Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Impact podcast brought to you by PGTI University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherri Connor and I am your host.
Well, good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and we are doing a series called introducing Mitre. And today on the phone, we have Eric Rothermol. Welcome.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Thank you, Sherry. It's great to be here.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah, we just didn't want to wait until you had a chance to come back to Venice, so we thought we would grab a conversation remotely. So, Eric, you are the chief human resource officer for mitrebrands, so your role and responsibilities doubled just a few months ago.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it has. It's been a lot of fun here as we've been kind of getting to know folks across the organization and I guess really just trying to kind of lay out our plan as far as next steps, but, yeah, it's been pretty exciting.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: I'll bet. So tell us a little bit about you. This is really the point of what we are doing is just to kind of shed some light on who are the people at the helm these days. So tell us a little bit about your career, your history, your education, your family, whatever you want to talk about.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. So, first of all, I live very close to some of our central Pennsylvania facilities. In fact, just outside of the town of Graz, where we have large manufacturing, also our operations support facility. So very close by, a very small town and, you know, great community.
I live there with my wife Kim, of 23 years, I believe. And things are kind of interesting in my household. I have two daughters. Sarah is our oldest. She is a college freshman. So it's been an interesting experience that she's gone out to college. So excited about that. And then my youngest daughter, Kate is a sophomore in high school, and so she's in the process of learning how to drive. So no dull moment in the Rothamill household.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: No, those are exciting days for sure.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: As far as, I guess, my career with Mitre Brands, I started in 2006. So a little over 18 years with Mitre brands. At that time, it was mi, windows and doors back in zero six. And I have the great privilege to lead the human resource and environmental, health and safety teams. That's my responsibility. I took over my current role of chief human resource officer in 2013, so I'm doing that for a little over ten years. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, and I'm obviously partial spending a good part of my professional career here with Mitre brands, but we got something special going on and it's been a lot of fun to see it grow and be a part of it.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Nice. Your current role and responsibilities include still over the safety and all the human resource areas.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: That's correct, yes.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: And I know safety is a big, big thing with Mitre and it was with PGT innovations as well. And so tell us a little bit about that.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe I'll share a little bit of perspective. I guess when we were doing kind of the welcome tour post close, I had the opportunity to participate in some of those meetings with some of the other senior leaders. And so we got out and got to see some of the sites and very quickly you could tell that there was a strong commitment to safety and just really the overall team member experience. And I think we have, as I'm sure you're aware, Sheri, our guiding principles and kind of safety is the cornerstone of that. And really, if you don't have a good, safe work environment, it's really difficult to do a lot of other things well. And seeing how the PGTI facilities took safety seriously and knowing what we've tried to build upon here at Mitre brands with some of the programs we're doing with the OSHA's voluntary protection program, BPP for short, you know, is really going out there and trying to seek to be better than what the standard is or what the rule is, so to speak. It was very easy to tell that the PGTI team is going to fall right into that. So excited about that.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: And so what is the thing that you're most excited about in working with the conglomeration that is now Mitre brands?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: You know, it's, I mean, obviously PTTI has had a rich history and run a highly successful business, but the thing that excites me the most is the passion that the team has, the way in which PTT is valued, the team member experience and the collaborative work environment, you know, dovetails very closely with how Mitre approaches things. There's so much passion from how we manufacture our products to how we service our customers and even give it back to the community. So that's what I'm really excited about. It probably is a bit cliche, I think when most businesses try to acquire and integrate other companies, you talk about culture and wanting to make sure that that's in a great place and doing that purposefully. And I think certainly we need to do all those things. But gosh, we're working from such a great starting point here because these two businesses are very closely aligned and it's going to be a lot of fun to kind of go forward with that?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree. There's not a big cultural difference from what I'm seeing and hearing and experiencing. It's felt pretty seamless here. We still have some familiar faces and now some new faces, and so bigger and better and continuing to move forward. So how's everything going? I mean, you've got HR systems, you've got payroll systems, you've got benefits. You've got just a lot of different components in the HR umbrella. How is all that going?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great question. Certainly a lot of effort and focus trying to not just to bring things together, but really do so in a way that creates an environment where the team member is either at a equal space or a better space, and just trying to do that in a way that is not creating a lot of unneeded angst and concerns. So we've been working really hard on that. I think it's going really well from the standpoint that we're getting some things aligned here, and the teams are working really well together. And, you know, we're in a pretty good spot here, I think, as we wind down the year, to have a lot of integration work that we've been doing behind the scenes kind of implemented. So looking forward to getting those initiatives complete and really making sure that the team is looking at this as a positive situation. So.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I know it is a little bit different going from a publicly held company to a privately held company. There's not as much visibility in terms of benefits and some of the perks that we're used to having. And so I know we're all like, okay, what's it gonna be? How are we doing this? And so I know folks are feeling very good. At least the folks I interact with are all feeling very positive about what lies ahead. But there's some curiosity, for sure, like, what's the benefit package gonna be, and what's that gonna look like? Is PTO the same? You know, so we're all waiting to hear how that's gonna go, but, you know, I feel confident. So far, I've had the privilege of talking with a lot of the senior leaders, and everybody seems to be very focused on team member well being and making sure that we're taken care of. And so I have a lot of faith that it's gonna all go well.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: I appreciate the vote of confidence, and I feel that way as well. And I think some of this information will be coming out shortly here, so I'll be interested in your feedback as we roll it out. But I think there's good things on the horizon here as well.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we all hope for that. Right? And so the last little bit is something I ask everybody when I'm doing an interview, introduction, episode, and that is around the topic of advice. And so can you share what a favorite piece of advice that you've received is?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. I've gotten a lot of advice over the years, and I don't know, probably one that sticks with me the most is I can't even recall who told me this, but this is certainly something that has stuck with me over the years. So people won't remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. And so that's something that I found to be very true personally and also something that, a standard that I try to hold myself to as I'm interacting with other people. So I just think it's important that not only are you treating people the right way, but, you know, having them leave, you know, an encounter or an experience or whatever the case may be, feeling that they were valued in a good spot.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: So that's definitely an important thing in HR space.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah, no doubt. I think generally in life, too. So if you can do that, a lot of other things become easier.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think that was Maya Angelou who said that. Is there anything else you'd like to share today?
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't believe so. I just thank Sherry for the opportunity. Sorry I was one of the latter or maybe more difficult folks to get in contact with, but I appreciate you taking the time and. Yeah, thank you.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, thanks. And I look forward to meeting you face to face. The next time you're in Venice, you'll have to pop down and we can shake hands and you can even peek in the studio if you like. I have a brand new studio. They just built it about three weeks ago, so it's exciting around here as well.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: No, it's great. I've heard about it. Consider the date. I will make sure the next trip I get down there, I'll come look you up.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be great. I look forward to that. And I really appreciate your time today. Eric, thank you so much for taking good care of us and the team members, and I appreciate your time today.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: All right, thank you.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: All right, take care. You too.
The Clear Impact podcast is brought to you by PGTI University. We are a part of Mitre Brands, a family of leading window and door brands united by our passion for quality and relentless pursuit of 100%. One of the missions of Mitre brands is to unite and deliver the finest customer experience possible across the nation. Our window and door brands deliver regionalized expertise and products backed by a national company. PGTI University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
