A leader's leader

“Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; and great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.”
– Orrin Woodward, author

When Lisa Sprick, president of Sprick Roofing Co. Inc., Corvallis, Ore., became involved with NRCA 27 years ago, she made a suggestion during a committee meeting that led to the development of NRCA’s Future Executives Institute—a comprehensive three-year educational program designed to develop the management and leadership skills of future and current roofing contracting company leaders. In 2022, the FEI program celebrated 20 years, and 214 students have graduated from the program to become leaders in the roofing industry.

“Lisa was a key member of the inaugural Future Executives Institute Committee and worked to develop a serious program for the next generation of roofing contractors,” says Tom Shanahan, CAE, executive director of FEI. “Lisa was passionate about doing what she could to help develop the program. She is a perfect example of finding the balance between leading and managing.”

This month, Sprick becomes NRCA’s chairman of the board, the highest-ranking officer of the association.

“Lisa is a compassionate, strong leader who is determined to elevate the roofing industry and those who work in it,” says Megan Wolff, office manager for Sprick Roofing.

The early years

Sprick was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Her father, Bill, was a career military man in the Army; he now is retired and currently living in Florida. Her mother, Genevieve, was a registered nurse (she passed away in 2020), and together her parents had two other children, Michael and Paul—Sprick’s older brothers. When she was 3 years old, while her father was stationed in Oklahoma, her parents divorced. In 1970, her mother got a nursing job in Oregon, and Lisa has resided in the state ever since.

Sprick’s father remarried and had two more sons, John and Rob—Sprick’s younger brothers—with his wife, Carolyn. Although her father often was physically distant because of his job, Sprick says he always was dialed into her life.

“Paul and I learned to travel on our own at a young age to see him whenever possible, which we thought was so cool,” Sprick says. “We felt like jet setters!”

After graduating from Corvallis High School, Sprick attended Southern Oregon University, Ashland, to study criminology.

“After a field trip to San Quentin State Prison, I knew I wasn’t going to solve the world’s problems that way,” Sprick says.

She returned to Corvallis and entered the American Sign Language interpreter training program at Western Oregon University, Monmouth. At the time, there wasn’t a degree available in sign language, so she graduated with a certificate that enabled her to work in the profession. For five years, she worked as a sign language interpreter primarily in the educational system, interpreting in classes for middle schools, high schools and colleges.

During the summer of 1985, she met Randy Sprick while house-sitting.

“We were neighbors while I house-sat for a friend,” Sprick says. “I had my first golden retriever back then, and Randy left a 20-pound bag of dog food on the doorstep one day. He knew exactly the way into my heart. We started dating, and by the end of the summer when my friend needed her house back, I moved into Randy’s place, and we were married five years later.”

Partnering with Randy made Sprick an instant mother figure to Randy’s son, Christopher.

“He came into my life when he was 7 years old,” Sprick says. “He’s technically my stepson, but it’s not a term I’ve ever used for him. From day one, I raised him as I would my own.”

Christopher now is 45 years old and has two children, Dawson (16) and Anika (13), with his wife, Brandy.

“Lisa has been part of my life for 38 years,” Christopher Sprick says. “I grew up with her as my other mother, always encouraging and mentoring me.”

Paul says his sister’s greatest accomplishment is helping Christopher become the man he is today.

“The legacy she helped create by making Christopher a responsible man will live on,” he says. “He and his children are beneficiaries of Lisa’s selfless parenting.”

Sprick remained married to Randy for 27 years until they had an amicable divorce in 2017.

“We told no one of our intention to do so except our son,” Sprick says. “We just didn’t want any outside drama or people feeling like they had to choose sides. The truth be told, we went about our normal business and when the paperwork arrived, we didn’t realize we had officially been divorced for three days.”

“It’s certainly been an interesting and unexpected turn in my life,” she continues. “But one I’m proud of us doing well, especially when so many divorces turn into a ‘war of the roses’ type of split.”

