Valve Magazine - Winter 2012

CONVERSATION WITH…

Bruce Broxterman

CONTINUING THE PUSH FOR MEMBERS BY GENILEE PARENTE

VMA’s new chairman Bruce Broxterman is an excellent example of what last year’s chairman Max Mitchell referred to as a strength for the valve industry: Broxterman, chairman and majority shareholder of Richards Industries Valve Group, has a very long career in the industry. What’s more, most of the 30 years he’s been in manufacturing have been with Richards—he left for seven years to run another company but returned in 2005 as the top executive and with three other managers, eventually bought his long-time employer.

“Like a lot of young executives at a point in their careers, I made a list in the 1980s of the top things I wanted to do in my life. On it was the goal of someday owning my own business,” Broxterman says.

Broxterman intends to use his background and expertise seeing that the work of Mitchell, the VMA board and the VMA staff continues along a path designed to widen and broaden the membership base.

FOLLOWING A MENTOR

Although his career with valves is a long one, his first job had nothing to do with the industry. After getting a liberal arts degree from Kenyon College in northeastern Ohio, he spent several years as an English teacher and baseball/football coach in a small school in that state.

“I quickly ascertained, however, I was not on a good career path for supporting a family,” Broxterman says. So he answered an ad in a newspaper and wound up in an inside sales job at Richards. From there he began a steady climb towards the top, learning the business as he went.

One of the most significant stepping stones occurred in the 80s in tandem with a major move by Richards Industries: The company decided to spread its global wings. Broxterman moved to international sales and was put in charge of setting up an international distribution system. He was picked for that spot by his lifetime mentor Gil Richards, previous owner of the company.

Broxterman, who obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana Wesleyan University after Gil Richards lured him back to the company in 2005, says his “first MBA” came from being on the job.

“I learned the business end of this industry through Gil and this company. He taught me the nuts and bolts, the technical side, as well as the management and operations sides. But more importantly, he taught me how to approach managing people. He created a culture within Richards of getting to know who you work with each day,” Broxterman explains.

The Wesleyan MBA then “put some form and figure to
what I learned in the school of hard knocks and gave me the
financial analysis skills I needed to head up a company,”
he says.

THE INDUSTRY AND ITS ASSOCIATION

Broxterman says the most significant change he’s seen in the world of valves in his many years is also the one that creates the most imposing challenges for both the industry’s companies and the association: globalization.

“Although there are still many local opportunities, the business is no longer concentric. Our industry has become world-based rather than U.S.-based,” he says.

The largest challenge that creates is “we have to learn the cultures and norms of doing business in other countries. Most have very different business parameters. Some markets are very price sensitive. Others are looking for value-added services. It varies depending on where you are in the world,” he says.

The association can both help with that endeavor by participating in international events and sharing what it learns with members, and benefit from it by looking for opportunities to establish an international presence, Broxterman says.

HIS CHAIRMANSHIP

Broxterman says he has no intentions of reinventing the wheel as he takes over the reins at VMA. He wants to continue a major effort begun by the last chairman as well as the board itself and the VMA staff: expanding the membership base.

“We only have a year in this position and I hope to use
mine to increase both participation and the number of mem-
bers,” he says. “Those are the two main arteries that key into
what VMA has to do going forward.”
The improved economy should help, but more importantly is
getting the core groups in the industry to reach out to others,
he says.

“Clearly there are many companies that we can get reinvolved, but there are also many new vendor opportunities for us, as well as the opportunity to expand our reach within North America and beyond the U.S. or Canadian borders,” he says.

Accomplishing that goal will take finding ways to market the reason people join an association: value.

“We have to get our own members involved in telling the story of this association. The most influential contacts we have are our own established members. We have to let potential members—both friends and competitors—know how important our organization is to the health of the valve industry,” he says. VM