Pit & Quarry, February 2017

323 million purchase of Tilcon which at the time represented the companys largest acquisition The transaction provided Towe the opportunity to dive right into a major transition of an acquired company The largest challenge was the transition from a big acquisition and how the company blends into the system he says Oldcastles interest in local autonomy allowing acquired companies to retain their name and brand has always been a little bit of a different approach But the more Towe thought about that approach in his early years at Oldcastle the more he embraced the concept Aggregate companies are local businesses he says They have good reputations and if they didnt have a good reputation or good people then we wouldnt buy them to start with But that name means something Names represent heritages some of which stretch back a century or more And heritage Towe says is something to appreciate Still the integration of a smaller company into a larger one requires two companies to really understand one another Developing that understanding is essential to integration Towe says You have to be very sensitive to what an acquired company thinks he says but they also reap the benefits of having a big powerful financially backed company that can help an acquired company be better at what theyre doing From day one we tell the ownership we acquired that safety is the No 1 priority for us Also as part of a public company they will have to adhere to our accounting and IT systems At the same time the acquisition of a new aggregate producing company by Oldcastle means the acquisition of best practices that can benefit others Towe helped to share best approaches across Oldcastle companies through five best practices committees including those dedicated to aggregate asphalt equipment ready mix and safety The committees distributed key information across the company in an effective organized fashion You find out that some of the other companies may be more efficient than you were says Towe who became president of the Oldcastle Materials Group in 2000 and CEO in 2006 The idea is to sit down at the table and discuss whats working and what doesnt The committees afforded the chance to meet new people and tour operations you wouldnt otherwise have had the opportunity to see Leading the Oldcastle Materials Group to new heights in the mid 2000s Towe was promoted as chief executive of Oldcastle Inc and appointed to the CRH plc board of directors in 2008 He was named chairman of CRH Americas in 2016 It was a great opportunity for me to get involved in the international side of CRH which now has businesses in 31 countries and employs over 89000 people worldwide says Towe referring to his appointment to the CRH board LASTING LEGACY The years in which Towe served the Oldcastle Materials Group were also some of the years in which he made his greatest impact on the aggregate industry at large However Towes efforts to improve the overall industry through involvement in the National Stone Association NSA go back as far as his days at Vulcan and Meridian Bob Bartlett the former NSA president who joins Towe as a member of the Pit Quarry Hall of Fame this year first encouraged Towe to join the association board which Towe ultimately did Towe was involved in a number of NSA and later National Stone Sand Gravel Association projects over the years including the International Center of Aggregates Research based in Texas Industry peers say Towe was also instrumental in the discussions about merging NSA with the National Aggregates Association Towe even served as NSA chairman in 1998 after the transition at the association from Bartlett to Joy Wilson Pinniger That was a good year to be chairman in the sense that we had just gotten a sixyear highway bill that gave the industry stability Towe says We had a good future and a good transition with Joy I thought it was great to bring somebody in away from the industry Towes voice was particularly valuable during association transition periods In terms of the NSA NAA merger personalities sometimes clashed says Kim Snyder the former president of Eastern Industries Mark was key in helping ease any clashes between people If it wasnt for him God knows where that merger would have gone But perhaps even more valuable to the greater aggregate industry was Towes commitment to the Rocks Build America Foundation in 1998 He was the guy behind all of that says Paul Mellott Jr chairman at Mellott Company One of his legacies is the Smithsonian and he still raises money to continue to tweak it Feltes agrees Towes efforts on the Rocks Build America Foundation have served the industry well Our industry was lacking a message and Mark through the Smithsonian Institute was a broadcaster of an image that we didnt have before his efforts Feltes says Astoundingly Towe led the effort in 1998 to raise 5 million for the project and he raised the funds in only two or three weeks I was really proud that the industry supported the efforts of this project Towe says We had to get it done everybody understood that P Q 82 PIT QUARRY February 2017 pitandquarry com