Sprick met her current significant other, Brent Savage, 40 years ago while at Southern Oregon University. After not seeing each other for 33 years, about seven years ago, Savage tracked Sprick down through social media and the two started dating.

“Lisa and Randy have been in each other’s lives for 38 years, 27 years as a couple, so ending their marriage shouldn’t be categorized as a failure,” Savage says. “They get along well. We hang out with him; he’s a great guy. We also hang out with my ex-wife, who is also a great person. It’s nice to have shared a life together and still be dear friends. I think that’s a cool part of their (and our) story.”

Sprick feels blessed to be surrounded by a blended family.

“Some I share genes with, some I share half genes with and others no genes at all, but family means everything to me, especially those I’ve chosen to be in my family.”

The Spricks get along so well, they share a 71-year-old roofing business.

Sprick Roofing

In 1952, Sprick Roofing was founded by Randy Sprick’s father, Jack. In 1977, Randy Sprick began working with his father at the company. In 1989, Jack Sprick retired, and Randy Sprick became sole owner of the company.

“Most of our company culture was formed by my father,” Randy Sprick says. “He instilled high values, high standards and a family atmosphere.”

In 1990, Sprick joined the family business after a sudden, unexpected turn of events changed the trajectory of her life.

“I was T-boned in a car accident that caused some damage to my shoulder and nerve damage to my neck,” she says. “Sign language interpreting is a physically demanding job. I continued interpreting as long as I could for about two years. I saw neurologists, chiropractors and naturopathic medicine doctors, and they all basically said the same thing: ‘You probably need to find another profession.’”

As Randy Sprick had just assumed ownership of Sprick Roofing and was running the company himself, he asked his wife for help and to come into the business.

“I told Randy I know nothing about roofing except where the roof goes, but I reluctantly offered to help him for one year to see how it would go,” Sprick says. “The car accident was kind of a metaphor as it flipped me around 180 degrees facing the other direction. So at that point I jumped into the business, and that’s where everything started for me in the roofing industry.”

Sprick wanted to learn everything she needed to know about roofing and has “sat in every chair,” stopping short of actually installing roof systems.

“That’s where Randy drew the line,” Sprick says. “He said I didn’t need to do that to figure it all out. I did sales, measuring and interacted with clients. Basically, everything I needed to know because I didn’t want to pick up the phone and not know the answer to any question that might get asked.”

Sprick continued working at the family business well beyond the one-year mark and has steadily developed a reputation in the industry.

“I was always impressed with Lisa even before I came to work at Sprick Roofing,” says Melvin Smith, senior technical advisor at Sprick Roofing. “There’s a hurdle she had to get over, a stigma of being a woman in a male-dominated industry. I was fascinated with how much command she had in the roofing business. I think it’s great.”

Smith’s father worked with Randy Sprick’s father during the 1950s and 1960s. Melvin and his younger brother Benny, who currently is superintendent for Sprick Roofing, both recently celebrated 20 years at the company.

“It’s a family-owned and -operated company with a goal of providing quality and trust,” Melvin Smith says. “They’re good to me, and we create great projects together.”

Michael Butler, safety director and warehouseman at Sprick Roofing, reroofed his first roof at Sprick Roofing in 1991.

“It didn’t take long to be accepted into the family,” Butler says. “I knew within a couple of weeks this was a great company. Previously, I spent almost two years at a shop with 120 employees, and I had a foreman that until the day I left didn’t know my name.”

Sprick Roofing currently employs about 20 people and is in a college town of 60,000 people of which half are students.

“We don’t have a giant geographic footprint,” Sprick says. “We’re happy with the number of employees we have now and where the company stands. The crew we have is amazing. We want to grow from profits (by becoming more efficient) rather than grow from taking on more projects just for the sake of it, invariably inviting more risk of which we have plenty of on a daily basis.”

Rob says he’s proud of his sister’s professional accomplishments.

“Lisa helped Randy make Sprick Roofing a well-respected company that has provided economic stability for so many people,” Rob Kulik says. “She’s a hardworking, driven person.”

