President Kevin Coan has been a part of the Pittsburgh Pipe family for years. After his first year as President, we wanted to learn more about his favorite projects, what he has learned, and where he sees Pittsburgh Pipe going in the future.
Describe your role at Pittsburgh Pipe:
As Pittsburgh Pipe’s President, I’m responsible for the overall operational control of our company. It is my responsibility to make sure that all departments of the company are working together for the purpose of providing our customers with the highest quality products and the most dependable customer service in the industries we serve.
What was your biggest accomplishment in your first year as President?
Every aspect of our business is vitally important to our success as a company and we’ve been successful in very many of our initiatives over the past year. Since we all work together as a team in pursuit of common goals, I’ll not claim individual ownership over any of our accomplishments, but I’d have to say that our team has done a tremendous job in marketing our superior quality, workmanship and customer service to our customers, new and old.
Our team has also done a great job in communicating our ability to problem solve for customers, coming up with innovative solutions to problems that help our customers save time and money on their jobs. Some of those brainstorming and problem solving sessions have resulted in the creation of new products and/or techniques that in the end help our customers to be more efficient and competitive.
What are you most excited about for 2017?
Regardless of one’s political leanings, I think everyone in our country recognizes the serious need we have for rebuilding, repairing and/or replacing our nation’s infrastructure. We consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to be involved in quite a few large infrastructure projects throughout the USA. Similarly, we certainly look forward to the leaders of our government fulfilling their promises to attend to the needs of our country’s infrastructure and we are positioned to do our part in helping to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. It is important work and we are proud of what we’ve been able to contribute so far and we are equally excited about what we will contribute in the future.
Pittsburgh Pipe is celebrating 40 years, what makes you proud to work for this company?
That’s an easy question. What makes me most proud to work for Pittsburgh Pipe are our people. From the men and women who make our products, all the way up through the ownership of the company, we’ve got one heck of a dedicated and responsible team! We have a tremendous wealth of institutional knowledge, built up over the past 4 decades in people who are proud of their craft and have become experts in their field. We have 5 team members with between 30 and 40 years with the company. About half of our employees have been Pittsburgh Pipe team members for more than 15 years and a large number of our team members have over 10 years of service.
Tenure is an important consideration everyone should mindful of when deciding with whom to do business. 40 years is a long time in the construction industry and we’ve seen lots of companies come and go over the years. You want to make sure that the company you choose to do business with will still be around if something comes up regarding your job in the future. I can’t count how many times a customer has come back to us looking for information on the pipe we provided on their project from months or even years past. The ability to obtain that information might not seem important at the time of the buy, but you can rest assured that those folks looking for pipe specs on a job that completed 5 years ago are more than happy that they made Pittsburgh Pipe their partner to do business with.
Over your time at Pittsburgh Pipe, what was your favorite project to supply pipe for and why?
Now that’s a tough question. It’s like asking which of your children is the most favorite. I’m proud of all the jobs we do. Whether it be a small job, or a multimillion dollar project, each gets the same level of professionalism and attention. However, if you’d like to read a bit more about what we are capable of, take a look at my LinkedIn page and read the profile I wrote about the Hudson Yards Project we provided all the vertical drilled shaft casing for in Manhattan, NY. You can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pittsburgh-pipe-helping-build-america-kevin-coan
At Pittsburgh Pipe, we are proud of the products that we have supplied our customers and we look forward to providing them with the right pipe right on time for many years to come!
