May 18, 2023 • 17 mins
Mike serves as President and CEO for The Shaw Group. Prior to his role with Shaw, Mike served in several executive level roles throughout the energy industry, including President of Bernhard Energy, President and CEO of Synergy Renewables, CEO of TXU/Luminant Development and SVP, Business Development and Marketing at Saulsbury Industries. Mike also served as EVP at the former Shaw organization. Mike serves as an independent board member at Aries Clean Energy and Cypress Creek Renewables. Mike has enjoyed a long career leading and developing entrepreneurial growth companies and he has an unrivaled energy and passion for the industry.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
With change comes opportunity. Hey,it's Rob Hunter. The Show Group is
instrumental in facing the changes and challengesin the energy industry. On CEOs you
should know the Shot Group President andCEO, Mike Childrens gives us details about
how these challenges and changes are beingmet and what those challenges to the energy
industry are and what challenges are aheadfor the green energy industry as it transitions
(00:24):
into green energy and the expansion ofhydrogen. So here how energy is changing
with the Shaw Groups CEO Mike Childrensright now on CEOs you should know Phoenix.
Well, interestingly enough, I grewup in Bakersfield, California, grew
up in a family that was predominantlyin the oil industry, oil and gas
industry in Bakersfield, spent my firstI guess eighteen years there before going off
(00:50):
to college. Well, I wantto talk a little bit about energy because
you know, when it comes tothe Show Group, your knee deep in
it, and so much has happenedeven over the last ten twenty years when
it comes to clean energy, energyin general, not only United States domestically,
but around the world. But asI was taking a look at your
fantastic a really cool resume. Energyhas been a big part of your life.
(01:14):
And you just mentioned about Bakersfield theoil industry. My dad used to
work in that area with Ralph emParson, so I know a little bit
about that area and back in theseventies and the eighties when that was a
really big deal. But tell meabout all the different things before we get
to Shaw group. About what youdid in this industry and just moving around
and learning about what you did overthe years. Fantastic. I spent gosh,
(01:36):
coming up on forty years now inthe energy industry, in and around
the energy industry, and I startedmy career in the independent power side of
this. I started with the oiland gas companies and we started developing independent
power plants to basically serve our needsboth electrically as well as thermal energy,
kind of the Kojing industry that grewup in the nineteen eighties. Started my
(01:57):
career then and ended up developing powerplants around the world for probably the next
thirty years, and that grew intocommodity trading as well as pipelines and basic
energy infrastructure that was necessary to kindof serve the global markets. All right,
Well, let's talk about the ShawGroup and maybe just to educate our
listeners that'll be introduced for the firsttime with you if President CEO, and
(02:22):
I think, if I am doingmy math correctly, you're coming up in
a three year anniversary here pretty soon, if you're not already there yet.
But as President CEO, what exactlyis the Shaw Group? Well, the
Shaw Group is a pipe and modulefabrication business. So our clients are construction
companies, large engineering procurement construction companiesthat use our projects, use our materials
(02:45):
that we fabricate for them in theconstruction of everything from renewable energy, petrochemical
chemical, straight oil and gas,water, wastewater, pharmaceutical, food and
beverage, anything that uses pipe,Michael, So we fabricate, We fabricate
that pipe and turn it into auseful product. We buy raw pipe,
(03:07):
we cut it, fit it well, did it, bend it, add
the valves, add the other appropriatethings, and make it to the specifications
that our clients are looking for.Okay, now, speaking of your clients,
I'd like to talk about that.We don't have to get in any
specificity with a certain client, butwhat kind of clients are you working within?
Before you answer, that I'm tounderstanding you were domestically and overalls in
the Middle East too, and youcan expound on that. But what kind
(03:30):
of clients do you work with?So we work not only with end users,
So could be a pharmaceutical company,a tech company. Couldn't be a
food and beverage company, or majoroil and gas company or chemical companies.