Sprick’s son also worked at the family business for about 21 years after graduating high school.

“I’ve observed how the company culture has evolved from an individualistic mindset to one that prioritizes safety, teamwork and collective goals,” Christopher Sprick says. “Lisa played a key role in driving these changes. She also helped implement recognition programs, employee training and development initiatives, which further strengthened the team’s collective mindset and commitment toward common goals. She’s an awesome woman in a male-run industry. We need more people like her in the roofing industry.”

NRCA

Wanting to learn everything and anything about the roofing industry, the Spricks attended a regional industry event in 1995. However, attendees didn’t seem keen on sharing information.

“When we were standing around the tables at the event, no one would talk to us,” Sprick says. “I had a gazillion questions, but people seemed guarded. They didn’t want to reveal much of anything.”

After realizing the regional conference attendees most likely viewed other participants as competitors, Sprick tried a different approach and attended an NRCA annual convention in San Diego the following year.

“The difference was night and day,” Sprick says. “Everyone I approached was open and chatting with me and helpful.”

That’s where she met Bill Good, a former NRCA CEO, while attending what she thought was a member recruitment cocktail party.

“I figured I’d go and see whether they could recruit me as a member, but once I got there, I realized it was a reception to thank recruiters for getting new members, not a party to recruit new members,” Sprick explains. “And Bill happened to be standing there, so I decided to talk to him (still not realizing I was talking to the CEO of the association) and said: ‘I realize I’m not supposed to be here, but if you’re a recruiter, try and recruit me.’”

After talking to Good about wanting to give back, not just take what NRCA had to offer, she returned home from the convention to find a 14-page fax from Good asking her to choose which committees looked interesting.

“So I joined NRCA and attended my first NRCA Midyear Committee Meetings in 1996 and served on the workforce and contractor management committees,” Sprick says. “And I’ve been involved ever since.”

Sprick has served on numerous other committees and task forces including Asphalt Shingle Repair Manual Task Force, Career Path Task Force, Membership Committee, OSHA Residential Fall Protection Task Force, Residential Contractors Committee and Strategic Plan Review Task Force.

In 2016, Sprick testified before the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee on Capitol Hill. On behalf of NRCA, Sprick provided perspectives of a professional roofing contractor regarding workplace safety regulations.

“OSHA seems to be stuck in a ‘Washington, D.C., knows best’ mode of regulating our industry, and I don’t think Washington always knows best,” Sprick told lawmakers.

In 1998, she was elected to NRCA’s board of directors and served three terms from 1998-2001, 2003-06 and 2019-20. In 2001, she was elected to the Executive Committee and served two terms from 2001-03 and 2020-22. In 2022, she served as chairman of the board-elect.

Sprick says her most notable NRCA accomplishment is helping develop the FEI program. The idea for the leadership program came about around 1999 when Christopher wanted his parents to develop a business succession plan.

“I was in a committee meeting, and I asked, ‘What am I going to do with my son? He’s been out in the field for 12 years and thinks he can now come in and run the business,’” Sprick says. “I wondered what we’re supposed to do with the younger generation that may or may not go to college but still need formal education regarding all the business disciplines needed to run the day-to-day operations. I needed help.”

As a result, a task force was created to develop the FEI program, and the first class of students included her son and Kyle Thomas, NRCA’s immediate former chairman of the board and executive vice president of Thomas Industries Inc., Mobile, Ala.

“FEI is my baby,” Sprick says. “It validates for me that it doesn’t matter where you come from, or what size company you have, if you have an idea and it’s a good one, NRCA supports it and can make it happen to positively influence others. From its inception, FEI has performed beyond my wildest dreams.”

Agenda ahead

Becoming NRCA chairman of the board wasn’t an ambition or goal Sprick dreamed of achieving.

“I thought long and hard about it because I know what’s involved,” she says. “I am perfectly happy and love being on committees; that’s where the work gets done. But I think it’s important a woman be at the helm again. I also want to represent smaller contractors and give them a voice and let them see you don’t necessarily have to be in a multimillion-dollar company to be in this position.”

