American Airlines this year. On average, he visits customers three days a week, and he travels internationally about once a month. While customer contact and technical knowledge are important, Lowe says the most significant part of his job focuses on raising expectations of his business unit colleagues. “As a manager, if you can get people to raise their expectations of what they can get out of themselves, they deliver,” Lowe stated. “And they’ll deliver results that are higher than they could have delivered without raising those expectations. “So that’s the biggest challenge in my career. It’s not that the people are lazy; it’s just that the human tendency is to achieve a certain level and get satisfied with it. That’s a big danger in business because you constantly have new competitors and new technologies.” Raised expectations bring a reward that goes beyond the bottom line for Lowe. “It’s a fun business because you get to see a lot of innovative products that are changing the world,” Lowe noted. “We sell products that go into hearing aids, vision-improvement devices and glucometers to help diabetics. The exciting thing about our business is that we can make a difference, not just in the business, but in the lives of people, and technology enables that process.” Lowe makes a difference outside the environs of TI as well. He recently provided funding to start a pre-engineering program at his high school alma mater, St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. Not only did he provide funding, but he assisted with developing the curriculum that includes “hands-on, designing things and building things. It’s not so much theoretical as much as it is practical.” “The program provides a focused approach that helps kids see what it’s like to be an engineer,” Lowe said. “They just think it’s a lot of hard work and people with pens in their pockets. These kids don’t have to become engineers, but the pre-engineering program helps give them a more focused approach to their education that will be useful in any field.” When Lowe graduated from St. Edward’s, he had “a simple spec” for his college education: “I wanted to be an engineer and I wanted to play football.” On the recommendation of a high-school counselor, he chose Rose-Hulman, where he provides scholarship support today. “I think the impact from Rose was strong fundamentals and the work ethic they instill in you.”
Lowe admits moving through the TI ranks was not part of some plan: “Most of the promotions I’ve ever received took me by surprise.” While no plan was in place, his career achievement definitely had its roots in raised expectations. William Martini Puts People First As Director of Engineering for Xetron By Kevin Lanke As the director of engineering for the Xetron Corporation, Bill Martini works daily with innovative and cutting-edge technologies. The Cincinnati-based corporation focuses on communication systems and information technologies. Despite the technical nature of his profession, Martini realizes that quality people are necessary to make quality products. This focus has helped Xetron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, become an industry leader in its field. “My job is to help people, and I believe in facilitating issues as a leader. I work to provide strategic direction for the organization, sort through general staffing issues, interface with other parts of Northrop Grumman to solidify our technologies, and focus on executing development programs,” said Martini. Martini earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1984, and was hired by Westinghouse. Eventually, Martini moved into an engineering management role for Westinghouse. After the company sold its electronic systems group to Northrop Grumman, he transferred to Xetron for a more entrepreneurial opportunity. Martini began his Xetron experience in program management and new business development, before taking on his current role as director of engineering. Today, Martini works with various external constituencies to allow the innovative company to prosper. In addition to promoting existing ideas of a highly proprietary nature, he works with fellow engineers on new project ideas and designs. The background for Martini’s people-oriented approach to engineering began at Rose-Hulman. He remembers life as an undergraduate student, especially his microprocessor course with Keith Hoover that resulted in building a computer with an “ultra-fast” 8088 processor. He fondly recalls playing intramurals and grading papers for then electrical engineering department chairman Buck Brown. After 20 years working with innovative and cutting-edge technologies, his Rose-Hulman pride has helped form a pipeline of graduates heading to the Cincinnati-based company. Twenty-one of the 162 engineers employed at Xetron are Rose-Hulman graduates, including 15 graduates who have been hired since 1999. Also, two Rose-Hulman students are interning at Xetron this summer. Martini helped spearhead a philosophical change at Xetron toward hiring college graduates in 1999. The results have been successful for everyone involved. “I’m extremely pleased with the quality of Rose-Hulman’s students. They have a tremendous work ethic and are very well rounded,” Martini said. Martini saw immediate benefits to his Rose-Hulman education. “I was fortunate to be hired in the same Westinghouse Electronics department as classmate Tom Neufelder. We benefited from more hands-on experience than other recent graduates. They were talented, but we were lucky to have the resources for a better undergraduate experience,” said Martini. In addition to his Rose-Hulman background, Martini earned an MBA from Loyola University of Maryland in 1991 and received a Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 1999. His heart remains with Rose-Hulman, however. “It’s a great honor to receive a Career Achievement Award from an institution that means so much to me. A lot of my classmates have done very well in their positions. I am fortunate to be a graduate who has been really happy with my career,” said Martini. Bill and his wife Cathy, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, live in Cincinnati with their children Kristy (8), Mike (7) and Nicky (4). He credits the family for much of his success. “There is no such thing as a 40-hour week, but I try to reserve as much time as possible on weekends for the family. They are so supportive in everything that I do,” said Martini. As for the Rose-Hulman pipeline, Martini believes that the road will continue due to the quality of the college’s educational programs. “Every Rose-Hulman engineer that we’ve hired has been excellent for us. At Xetron, we’ve been getting some of the top graduates for the last five years. We hope that trend continues for many more.”
|
