Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/1059224
44 | AD Today 2018 | OWN IT I n sigh t s f r o m N ex t- G en er a tio n O w n er s Continued from page 43 Matt Stratiner CEO Puget Sound Pipe & Supply and learning how to each tackle different aspects of the company so that we weren't all involved in everything was a difficult thing for most of us to grasp at first," he admitted. For Rob LaRue, President & CEO of Minneapolis, MN-based Baldwin Supply Company, a nearly 100-year-old distributor, transition into a leadership role at his third-generation company became a natural extension of his career. "I took on the leadership responsibility two years ago after serving in a variety of roles at Baldwin Supply since 2010 and am currently the President & COO as well as an owner (with my Dad)," LaRue shared. "I have memories of being at Baldwin Supply for as long as I can remember and always felt that I'd get involved with the company in some capacity, but I was driven to go out and experience other things, network with other businesspeople, and have my own successes, and my mom was a strong advocate of that too," said LaRue, who spent his first 10 years after college in the real estate sales and development field. "The succession planning discussion didn't really start taking place until after I'd been with Baldwin Supply for a few years and I was starting to make an impact on the business as a leader within the company." Such was also the case at Waco, TX-based second-generation firm Richards Supply, where current President Eric Wessinger grew up working at the counter and in the warehouse through high school but then pursued a job at another company in Arizona after securing his MBA. Asked by his father to return and help after Richards Supply acquired another Rob LaRue President & COO Baldwin Supply Company Continued on page 47 company in 2009, "I came back and, after I'd been with Richards Supply for a few years, knew that I loved the business and was ready to move the company forward so we started discussing and documenting our long-term plan," said Wessinger, who ultimately took over in 2015. At Elkhart, IN-based NIBCO, Inc., founded in 1904 by her great- great-grandfather, Sr. Vice President – Sales Ashley Martin confirmed that plans to transition leadership to her and her sibling were in the works for as long as they can remember. "My father Rex has been working on passing NIBCO down to the next generation since my sister and I were born and now it's a constant topic of conversation," she said of the 114-year-old business, which became a partial ESOP in 2005 and allows NIBCO associates the opportunity to buy NIBCO stock after one year with the company. Eric Wessinger President Richards Supply Company