Details

WHAT IS YOUR POSITION WITHIN YOUR COMPANY? I am chief operating officer of Horch Roofing, Warren, Maine.

WHAT IS THE MOST UNUSUAL PROJECT OF WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN A PART? Given our coastal locations, Horch Roofing gets asked to bid and produce roofing work on a fair amount of private islands. As you can imagine, accessing them is challenging. During a project on Cranberry Island, we had to have perfect timing to land a barge on a beach, transport materials and workers using an all-terrain forklift, and carry debris off the island onto the barge using large bags.

WHY DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED IN THE ROOFING INDUSTRY? I had been in the hospitality industry most of my life. Tired of working nights and weekends with no holiday pay or vacation, I started looking for something that offered daytime work Monday through Friday. I wanted to work for a growing company and be challenged but also have time for my family. I found what I was looking for, and it just happened to be a roofing company. As many of us in the industry say, roofing just kind of happens to you.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ROOFING EXPERIENCE? Volunteering to install a roof system on a Habitat for Humanity® Re-Store, a nonprofit store and donation center. I was assigned to cut starter shingles to stagger the installation pattern and lug them up the ladder to hand them off.

WHAT IS YOUR ROOFING INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT? Horch Roofing is actively involved with NRCA. I’m enrolled in NRCA University’s Future Executives Institute and have participated in Roofing Day in D.C. I also am a member of National Women in Roofing and attend trade shows, seminars, conferences and webinars to further my industry and management knowledge.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? My family owned an inn when I was younger, so my first job was helping clean the rooms between guests on the weekends.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE STRESS RELIEVER? Reading—I’m a huge historical fiction reader.

PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ... I hate berries of all sorts and I was in the U.S. Army.

WHAT SONGS ARE YOU LISTENING TO OVER AND OVER? Our production team has an affinity for Disney songs. Unfortunately, I usually end up with one of them stuck in my head. “You’re Welcome” from the movie “Moana” is most contagious.

MY FAVORITE PART ABOUT WORKING IN THE ROOFING INDUSTRY IS ... The comradery among roofing professionals.

WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING/ADVENTUROUS THING YOU’VE DONE? Class 5 whitewater rafting on the Penobscot River in Maine.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ROOFING MATERIAL TO WORK WITH? WHY? Asphalt roofing is my favorite material for no extraordinary reason other than I know the products and the installation so well.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR MOST REWARDING EXPERIENCE? My most rewarding experience is watching Horch Roofing and its employees grow as a company and individuals. We have achieved so much together.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Tacos! There are so many different varieties, and I love them all.

IF YOU COULD MEET ANY HISTORICAL FIGURE, WHOM WOULD YOU MEET? WHY? Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author and Holocaust survivor. He founded logotherapy, a school of philosophy that describes a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force. After reading about his concentration camp experience, his story lingers in the back of my mind. It’s a story of daily atrocities and suffering but also one of monumental triumph and self-awareness. He wrote: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”