Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and today we are chatting with one of my favorites, Dean Roark. Welcome.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Thank you so much. So excited to be back here.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I know. So we've had several conversations. We didn't keep a lot of them because they were outdated. And so we're going to kind of start from scratch a little bit. So, Dean, before we get into what you're currently up to, which is not a small topic, tell us a little bit about your tenure here, your history, you, you know, previous roles, et cetera.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So I had the fortune of spending most of my career here at PGT. I've been with the company about 18 years. I've had various roles mainly in engineering, testing and certification. I've had the opportunities to lead other areas, you know, even within material handling and some of those other things. But most of my time on engineering, product development, innovation and all things Florida.
[00:01:17] Speaker C: And what is your background educationally?
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Background educationally. I'm a structural engineer and a Florida professional engineer. And so I did that undergrad and then I went to University of Florida for my master's MBA there.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: So you are an engineer through and through.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Engineer through and through. And a business guy. Through and through.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: And personable, which is not always the case for engineers.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, personable. Be relatable to all of the functions within the company.
Really love getting engaged and working with all different departments, technical, non technical. Really learning to speak their language and learn what they do on the day to day and how I can support driving to the success of MITRE and love engaging with customers. Some of the best times are being out with customers and really learning what they do day to day to help support their success as well and deliver value to them.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and that's a big part of the success too, especially in the ILAB space, which you've been overseeing for quite some time, is when you have a new product, you have to have a test place and you have to have that feedback and you have to be personable enough to have those interactions. I think sometimes engineers get a bad rap as being so studious and focused on the problem that they lose the people side. And I think because you're so approachable, people feel comfortable saying this isn't working or how can you make this better? And you're okay to take that. So.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: It's been A nice mix. So tell us a little bit about what you're up to these days.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah, so really fortunate to be doing the same level of stuff, new product development, product engineering, innovation, just for all of mitre. And so phenomenal team of talented engineers really get to make an impact MITRE wide rather than a pretty regional lens as before. And so super excited to work with the teams and super excited to add value to MITRE across the whole country.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: Right, so Senior Vice president of engineering. Right, for the whole thing.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the title. Something like that.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: So you have a pretty big team underneath you. So you have Milgard, Anlin, Western Michigan, Sunrise PGT and Windor.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: That's it?
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, just those, not too much else. So I'm curious and I've had some experience now sitting through some product development meetings with Mike Santoso to understand how a product is born or how a product changes. So what's involved with your team when a product has to change?
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the first piece is alignment and really working toward MITRE wide alignment on a product roadmap. For instance, working closely with Jason Wilton and the product management team on getting to a three year or out product roadmap of these are all of the products that are going to drive transformation, deliver value to the future products of tomorrow. And then on the innovation side, really starting to layer in here's the innovative technologies that are going to be paramount to making those products great. So it starts with that alignment and then really getting the engineering team rallied around, thinking about those chassis, those platforms, the designs and the technologies that are going to provide solutions. We also have a very large business of existing products today where we want to keep those products very relevant, fresh and best in class and extend the life of those as long as possible. And so it ends up being a lot of project work very cross functionally, whether for a region, whether miter wide. None of those product changes or product designs happen in isolation. So it's really kind of key to have engagement with all of the stakeholder teams aligned on working on that project and prioritizing it to make it successful and communication so that it's not a surprise when something changed. It's welcomed as oh yeah, we knew about this, we knew the why and delivers value in this way. And so I think that's something that is both an opportunity and something we have actions around really driving.
[00:05:23] Speaker C: So you're having to coordinate with supply chain.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, key stakeholders always supply chain very much so involved IT team. Nothing happens without a system and the interface to make that happen. So those are common stakeholders. Aside from product management, the commercial and sales teams, and the operation, those other functions are critical, as well as even internal supply. On profiles, we have two vinyl extrusion plants, we have a fiberglass pultrusion plant. And so working with Andy Welker and team on the capabilities to produce great products internally as well as phenomenal supplier partners to create and deliver phenomenal technologies, products, profiles, glass and externally.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: Yeah. So speaking of glass, I was just about to mention that we've got a lot going on with glass, especially in our area with Florida. And so we've had the fusion drawn glass for a while now, just in the Windoor market, but now it's launching out slowly to some of our PGT customers. And we've been calling that Diamond Glass, but rumor has it that the name is going to be changing. So we'll just call it Fusion drawn Glass for today.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: And that's our partnership with Corning. And you've been involved in that from the very beginning.
So tell us a little bit about that.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So very exciting technology.