We're building everything from renewable plastics plantsright now through traditional oil and gas facilities
across the spectrum. And our clientelepredominantly are the engineering, procurement and construction
(03:55):
firms globally, but we do workwith the end users as well, or
we work with construction only contractors.I imagine when it comes to international that
must be growing exponentially. It reallyis, and we see, you know,
kind of the global energy transition that'shappening across the world right now.
There's been a huge underinvestment globally inour energy infrastructure for probably the last twenty
(04:18):
years, and now you couple thatneed to rebuild the energy infrastructure with this
energy transition to bring more renewables andmore clean energy available to the globe.
That has created a tremendous amount ofdemand globally Our offices in the Middle East
are in Bahrain, in Abu Dhabi, and we're currently expanding into Saudi Arabia.
(04:40):
Now. There, we're seeing notonly traditional oil and gas type of
projects, but we're seeing a lotof green energy projects. We're seeing green
hydrogen, blue hydrogen, We're seeingwind solar, We're seeing a lot of
clean natural gas, a lot ofother types of things that are rather relatively
new to that region. You know, I want to go back to my
dad again when he was working withRalph and Parsons back in the late seventies.
(05:02):
He worked on Jetta, Yamboo andall those on the Red Sea there
and they were building brand new cities. Of course, oil was big back
there, but it always amazed methat the Saudi seemed to be upfront when
it came to anything new and innovative. And I guess working with you,
they continue to do that, don'tthey. I would absolutely say they are
on the cutting edge. They're notafraid to invest in technology, they're not
(05:23):
afraid to try new things. We'reseeing that not only in Saudi Arabia.
We're seating with ADNOC in Abu Dhabi, the National Company of Abu Dhabi,
is ADNOC and they are investing innew technology, new green technology, so
we're really seeing a lot of evolutionin that region as well as the US
and Europe. Michael, I geta chance to talk to a few people
like you from time to time,and my curiosity always speaks about how we're
(05:45):
doing in the US compared to therest of the world. And sometimes they
hear, well, you know,we're doing pretty good, and sometimes we're
a little bit behind and our thinking, but the technology is there, But
how are we doing overall? Whenit comes to what you do and working
with all your clients domestically in internationalwhere do we rank on the world stage
as far as what you're doing.You know, there's a huge push here.
We're seeing a tremendous amount of infrastructuregrowth here. The scale of opportunity
(06:10):
is larger in the Middle East,the investment size is larger. As a
market, however, I would saywe are one hundred percent as active in
the US. There's just as biga push the capital investment. Again in
Saudi Abu Dhabi and leather Middle Easternregions. These are large government backed entities
as opposed to here, where youhave more of privately held or public companies
(06:33):
that are making the individual investments themselves. So therefore the scale of each individual
investment may be smaller in the US, but in total they're about the same.
Michael I always like to ask ourpresident, CEOs and leaders about to
success stories and also some challenges.We always use that adage that it is
WINDI us at the top. Andwith that said, what kind of challenges
(06:54):
is the industry presenting right now toyou? You know, the biggest thing
we have is there's been a bigshift over the last probably ten to fifteen
years where fewer and fewer people aregoing into the craft and domestically, and
as we look at that, thatpresents a challenge. We are a big
employer of craft labor and very highlyskilled craft labor. And if you're depending
(07:18):
on which database you look at andwhich agency you know you read and listen
to, here in the US alone, we're short somewhere between two hundred and
four hundred thousand welders currently, withthat expected to grow. You know,
they're just not enough people moving intothe craft labors that can provide a tremendous
earning potential for their family, providea lot of stable and secure income,
(07:42):
and we're just seeing not enough peoplemoving into that. You know, it's
interesting that you mentioned that because Iread an article over this past here about
how the trade school industry is goingdown, and this goes to the numbers
that you were presented there. Iremember when I went to school back in
the eighties for high school, tradeschools were a really big deal. So
I'm curious about how you're going toget through this issue. Does this mean
(08:05):
hiring people internationally or you know,is it education about you know, telling
people we do need these trade schools. What are we going to do about
this? You know, I thinkthat that is the question that we face
each day. We are taking hands, taking matters into our own hands.