Sprick plans to continue working on current NRCA initiatives such as ProCertification® and maintaining the momentum Thomas provided during his term.

“Kyle’s greatest accomplishment was keeping the association moving forward after a couple of tough years with the pandemic, supply chain issues and all the uncertainty that came with that,” she says. “He did a nice job; there weren’t any real flare-ups. He kept things moving forward and kept optimism alive.”

Sprick says a lack of qualified workforce continues to be the most important issue facing the industry.

“The first committee I served on decades ago was workforce, and it’s the same issue we have today, but now it’s severely worse,” she says. “I don’t think the issues we discussed back then were much different than they are now. We need to attract people into the industry.”

According to Sprick, recruiting more people to the industry involves elevating the industry’s image.

“We need to do a better job with our professional image,” she says. “I’ve had several employees who have children, and when they were old enough they came to work for us but on a part-time basis because their parents didn’t want their children doing roofing work for the rest of their lives.

“That’s the problem right there,” she continues. “If you can’t sit at the dinner table and encourage the next generation to come into the industry, we’ve got an internal issue in addition to an external issue of people’s opinions about what we do. Roofing is absolutely hard work, but there’s a lot of pride that should come with that.”

Sprick also plans to focus on strategies and initiatives to recruit more smaller contracting companies into NRCA.

“Many years ago, I remember putting on a convention program about roofing-specific business forms an NRCA committee had developed, and we probably had 100 roofing contractors in attendance,” she says. “I can’t tell you how many came up to me at the end and requested understanding of the benchmarks of how to get from Point A to Point B. Specifically, they asked how to go from installing roofs to being in the office full-time so they could sufficiently run and grow their businesses. NRCA already has so many resources developed that can help, but getting the word out to the smaller contractors about those resources is a challenging one.”

Free time

When she’s not developing leaders, elevating the industry’s image or recruiting small-size contractors, you’ll likely find Sprick at a live music event.

“That’s my happy place, especially during the summer when outdoor music festivals are prevalent,” she says. “And if I’m accompanied by any of my insanely funny friends, or family, all the better.”

Cooking also is a creative outlet.

“My son calls the kitchen my craft room,” she says. “I love cooking and making meals for friends, as well as sending over a dish when someone might be in need.”

If Sprick weren’t a roofing contractor, she’d likely be doing something in the company of dogs.

“Animals are my passion,” she says. “I easily get distracted by dogs. I don’t have any at the moment, but we have a dog-friendly office, and I encourage employees to bring in theirs if well-behaved. So fortunately, I still get to interact with dogs daily. And I often dog-sit for friends’ pooches, so that also helps support my need for dog energy.”

Friends and family say Sprick is a “dog whisperer,” and she’s developed a unique communication style with them.

“She trained our past three golden retrievers using sign language, and it worked well,” Randy Sprick says. “They had an amazing vocabulary.”

As far as future plans beyond NRCA or retirement, Sprick says she foresees remaining in the industry in some manner.

“I see myself continuing to mentor,” she says. “I love this industry, and I love developing leaders. There’s a lot of opportunity to help guide future generations.”

Ready to lead

Sprick’s ability to mentor and develop leaders combined with her previous volunteer service and experience will serve her well as she leads NRCA, her peers and the industry through the next year.

“Lisa’s patient, open-minded, straightforward and knowledgeable in all things roofing,” Butler says. “She’s motivated in everything she delves into and follows through to successful completion. The industry needs more leaders like her.”

Sprick looks forward to working collectively as an industry to accomplish great things.

“Being involved with NRCA so long, I’ve seen and heard a lot of other perspectives, so I can bring a plethora of ways of doing things I’ve seen done successfully and unsuccessfully,” Sprick says. “It’s an honor to represent this fantastic industry.”

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CHRYSTINE ELLE HANUS is Professional Roofing’s associate editor and an NRCA director of communications.