I think we'll see continued disruption and innovation in glass from how we've always known it to where glass is going. And fusion drawn glass plays a big part of that. So maybe rewind. Float glass is a technology and a fundamental technology that float is paramount to our industry. It was developed in 1952 by Pilkington and the whole architectural products industry relies on float. Float is a phenomenal product that also has some challenges. Examples, a float plant. It's been a long time since the US brought on any new float capacity. Huge capital investment, huge embodied energy, very long payback on that capital.
So we've really got the US float supply pretty much fixed to what's available today. If we look at the Corning technology, it's a fusion drawn glass. It was also a technology that's not that new. But it scaled from iPhones and small display glass to very large format display and into size capabilities that really started to make sense in the architectural product space. And so what we're working on on fusion drawn laminates provides some huge benefits. First, lightweight. This glass is as thin, you know, where float really likes to be at 6 millimeters quarter inch glass. And then you can tune it down to 8th inch glass or 3 millimeter for residential products up to 6. You know, that's kind of the sweet spot, the Corning glass in that 0.5 to 0.7 millimeter range. So a twelfth as thick as traditional float. Yet it's very, very strong. It's three times stronger than traditional float glass and very scratch resistant. Very low coefficient of thermal expansion. It's an alumina borosilicate glass. If you think of like a glass cooktops, you know, how can you superheat it at one point and it doesn't break or stress crack. It's a borosilicate GL doesn't move very much at all with heat or cold or differential temperatures across that light. And so it makes for a really exciting product. We're able to reduce 45% of the weight out of a traditional laminate, which is massive. If we think about our customers, the touch point for them and the workforce day to day is just lifting and installing and moving through the warehouse. Very, very heavy product. And if you think about the evolution of just the window and door space, when I started, you know, 6 foot 8 tall sliding glass door panels were common and the norm.
Fast forward today those panels are much taller, much wider, where tens and twelve footers and four hundred pound glass panels are the norm. Also the Florida market has transitioned to laminated insulated glass much more commonly than just standard laminates with no insulation. As energy codes tighten or as occupant comfort and other glass technologies, you know, just kind of transition. So the products are getting heavier, they're getting bigger and the ability to make a product that is just as strong, equal to or better than the existing glass technology and laminates from an impact resistant or hurricane standpoint, yet much lighter, much more scratch resistant, much better optical clarity. It's an iron free display glass so the views out are absolutely beautiful. And far less distortion or roller wave distortion when you comp against traditional laminates. So the benefits really carry through and through beyond light weighting to just a much better glass technology and product coupled with what Corning's bringing to the market.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah, that's amazing. I know we have some samples in the showroom and I love to slide the 8100 Windoor corner meat which is a 10 foot panel. Right. It's huge and I can literally open it with one finger. Which is great if you think about the practicality too. When you have a sliding glass door that goes out onto your lanai, you know you're never walking out there empty handed.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Right? Right.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: You're carrying a tray of burgers or drinks or a load of fresh towels or whatever. You know, you're never just like, I can open this with two hands because you don't have two hands. So just having that actual USABILITY it's just more user friendly. And you know, you think about the aging population, especially in Florida, you know, you lose your strength as you get older. You can't necessarily lift that single hung open or slide that slider as easily as you used to. So it's a real winner, I think, for everybody.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. Lots of folks say we all see the huge benefits to the installation community, the labor force and our customer. The end homeowner also sees tremendous benefits in some of the items I talked about in better views, less distortion, but very much so in operation.
Those big heavy 400 pound door panels, cutting the weight of those substantially translates to far less operating force. To slide that big moving glass wall open with stuff in your hand.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Kids running around you, whatever. And then the scratch resistance as well. That fusion drawn glass, it has three times the scratch resistance of traditional glass and we face that on the interior of the home. So pets, kids, wear and tear from labor crews and new construction. That glass is very durable, very scratch resistant and maintains long term great views even through the wear and tear of a busy household.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: Yeah, all it takes is, you know, a Hot Wheels track going in the wrong direction. You've got all kinds of, you know, nonsense going on. I have a grandson, so I'm learning about Hot Wheels.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: We've got little kids too, so we're a good test case in our house. They beat the heck out of everything.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Nice. So that's actively in products now. It's in Windoor as far as the laminated package and it's coming into the PGT line slowly. We're acclimating, right? We're still doing that.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So it's in Windor and it's a standard offering today in our biggest, heaviest products, we're piloting with some customers within the PGT vinyl Windguard platform. And the team, there's a process team solely around scaling up thin laminates to the broader PGT market. They're making phenomenal progress. There's some big changes taking place during the holiday shutdown that'll allow us to really scale up to that next tranche. More pilot customers within PGT able to fill whole house packs with lightweight, strong laminates. And we'll see it really expand throughout 2026 and the next three years. And over those years, we really see it becoming the standard for every laminated product in the Windguard product family, whether aluminum or vinyl that'll be offered with this new and innovative glass that adds value in a lot of ways.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: And a lot of it that's going to be handled at the Pembroke Pines glass plant, right?