We're starting our own training programs.We have taken one up at our Walker,
Louisiana facility, and it was implementedby the employees themselves, where people
(08:28):
donated their time in the afternoon.Senior welders donated their time to help train
new welders and take them through theprocess. And very proudly, we just
graduated nine folks out of that programand all nine of them past their welding
certification on their first attempt. Andit was really done. It really is,
and so that's that's a small pieceof what we can achieve. But
(08:50):
we've got to continue to grow thatand we've got to work with the local
trade schools. One of the thingswe're doing is we're going to offer a
scholarship program to our current employees andtheir families and try to get folks into
these technical schools and bring their technicalcompetence up, learn these trades so we
can perpetrate what we do into thefuture. And folks, there's a recurrent
theme when we talk to presidents andCEOs. It's about getting creative and that's
(09:13):
what Michael and his team are doingright now. They get those welders trained
up and ready to go. Idid want to ask you about a success
story, and I'm sure you havemany that are you're very fond of.
Maybe there's one close to your heart, Michael, But over the last or
maybe two three years, is therea success story where you said, you
know what the Shaw Group and weknocked that one out of the park,
that was a real good one.Well, I think you know. The
Shaw Group is a long standing broundstarted in nineteen eighty seven, grew itself
(09:37):
and really morphed in early two thousandsinto a much larger company. My partners
and I had the pleasure of buyingthe business back in two and twenty and
starting kind of over with the rebrandingof the Shaw Group and starting over.
So the growth that we've achieved inthe last two and a half years against
(09:58):
approaching three years years in June isthat is our number one you know,
I think pride and joy that we'veaccomplished so far as seeing the growth we've
grown multiples over our two twenty numbers, our two twenty one numbers, our
two twenty two numbers and so on. Our forecast or two twenty three is
(10:18):
well above everything we've done to date. What that's done and what we're very
proud of is has provided a lotof security for our employees. We employ
now over eighteen hundred people. Withinthe next three months, we expect that
to be closer to twenty two hundredpeople and with continued growth beyond that and
being able to provide that security forour families. A lot of the folks
have worked here at our business forover thirty years. There's generationals. There's
(10:43):
fathers and sons and daughters and grandfathersand grandmothers and people that have worked in
this organization and been here a longpart of our group, and to give
them a future is a big,big part of what we've accomplished. Very
cool. Funnily enough, I havetalked to so many president, CEOs and
leaders that they started their title theircompany right before COVID, and you did
(11:07):
too when you bought back the company. So I am curious because I ask
everybody this, was there any pivotingthat you had to do? And how
how did it work out? Becausewe all had to change personally and professionally,
and where did it take the companyto today? Over the last three
years. A lot of sleepless nights, you know, we when we bought
the company, we really didn't knowwhat COVID was going to mean, how
long it was going to affect theconstruction industry, And just candidly, for
(11:31):
twenty twenty in the vast majority oftwenty twenty one, there was very little
major construction going on domestically and orinternationally, to be candid with you,
The international markets came back a littlesooner. They remobilized a lot of the
projects in the international markets, whichallowed us to kind of pick up in
our Abu Dhabi by rain shops,they were able to start picking up work
a little sooner, and eventually we'veseen now the US catch up and catch
(11:54):
up, you know, with afury is coming hard and fast in the
US. We had to learn howto do business a little differently as we
have more and more young people joiningour business. Those of us that are
i'll say a little more senior.I have spent time out here, and
you know, we've done business oneway for the last forty years. Young
(12:15):
people joining the business today have adifferent mentality, a different approach to things,
and you know, bringing the bestof both of those worlds together.
