Five Questions With: Tim Hebert

"This is a merger that is almost 30 years in the making."

Atrion Networking Corp. CEO Tim Hebert talked with Providence Business News about the company’s recent merger with its sister company in New Jersey, as well as expansion and hiring plans and why 2015 will be even better than 2014 for the company. He said they are “bullish on the future” because “we will continue to build unbreakable relationships with our clients, manage our business with the upmost in financial sophistication, make smart business investments and hire amazing people.” Atrion’s annual revenue is $120 million in Rhode Island.

PBN: Tell me about the merger with your sister company in New Jersey – will that change operations in any way in Rhode Island? How are the two companies different, and how are they similar?
HEBERT:
This is a merger that is almost thirty years in the making. The owner of our Mid-Atlantic operations, Walter Hazard, was an original investor in our company in 1987. Over the years, we had an unbelievable partnership and Walter was a tremendous mentor. As Walter was planning his exit strategy, it only made sense to merge the two organizations. As we go forward, we are integrating all back office functions like finance and operations, people services, logistics and information systems into our Rhode Island functions. All sales and service operations in the Mid-Atlantic region will directly report up to our corporate leadership team. We will continue to make significant investments in sales and engineering talent for our Mid-Atlantic regional office.

Our two companies have operated in complementary and adjacent spaces with very little overlap in our offerings. The main difference between our two organizations lies back in the beginnings of our companies. The Mid-Atlantic organization started focusing on selling computer and storage technologies whereas our company started by providing network and security solutions. Today, we are proud to offer a full suite of solutions covering eight practice areas: networking, security, communications, data center, cloud, telecommunications, application development and business intelligence. In essence, the merge allows both companies to almost double their offerings.

PBN: How will the merger allow Atrion to grow revenue by 30 percent by the end of 2015?
HEBERT:
We are extremely excited about our merger and our potential growth opportunities. As a result of our merger, we have expanded our product offering and solution sets in both the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Our Northeast region gains access to substantial product offering from HP and EMC to add to our already strong data center and Cloud offerings. The Mid-Atlantic office will be able to build strong practices around networking, mobility, communication and security by gaining access to our Cisco expertise and managed services offering.

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PBN: How many employees do you expect to add in Warwick this year?
HEBERT:
Our hiring plans include hiring 80 employees over the next year. We expect 60 employees to be assigned to our headquarters based here in Warwick. Between January and February of this year we have added over 20 new employees of which 17 new hires are part of our highly touted apprenticeship program. Our desire is to continue to be a premium employer, job creator, and contributor to the local Rhode Island economy.

PBN: Do you have any expansion plans?
HEBERT:
Yes, we do have expansion plans. It’s hard to believe that two and half years ago, we moved into our new headquarters in Warwick and we are already searching for more space. We recently leased new space on Post Road from New England Institute of Technology. We moved our Atrion Academy to that location and have begun our apprenticeship program operating from that location as well. With our recent merger, we have approximately 10,000 square feet in Flemington, N.J. And finally, we have just started the search process for space in the Boston area to expand our operations in Boston and north.

PBN: How did the 2015 Leadership Challenge event in January go? How many people attended and where did you get the idea for these sessions? When is the next one?
HEBERT:
Our last Leadership Challenge Workshop was fantastic. The workshop leads our attendees through a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness to unleash their leadership ability. Our last session had 20 leaders from all walks from life and from a wide range of professional experiences – literally leaders just starting their career to seasoned CEOs and business owners.
In trying to survive the recession of the early 2000s, we realized the necessity of developing stronger leadership capabilities with our senior team. We began a series of informal workshops targeted at teaching leaders to be better role models, how to inspire a shared vision, leading change, getting the best out of their team and encouraging the heart. Over the course of the next few years, the workshop became a formal two day event designed to inspire, energize and refresh aspiring leaders. By the end of 2003, the program became mandatory for all employees regardless of their experience, level or pay grade. Today, our workshop is opened to our clients, business partners and the community and we have shared this experience with over 1,000 people and counting. Our leadership program is in high demand, resulting in a waiting list for our February and April sessions and we have five additional workshops schedule for 2015.

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