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be both. So Pembroke will come online toward the back half of next year and all of those processes that are getting refined in Venice will be translated to Pembroke. Most of the large format door glass will come out of Pembroke and the Venice plant will in the interim, make whole house packs and some level of doors. But it'll long run be focused predominantly on window glass with door glass being supplemented from Pembroke.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: That's exciting. I love that we're on the front lines of things like that. Like, it's just an exciting place to be in a company that says, hey, we see this issue, we see it's heavy, we see it's getting bigger, we see it's getting worse, let's figure out a way to make it better. And you and your team have really led the charge on that. So way to go.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's been exciting. It's funny. A joke with a customer of ours, Dave Fleeman from All Glass. We have dealer roundtables and really just spend time listening to our customers, our partners. And one of the comments is, if we could do anything that was impactful, what would it be? You know, just wide open ended. And he said, make your freaking products lighter.
And he said it almost flippantly, joking and you know, followed it up with, I know you can't do that. It's impact. You make kind of toughest products for the toughest standards in the world. What are you going to do? Fill the air chamber with helium?
And again, as we took that and kind of laughed about the comment, we also got to work and said there are ways to do this and there's technologies that enable it. And that thought, along with the many things we're looking at, kind of light bulb went off on, wow, there's something here. It's meaningful and it's a better product.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: Well, that's exciting. And so we're making a bunch of changes just in the little region. I mean, there's changes going on everywhere. And I know you've got a new product launch in Milgard soon. The C700 is coming up in the western market and there's some stuff in western window systems. They've had a new product that's launching and is going to finalize in Q1. So there's a lot going on all over the place. But for PGT and South Florida, there's been a lot of changes with cgi. And so can we touch base on that?
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So if we put just Florida hat on and think of some things that are exciting in the Florida market, one of the things is we'll call it product rationalization.
What are the products that we're going to lean into that are going to carry us forward in the Florida market in the future? And we've identified those products and really called back the things that are very overlapping. It's hard to have six or seven aluminum single hungs in the market and refine and refresh and keep relevant all of those when they're a very similar fundamental chassis. So really getting to the Windguard aluminum platform with a couple of elements in CGI, swing doors, the French door 160, the French door 450, those are the aluminum platforms that are really going to carry us forward. And now that we're kind of confined to a product chassis that was already the market leader in this space, it's really nice to be able to lean into those, to just make them the best products for the future. Whether that's larger openings, higher design pressures, new features, new options, new glass. That area is what the team is just so rallied around to make those continue to be the market leader and to lean in and make those the best products and the best experience for every customer everywhere in Florida now.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: It is exciting to have things a little more simplified. Benji and I talked in one of our episodes not too long ago about, you know, we want to be easy to do business with. And when you have a huge portfolio and there is a lot of overlap, it just becomes more challenging for everyone to have to understand the nuances between this one and that one and which one is the best one. And how do I quote this one? Oh, it's this system. Oh, it's that system. You know, it just gets very convoluted. So I'm excited about the simplification, and I think it's just going to be so much more streamlined for everybody.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah, those transitions are hard work in terms of that transition state of culling some things back. There's no doubt that, you know, some customers liked a certain product or a certain feature. And how do you incorporate those nuances into a single platform? We'll see that as a continued theme for Mitre. As we bring multiple companies together under one miter, as we're developing new chassis how do we think beyond a single region, yet still carry those regional nuances into the product? And so, you know, there's kind of a, like, call it a Mississippi river divide in an east coast and a West coast. And why things need to be a West coast chassis versus east coast chassis. We really want to start sharing platforms and components across the whole nation while incorporating that specific knowledge of what makes a California product great. They like this type of sill, they like this type of operator versus the east coast, like something different, yet to the same end. I know that we can accomplish that with a very shared chassis kind of mentality where maybe 60, 70 or more percent of the components will be the same east, west and Florida, and that we get to a much simpler business with a much more streamlined product offering that reaches far and wide.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Well, and just like in the personnel space we're taking and practices and processes, we're taking the best of what was existing and adopting those things. So like our team, for example, pre acquisition of pgti, they didn't really have a customer education team and a platform like we have. And they said, oh, well, this is great, we need that. And so now we have scope of the whole enterprise as well, which is great. Right? I didn't have to dust off my resume.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great to see something that's working really well. And how does that translate? Mitre wide.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: And it's exciting to me and to the broader teams to really learn more about new customers, new regions, new products, and really dig in and dive into the MI business, the Milgard business, the Western business, and what makes those products great and makes them the market leader in a given region or segment.