And I think COVID I mean literally, the little things like working from home
and that type of stuff was areal adaptation for some of us. And
so we've found a happy medium inthat. I've also talked to our leaders
about this that the ones that didsurvive it, they actually came out better
(12:37):
and smarter. Would you agree,I would absolutely say, without question,
we've adapted to our marketplace and we'regetting better every day. All right,
well said, I did want toask you about the future, and everybody's
always warning about what's next. Whetherit's your phone, whether it's clean energy,
whether it's anewables, anything out there. And I know as a leader,
you're always thinking about that and you'reeducating yourself with a smart engineer and
(13:00):
the people that you work with onyour team. With all that said,
for the laming audience, including myself, what can we look forward to in
the next five, ten, twentyyears when it comes to what you do?
You know, it's interesting. Ourbusiness has been what I call a
bricks and mortar business for many manyyears, has not lent itself to a
lot of technology innovation. Shaw hasalways been for the last thirty years,
(13:22):
has been a leader in welding technologygrowth and expansion into new things and finding
ways to automate or better ways todo it. We are making a major
investment in our company this year toautomate a lot of the processes that we
do. And initially people think,oh, automation, you're going to replace
jobs. No, just the opposite. We're going to automate more of the
(13:45):
mundane processes that we do and providelet our welders do highly skilled work.
Let them do and what that weanticipate this doing is creating a tremendous more
demand for what is we do thefabrication of pipe and modules and allowing our
craft to get more specialized and workon the very specific things that we cannot
(14:05):
automate. So we're investing heavily inautomation, not only within welding technology,
but automation of behind the scenes.How do we estimate better, how do
we use AI to do better jobsof estimating? How can we automate processes?
How can we transform the way wedo things? So we're really we're
investing heavily both in intellectual capital aswell as physical properties and automation within our
(14:31):
facilities outstanding, So the future isbread. I didn't want to ask you
a little bit, Michael, aboutphilanthropic and charity stuff. I know that
you're very busy. I know yourteam's very busy. But when you get
a chance to do anything charity wise, whether it's personally or with the Shaw
Group, well what are you into? So I will tell you that the
Shaw Group we have a tremendous presencein each one of the communities we work
in, and I'm very proud tosay our shops are heavily involved in those
(14:54):
communities and that the employees themselves getheavily involved. They do fundraisers and they
so they support the local baseball teams, the fa you name it, and
they get heavily involved in that.And we try at SHAW a match or
participate in anything that the employee basecomes up with. And then corporately we
do participate in a lot of differentevents. We tried as we are a
(15:16):
major sponsor of a United Way golftournament every year, we participate in a
lot of our customers events. Ourcustomers are big, the big, major
old companies. A lot of thosefolks they sponsor large events each year and
we make sure that we have amajor presence of those and support them throughout
that. On standing, Michaels,we wrap up our conversation. If there
(15:37):
was one takeaway for our listeners thathad just been introduced to the Shaw group
today as they hear this conversation,what would that takeaway be that you would
want to leave them with. Youknow, I heard a great statistic today
from our head of estimating eighty threepercent of the work we receive today is
repeat customers, and that's a bigdeal to us. We want to serve
(15:58):
our customers well. We want tocontinue to innovate, continue to work with
our customers and give them what theywant. So I think the major takeaway
is we're trying to change the wayour industry has worked for years. We're
trying to change the way our industryis perceived, and we're trying to be
a great partner with our customers.Outstanding and well said Michael. If anybody
wants any more information or maybe evenlook at a career or anything else and
(16:19):
they want to learn about the ShawGroup, how do they do that?
Well? I think the number oneway to do is you can make contact
through our website, which is simplythe shawgrp dot com, or please feel
free to reach out to any ofus that LinkedIn is a great way to
reach us. We have a lotof ads on LinkedIn, as well as
other social media sites that I'm notfamiliar with, but I do know LinkedIn
(16:45):
is one that we do a lotof advertising on, and I would encourage
people if you have any desire tocome and work in a business like ours.
