As a nationwide company, New Millennium Building Systems is made up of many individual pieces that collectively ensure the success of our clients and their projects. Our team members work in unison to further our mission to build success together with our customers and one another.
It’s because of the tireless efforts of each and every one of our employees that we can fulfill our promise to be trusted collaborators for the design, engineering, and supply of structural steel joist and deck building systems. They possess different skillsets and unique talents, but our specialists across the country play critical roles in achieving our collective goals.
From the singing production manager and the scheduler with wanderlust to the thrill-seeking district sales manager, get to know three of the New Millennium employees dedicated to building trusted and fruitful relationships with customers and colleagues.
Employees at our Hope plant don’t need to see Mark to know that he is nearby. They can almost always hear him singing.
Mark, who’s been at the facility since its early days as SMI Joist Co., has a love of music. He sings at work. He sings at home. He even writes his own songs.
“Believe it or not, in another life I would’ve loved to have been a songwriter,” says Mark, who started out as a welder in 1992 and worked his way up to production manager. “I’ve got a cabinet full of stuff that I wrote, but the only people that get to enjoy my singing are my family and co-workers. After a while, I start to get on their nerves.”
As production manager, Mark oversees many parts of the operations at Hope. He sees safety as his—and the company’s—main priority, however. Mark says the commitment to safety exemplifies the care the company places in its employees.
“Here, people don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk,” he says. “I’m not saying other companies I worked for didn’t have a safety program, but they were not as in-depth as this and not as hands-on among management as this one here.”
Although his primary responsibilities pertain to the Hope plant, Mark regularly collaborates with his fellow production managers at plants around the country. He says they have monthly meetings to brainstorm ideas, discuss problems and come up with solutions.
“The best thing about our company is we don’t mind sharing ideas,” Mark says. “If we come up with something good, we don’t keep it to ourselves. We want the rest of the plants to know because we’re all trying to get better.”
When he’s not at work, Mark can be found at his local church taking part in faith-based activities, at the gym working out or in his garage working on his latest invention. He’s in the process of getting a utility patent for one of his devices.
“I can’t talk about it too much in-depth,” he says. “My wife thinks I’m crazy, but one of these days, it’s going to pay off.”
Stephnie has grown to accept a certain level of chaos in her life. As a “proud grandma” to nine grandchildren from the ages of 3 to 18, Stephnie and her husband’s schedule is full of “soccer games and bowling tournaments and gymnastic meets and band concerts.” That’s not to mention the campouts, trips to pick blueberries and excursions to the park.
Keeping everyone on the same page during hectic times is second nature for Stephnie. In her role as scheduler in Lake City, she keeps projects moving and customers in the loop.
“I follow every job through that whole process, through all of our departments. I work directly with the customer, engineering, production, shipping, finance and sales,” she says, noting that she’s been involved in projects for parts of Walt Disney World and other fun destinations. “It’s never a dull moment.”
All that interaction requires frequent and in-depth conversations. A natural byproduct of that continuous contact is a feeling of camaraderie and comfort with customers and colleagues alike.
“You can have real relationships and real conversations with them when you talk to them all the time,” she says. “I find that very rewarding.”
Stephnie and many of her colleagues are working from home during the pandemic, forcing them to use all the modern communications tools at their disposal. She says the situation has actually improved the collaboration in the Lake City office and with customers, who have a newfound appreciation for the New Millennium mission to build success together.
Being an integral part of that process brings Stephnie pride, and she loves feeling like part of a team moving together toward a common goal.
“We’re in this together,” she says. “We’re a team. If you succeed, we succeed.”
Although her dining room is now her office, Stephnie says there still is a separation between work and play that allows her to experience the best of both worlds.
“I enjoy working for New Millennium because it allows us to have a wonderful life too,” she says.
If she’s not traveling to one of her grandkids’ many events, chances are Stephnie and her husband are traveling to one of their favorite camping spots. “We love to travel,” she says.
Imagine being able to say you helped build the Harry Potter, Spider-Man and Jurassic Park rides at Universal Orlando in Florida or the practice facility for the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. That’s a reality for Kyle.
Like the imposing lift hills on those thrill rides, Kyle’s career has been on an upward trajectory since he was a teenager. He started in the copy room as a bright-eyed 16-year-old. He went on to become an estimator and then a national account manager. Now, 27 years later he’s district sales manager of metal buildings in our Hope plant.
While not every project can be as interesting as a theme park, Kyle appreciates the variety of buildings he gets to design and lay out in his role.
“There’s no one project that’s the same,” he says. “It’s something new every time you get a request. You just don’t get stuck in the everyday rut of seeing the same things over and over and over.”
Kyle says his office can average up to 300 quotes a week. That type of production involves a lot of cooperation and communication with his colleagues. He says he especially enjoys working with his peers at the various plants around the country.
“They make my job easier,” he says. “Without the supporting staff at the plants, our jobs would be miserable.”
Kyle and his team are in the “up-front design” phase of the projects. Because he works closely with customers and has known them for years, Kyle says he’s become friends with some of them.
“It’s really nice to be that close to a customer,” he says. “I’ve had opportunities to go to some of their homes and hang out with them.” They might order pizza or have “car repair night,” changing oil or rotating tires or replacing brakes.
In addition to hanging out with his friends, Kyle enjoys spending time with his family. “Family is a big thing for me,” he says. He also likes the great outdoors, where he often goes game hunting or rides his ATV in the Boston Mountains or the Ozarks.
“We have big groups that get together and ride on the weekends,” he says. “We travel to different outdoor parks and ride.”
Building a better steel experience