[00:20:32] Speaker C: And ultimately the dealers benefit and the homeowners benefit because they may only know what they know. But then you say, oh, but this has worked really well for 10,000 other customers and we want to bring it here. And they're like, oh, I didn't even know we could do that, you know, or whatever. So it's really getting the best of the best across all areas of the business, which is awesome. So we're doing this whole thing right now. We've seen some commercials and some radio spots around the. We are Florida. And so what does that mean to you? Because you're a Floridian, right? Were you born here?
[00:21:04] Speaker A: I've been here since I was 15 years old.
[00:21:07] Speaker C: Okay, close enough.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Enough.
I'm 42 now, so, yeah, most of life was spent as a Floridian. And so, yeah, we are. Florida means a lot to me. I Love the campaign. You know, first, we all live here. It's our community, it's our neighbors. We've been in Florida a long time, we all go through together the reality of hurricanes. Seems like every year, knock on wood for this year, the community that we live in or that our customers live in are deeply impacted by a hurricane. And we have the benefit of making the best products for hurricanes. We get to do real world studies with universities and with FEMA and with National Science foundation to the hardest hit areas after the storms and really understand the building codes, what's working, how our products are working. And it's important to us. We make life safety products that protect homeowners, homes, businesses and keep Florida thriving. And it means a lot to us. And we take it and hold it paramount to do that. And I think you do that best by living in the area, being a part of it, seeing what's working, seeing what can be further improved.
And it's special to the whole team of designers, engineers, they live in Florida too. And this is our backyard. We care deeply about it and it's very exciting to be part of. We are Florida because we all feel it through and through.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So this was the first year. I don't remember if it was recordable history or however many years, but this was the first year, 2025, where no hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. yeah.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: And it was, you know, pretty active hurricane season. Lots of storm formation really forming off the Horn of Africa, which we hadn't seen in some time. But fortunately for the US mainland, mainly my son calls them fish storms, ones that just kind of curve out and go into the upper Atlantic and don't affect a lot of lives. One bad storm for the islands that had a pretty tremendous impact on Jamaica, but yep, we were lucky this go round.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: And needed it. I needed a little break from 2024.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: Yeah. After last year, there's still some places that are still recovering and rebuilding and cleaning up and Fort Myers is still recovering from Ian. And then that was 2022.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: 22, I think 22, yeah.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: I mean, it takes a long time. So one last question and thank you for your time. I really appreciate you coming in today. One last question and I've been asking this of everybody because we haven't talked a lot about the Mitre DNA. It's more of an internal thing. But, you know, there's a ton of statements about who we are, how we operate, how we think.
And I'm super excited to hear what your answer is, which is the one or Two that mean the most to you?
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So first, I love the Mitre DNA. I look at it, if not daily, certainly weekly. I incorporate it into language and it's not buzzwords on a page. It's a way of acting, thinking and doing that just really resonates so much with me personally. It's hard to pick one. I'll cop out and just pick a couple and it' kind of set the tone of. They all resonate in a way. One is we dream big, set goals, get to work. Two is believe the worst decision is making no decision at all. And three is we question the status quo and have a bias for action. And they're all around action oriented. We move at the pace of a small company and resist the urge to be a giant corporation. We have phenomenal team members that know this industry inside and out. We can make decisions quickly, we can do quickly. And we set up the infrastructure, whether through ILABS or just fast approach to launching product that lets us drive action very quickly and really run circles around the companies that are thinking about it. Analyzing and thinking of everything through a risk based approach where it seems like everything is viewed as high risk and there's certainly high risk areas, but not all things are high risk or speed and risk don't always go hand in hand. And so I just love how Mitre empowers fast decision making. Willing to spend capital and go and do and let the measure be the products that are commercialized and producing meaningful revenue and value versus the on paper analytics and decision points and spending too much time there.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I love those too. I love all of them. Dean, as always, this has been a great conversation. Thank you for sharing your insights and I love that you have a broader scope and a broader role now and you can keep us posted on what's happening. If there's new and exciting things you want to talk about, just let me know and we'll get you back in here.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Oh yeah, absolutely thrilled to be back in here. Happy to come at any time and there'll be lots of exciting things happening and in the market in the near future. So many in process now and so many on the drawing board to come and always happy to keep us updated and share.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: So thanks for the time when you're allowed to talk about them.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Yeah, there's always plenty we can talk about.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: There's always that. Awesome. Well have a great day.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: All right, thanks, Christine. Thanks. All right, take care. Bye.
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