We are hiring daily. I thinkwe have something like three hundred and
fifty job openings in the US todaygrowing and in the Middle East we are
growing our presence there by another coupleof hundred. Michael, I can't tell
you how much I appreciate your timein our conversation. Thank you so much
(17:07):
for joining us on CEOs you shouldknow and continued success. Appreciate it very
much. Thank you,
With change comes opportunity. Hey,it's Rob Hunter. The Show Group is
instrumental in facing the changes and challengesin the energy industry. On CEOs you
should know the Shot Group President andCEO, Mike Childrens gives us details about
how these challenges and changes are beingmet and what those challenges to the energy
industry are and what challenges are aheadfor the green energy industry as it transitions
(00:24):
into green energy and the expansion ofhydrogen. So here how energy is changing
with the Shaw Groups CEO Mike Childrensright now on CEOs you should know Phoenix.
Well, interestingly enough, I grewup in Bakersfield, California, grew
up in a family that was predominantlyin the oil industry, oil and gas
industry in Bakersfield, spent my firstI guess eighteen years there before going off
(00:50):
to college. Well, I wantto talk a little bit about energy because
you know, when it comes tothe Show Group, your knee deep in
it, and so much has happenedeven over the last ten twenty years when
it comes to clean energy, energyin general, not only United States domestically,
but around the world. But asI was taking a look at your
fantastic a really cool resume. Energyhas been a big part of your life.
(01:14):
And you just mentioned about Bakersfield theoil industry. My dad used to
work in that area with Ralph emParson, so I know a little bit
about that area and back in theseventies and the eighties when that was a
really big deal. But tell meabout all the different things before we get
to Shaw group. About what youdid in this industry and just moving around
and learning about what you did overthe years. Fantastic. I spent gosh,
(01:36):
coming up on forty years now inthe energy industry, in and around
the energy industry, and I startedmy career in the independent power side of
this. I started with the oiland gas companies and we started developing independent
power plants to basically serve our needsboth electrically as well as thermal energy,
kind of the Kojing industry that grewup in the nineteen eighties. Started my
(01:57):
career then and ended up developing powerplants around the world for probably the next
thirty years, and that grew intocommodity trading as well as pipelines and basic
energy infrastructure that was necessary to kindof serve the global markets. All right,
Well, let's talk about the ShawGroup and maybe just to educate our
listeners that'll be introduced for the firsttime with you if President CEO, and
(02:22):
I think, if I am doingmy math correctly, you're coming up in
a three year anniversary here pretty soon, if you're not already there yet.
But as President CEO, what exactlyis the Shaw Group? Well, the
Shaw Group is a pipe and modulefabrication business. So our clients are construction
companies, large engineering procurement construction companiesthat use our projects, use our materials
(02:45):
that we fabricate for them in theconstruction of everything from renewable energy, petrochemical
chemical, straight oil and gas,water, wastewater, pharmaceutical, food and
beverage, anything that uses pipe,Michael, So we fabricate, We fabricate
that pipe and turn it into auseful product. We buy raw pipe,
(03:07):
we cut it, fit it well, did it, bend it, add
the valves, add the other appropriatethings, and make it to the specifications
that our clients are looking for.Okay, now, speaking of your clients,
I'd like to talk about that.We don't have to get in any
specificity with a certain client, butwhat kind of clients are you working within?
Before you answer, that I'm tounderstanding you were domestically and overalls in
the Middle East too, and youcan expound on that. But what kind
(03:30):
of clients do you work with?So we work not only with end users,
So could be a pharmaceutical company,a tech company. Couldn't be a
food and beverage company, or majoroil and gas company or chemical companies.
We're building everything from renewable plastics plantsright now through traditional oil and gas facilities
across the spectrum. And our clientelepredominantly are the engineering, procurement and construction
(03:55):
firms globally, but we do workwith the end users as well, or
we work with construction only contractors.I imagine when it comes to international that
must be growing exponentially. It reallyis, and we see, you know,
kind of the global energy transition that'shappening across the world right now.
