TACA Conveyor - Summer 2008 - (Page 9)

A career by default Beck grew up in southern Illinois just a few miles from the Kentucky State line and attended college in that state, earning an associate’s degree from Shawnee Community College. He never planned on a career in the concrete and aggregates industry. “I got into it by default. I worked for a power company, and they laid me off when they had a big cutback. I went out looking for a job, and ended up going to work as a driver for Federal Materials, a subsidiary of Harper Industries, in Paducah, Kentucky. I drove for a year or two, then they promoted me and put me behind a desk,” he says. Beck rose through the ranks at Federal Materials, serving as plant manager, production manager, general manager and company vice president before accepting the challenge of opening Frontier Materials in Spring, Texas. It wasn’t easy, Beck admits. “At ﬁrst, it was just me and one other guy. We arrived in January 1998 and we were operating by June. We actually had to tear down an old existing facility and put a new one up, which was a little more time consuming. But the biggest challenge was getting people in here. We came into this market in 1998, at a time when it was really busy. We even put a billboard out on Interstate 45 to bring people in.” Beck persevered and has since grown Frontier into one of the top ten ready-mix companies in the Houston market. He now heads two separate corporations: Frontier Materials, the concrete operation, and Frontier Aggregates, which is the mining operation. Together the companies employ 125 people at four locations. “One thing we’re trying to kick off right now is a pilot program in conjunction with TACA and the community college system,” he explains. Lone Star Community College will be running the pilot program, which consists of 10-hours-a-day, 17 days straight training that introduces students to the basics of concrete and to the skills and knowledge that they will need to get their CDL. The hope is to create a training curriculum that can be transplanted from one community college to another, Beck adds. “We’ve also applied for and are in the process of working with the Texas Workforce Commission for grants that will cover the cost of the training,” he says. “Another thing that we have going this year, which is a big accomplishment for TACA, is the setup of the Concrete Industry Management program, which is a curriculum to train management employees for the concrete industry,” Beck continues. “This curriculum was developed at Middle Tennessee State University back in the 1990s and is now being used at four or ﬁve other schools. The most recent one will be starting in Texas this fall, at Texas State University. Hopefully we’ll be producing graduates in four years.” Beck credits Bruce Ingram of Ingram Ready Mix for taking the initiative on this project. Increasing the awareness of TACA’s work As his year as chair winds down, Beck reﬂects on the high caliber of the TACA organization. “We have a lot of good things going on with TACA, good people who have come before me and gone up through the board to the chair’s level, and also good people coming after us,” he says. He credits the staff with much of the association’s success, noting that TACA received the Association of the Year award from the National Ready Mix Concrete Association this spring. To provide members with better insights into TACA’s activities, Beck has had asked TACA committees to post scorecards on the Members Only section of the association’s website. “They have listed goals, objectives and initiatives, so members can see what their association and its committees are accomplishing throughout the year,” he explains. Beck will also be leading a meeting later this year to look at TACA’s organizational processes. “We are revisiting our vision, mission and core values again, trying to set a course for TACA for the future,” he says. Beck is also looking to the future himself, and anticipating having a little more time for family when his term as TACA chair is complete. Nancy, his wife of 29 years, is an active volunteer in the community. The couple has three children: Kevin, a graduate of Texas A&M University who now works as a mechanical engineer for GE; Courtney, who attends Tomball College and is working towards a career as a veterinary assistant; and Mallory, who has graduated from Texas A&M and is studying at Duke Law School. But Beck doesn’t begrudge the hours and the energy he has devoted to association activities this year. “It has been rewarding to meet so many people across the state and to have some inﬂuence on how our industry moves forward,” he says. TACA Conveyor • Summer 2008 9 Working towards a safer industry Beck has made safety and education priorities in his company and at TACA. Frontier, for example, was one of the ﬁrst readymix concrete companies in the country to purchase a driving simulation system that helps truck operators learn to drive more safely. “It’s very similar to a ﬂight simulator, with a 180 degree wraparound screen and a full size cab. You sit in the cab, and see the road as it’s coming up,” says Beck. “As you’re driving it, you have all the typical sounds and sights you’d see out on the road—there are other cars, city streets, hazards like people running in front of the vehicle.” The system can also simulate weather conditions such as snow, rain, fog or ice, and emergency situations like a tire blowing or brakes failing. “The year after we started using the system, we saw our rate for on-the-road accidents go down 87 percent, from 15 accidents to two,” says Beck. Beck would like to see other companies achieve similar reductions, so Frontier is offering the use of its simulatortraining center for a nominal fee. “We’re big proponents of safety at Frontier, and we think that is something to share with everybody, not just your own company,” he says. Beck is also an advocate for additional training opportunities to meet the increased demand for drivers with CDL licenses.

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TACA Conveyor - Summer 2008 Contents The Final Frontier And The Winner Is... Diagnosis: The Leadership Death Spiral Aggregates Rock Accident Investigation Training TXI Roadeo NRMCA Promoter of the Year Harold Hubbard NRMCA Driver of the Year Finalist Fort Worth Freightliner Changes at Cherry Crushed Concrete Index of Advertisers

TACA Conveyor - Summer 2008

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