Details

Brandt

What is your position within your company?
I am global head of marketing and public relations for Conergy, Denver.

What is the most unusual roofing project of which you have been a part?
It was a small project in a low-income housing community in San Jose, Costa Rica. I was asked to help install solar panels on a corrugated roof on a modest home, so we enlisted the help of a team from Holland Roofing, Florence, Ky., to install a new TPO roof system under the solar panels. It worked out great because we had great partners, but it definitely was not a typical project you'd find in an NRCA manual.

What is your favorite vacation?
A two-week Club Med^® vacation with the family

Why did you get involved in the roofing industry?
It happened by chance. After completing my engineering degree, I had the opportunity to work on a GPS-based roof measurement system. A group of us gathered in a Denver parking lot and carried around large PVC pipes to measure the space we were walking. It was cold and I had no idea what anything meant, but it was a great start to working in the roofing industry.

What is your roofing industry involvement?
I am president of Roof Integrated Solar Energy™ Inc.

What are your favorite items on your desk?
My Post-it^® notes and headset. I keep my office clear because my unorganized style of paper control ensures the desk is covered at all times.

What is your favorite stress reliever?
Reading a throwaway fiction novel—the kind you find in airport bookstores

What are your best and worst habits?
My best habit is I like to get things done well and quickly. My worst habit is I tend to procrastinate, so doing things quickly no longer becomes an option but a requirement.

What is your favorite food?
French fries

If you could meet any historical figure, whom would you meet? Why?
Thomas Edison so I could take his understanding of solar and spread it in today's world

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A biomedical engineer

What song do you find yourself listening to repeatedly these days?
I am a big fan of "For Those Below," by Mumford and Sons.

What was your first job?
Making coffee

What was your first roofing experience?
I started in roofing right after a season of hurricanes in Florida, so it truly was baptism by drowning. It became apparent engineering was a dam in the process, so I developed some calculation templates with the help of Shirad Ali, director of engineering and applications and roofing systems product manager for Lapolla Industries Inc., Houston, which allowed us to do much of the engineering in-house and speed up the process tremendously.

What is your favorite book?
Tuesdays with Morrie