There's been a huge underinvestment globally inour energy infrastructure for probably the last twenty
(04:18):
years, and now you couple thatneed to rebuild the energy infrastructure with this
energy transition to bring more renewables andmore clean energy available to the globe.
That has created a tremendous amount ofdemand globally Our offices in the Middle East
are in Bahrain, in Abu Dhabi, and we're currently expanding into Saudi Arabia.
(04:40):
Now. There, we're seeing notonly traditional oil and gas type of
projects, but we're seeing a lotof green energy projects. We're seeing green
hydrogen, blue hydrogen, We're seeingwind solar, We're seeing a lot of
clean natural gas, a lot ofother types of things that are rather relatively
new to that region. You know, I want to go back to my
dad again when he was working withRalph and Parsons back in the late seventies.
(05:02):
He worked on Jetta, Yamboo andall those on the Red Sea there
and they were building brand new cities. Of course, oil was big back
there, but it always amazed methat the Saudi seemed to be upfront when
it came to anything new and innovative. And I guess working with you,
they continue to do that, don'tthey. I would absolutely say they are
on the cutting edge. They're notafraid to invest in technology, they're not
(05:23):
afraid to try new things. We'reseeing that not only in Saudi Arabia.
We're seating with ADNOC in Abu Dhabi, the National Company of Abu Dhabi,
is ADNOC and they are investing innew technology, new green technology, so
we're really seeing a lot of evolutionin that region as well as the US
and Europe. Michael, I geta chance to talk to a few people
like you from time to time,and my curiosity always speaks about how we're
(05:45):
doing in the US compared to therest of the world. And sometimes they
hear, well, you know,we're doing pretty good, and sometimes we're
a little bit behind and our thinking, but the technology is there, But
how are we doing overall? Whenit comes to what you do and working
with all your clients domestically in internationalwhere do we rank on the world stage
as far as what you're doing.You know, there's a huge push here.
We're seeing a tremendous amount of infrastructuregrowth here. The scale of opportunity
(06:10):
is larger in the Middle East,the investment size is larger. As a
market, however, I would saywe are one hundred percent as active in
the US. There's just as biga push the capital investment. Again in
Saudi Abu Dhabi and leather Middle Easternregions. These are large government backed entities
as opposed to here, where youhave more of privately held or public companies
(06:33):
that are making the individual investments themselves. So therefore the scale of each individual
investment may be smaller in the US, but in total they're about the same.
Michael I always like to ask ourpresident, CEOs and leaders about to
success stories and also some challenges.We always use that adage that it is
WINDI us at the top. Andwith that said, what kind of challenges
(06:54):
is the industry presenting right now toyou? You know, the biggest thing
we have is there's been a bigshift over the last probably ten to fifteen
years where fewer and fewer people aregoing into the craft and domestically, and
as we look at that, thatpresents a challenge. We are a big
employer of craft labor and very highlyskilled craft labor. And if you're depending
(07:18):
on which database you look at andwhich agency you know you read and listen
to, here in the US alone, we're short somewhere between two hundred and
four hundred thousand welders currently, withthat expected to grow. You know,
they're just not enough people moving intothe craft labors that can provide a tremendous
earning potential for their family, providea lot of stable and secure income,
(07:42):
and we're just seeing not enough peoplemoving into that. You know, it's
interesting that you mentioned that because Iread an article over this past here about
how the trade school industry is goingdown, and this goes to the numbers
that you were presented there. Iremember when I went to school back in
the eighties for high school, tradeschools were a really big deal. So
I'm curious about how you're going toget through this issue. Does this mean
(08:05):
hiring people internationally or you know,is it education about you know, telling
people we do need these trade schools. What are we going to do about
this? You know, I thinkthat that is the question that we face
each day. We are taking hands, taking matters into our own hands.
We're starting our own training programs.We have taken one up at our Walker,
Louisiana facility, and it was implementedby the employees themselves, where people
(08:28):
donated their time in the afternoon.Senior welders donated their time to help train
new welders and take them through theprocess. And very proudly, we just
graduated nine folks out of that programand all nine of them past their welding
certification on their first attempt. Andit was really done. It really is,
and so that's that's a small pieceof what we can achieve. But
(08:50):
we've got to continue to grow thatand we've got to work with the local
trade schools. One of the thingswe're doing is we're going to offer a
scholarship program to our current employees andtheir families and try to get folks into
these technical schools and bring their technicalcompetence up, learn these trades so we
can perpetrate what we do into thefuture. And folks, there's a recurrent
theme when we talk to presidents andCEOs. It's about getting creative and that's
(09:13):
what Michael and his team are doingright now. They get those welders trained
up and ready to go. Idid want to ask you about a success
story, and I'm sure you havemany that are you're very fond of.
Maybe there's one close to your heart, Michael, But over the last or
maybe two three years, is therea success story where you said, you
know what the Shaw Group and weknocked that one out of the park,
that was a real good one.Well, I think you know. The
Shaw Group is a long standing broundstarted in nineteen eighty seven, grew itself
(09:37):
and really morphed in early two thousandsinto a much larger company. My partners
and I had the pleasure of buyingthe business back in two and twenty and
starting kind of over with the rebrandingof the Shaw Group and starting over.
So the growth that we've achieved inthe last two and a half years against
(09:58):
approaching three years years in June isthat is our number one you know,
I think pride and joy that we'veaccomplished so far as seeing the growth we've
grown multiples over our two twenty numbers, our two twenty one numbers, our
two twenty two numbers and so on. Our forecast or two twenty three is
(10:18):
well above everything we've done to date. What that's done and what we're very
proud of is has provided a lotof security for our employees. We employ
now over eighteen hundred people. Withinthe next three months, we expect that
to be closer to twenty two hundredpeople and with continued growth beyond that and
being able to provide that security forour families. A lot of the folks
have worked here at our business forover thirty years. There's generationals. There's
(10:43):
fathers and sons and daughters and grandfathersand grandmothers and people that have worked in
this organization and been here a longpart of our group, and to give
them a future is a big,big part of what we've accomplished. Very
cool. Funnily enough, I havetalked to so many president, CEOs and
leaders that they started their title theircompany right before COVID, and you did
(11:07):
too when you bought back the company. So I am curious because I ask
everybody this, was there any pivotingthat you had to do? And how
how did it work out? Becausewe all had to change personally and professionally,
and where did it take the companyto today? Over the last three
years. A lot of sleepless nights, you know, we when we bought
the company, we really didn't knowwhat COVID was going to mean, how
long it was going to affect theconstruction industry, And just candidly, for
(11:31):
twenty twenty in the vast majority oftwenty twenty one, there was very little
major construction going on domestically and orinternationally, to be candid with you,
The international markets came back a littlesooner. They remobilized a lot of the
projects in the international markets, whichallowed us to kind of pick up in
our Abu Dhabi by rain shops,they were able to start picking up work
a little sooner, and eventually we'veseen now the US catch up and catch
(11:54):
up, you know, with afury is coming hard and fast in the
US. We had to learn howto do business a little differently as we
have more and more young people joiningour business. Those of us that are
i'll say a little more senior.I have spent time out here, and
you know, we've done business oneway for the last forty years. Young
(12:15):
people joining the business today have adifferent mentality, a different approach to things,
and you know, bringing the bestof both of those worlds together.
And I think COVID I mean literally, the little things like working from home
and that type of stuff was areal adaptation for some of us. And
so we've found a happy medium inthat. I've also talked to our leaders
about this that the ones that didsurvive it, they actually came out better
(12:37):
and smarter. Would you agree,I would absolutely say, without question,
we've adapted to our marketplace and we'regetting better every day. All right,
well said, I did want toask you about the future, and everybody's
always warning about what's next. Whetherit's your phone, whether it's clean energy,
whether it's anewables, anything out there. And I know as a leader,
you're always thinking about that and you'reeducating yourself with a smart engineer and
(13:00):
the people that you work with onyour team. With all that said,
for the laming audience, including myself, what can we look forward to in
the next five, ten, twentyyears when it comes to what you do?
You know, it's interesting. Ourbusiness has been what I call a
bricks and mortar business for many manyyears, has not lent itself to a
lot of technology innovation. Shaw hasalways been for the last thirty years,
(13:22):
has been a leader in welding technologygrowth and expansion into new things and finding
ways to automate or better ways todo it. We are making a major
investment in our company this year toautomate a lot of the processes that we
do. And initially people think,oh, automation, you're going to replace
jobs. No, just the opposite. We're going to automate more of the
(13:45):
mundane processes that we do and providelet our welders do highly skilled work.
Let them do and what that weanticipate this doing is creating a tremendous more
demand for what is we do thefabrication of pipe and modules and allowing our
craft to get more specialized and workon the very specific things that we cannot
(14:05):
automate. So we're investing heavily inautomation, not only within welding technology,
but automation of behind the scenes.How do we estimate better, how do
we use AI to do better jobsof estimating? How can we automate processes?
How can we transform the way wedo things? So we're really we're
investing heavily both in intellectual capital aswell as physical properties and automation within our
(14:31):
facilities outstanding, So the future isbread. I didn't want to ask you
a little bit, Michael, aboutphilanthropic and charity stuff. I know that
you're very busy. I know yourteam's very busy. But when you get
a chance to do anything charity wise, whether it's personally or with the Shaw
Group, well what are you into? So I will tell you that the
Shaw Group we have a tremendous presencein each one of the communities we work
in, and I'm very proud tosay our shops are heavily involved in those
(14:54):
communities and that the employees themselves getheavily involved. They do fundraisers and they
so they support the local baseball teams, the fa you name it, and
they get heavily involved in that.And we try at SHAW a match or
participate in anything that the employee basecomes up with. And then corporately we
do participate in a lot of differentevents. We tried as we are a
(15:16):
major sponsor of a United Way golftournament every year, we participate in a
lot of our customers events. Ourcustomers are big, the big, major
old companies. A lot of thosefolks they sponsor large events each year and
we make sure that we have amajor presence of those and support them throughout
that. On standing, Michaels,we wrap up our conversation. If there
(15:37):
was one takeaway for our listeners thathad just been introduced to the Shaw group
today as they hear this conversation,what would that takeaway be that you would
want to leave them with. Youknow, I heard a great statistic today
from our head of estimating eighty threepercent of the work we receive today is
repeat customers, and that's a bigdeal to us. We want to serve
(15:58):
our customers well. We want tocontinue to innovate, continue to work with
our customers and give them what theywant. So I think the major takeaway
is we're trying to change the wayour industry has worked for years. We're
trying to change the way our industryis perceived, and we're trying to be
a great partner with our customers.Outstanding and well said Michael. If anybody
wants any more information or maybe evenlook at a career or anything else and
(16:19):
they want to learn about the ShawGroup, how do they do that?
Well? I think the number oneway to do is you can make contact
through our website, which is simplythe shawgrp dot com, or please feel
free to reach out to any ofus that LinkedIn is a great way to
reach us. We have a lotof ads on LinkedIn, as well as
other social media sites that I'm notfamiliar with, but I do know LinkedIn
(16:45):
is one that we do a lotof advertising on, and I would encourage
people if you have any desire tocome and work in a business like ours.
We are hiring daily. I thinkwe have something like three hundred and
fifty job openings in the US todaygrowing and in the Middle East we are
growing our presence there by another coupleof hundred. Michael, I can't tell
you how much I appreciate your timein our conversation. Thank you so much
(17:07):
for joining us on CEOs you shouldknow and continued success. Appreciate it very
much. Thank you,
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