MEMBER PROFILE Jill Kennedy: Breaking Ground in the Foundation Industry Equipment (ICE ), based out of Matthews, N.C. They also distributed American Piledriving Equipment (APE), Kent, Wash., for several years. In 2010, Drive-Con decided to sell the company to ICE. Kennedy says that when she started in distributor for International Construction ® the construction industry she was very introverted. She believes that being the first point of contact when customers called brought her out of her shell. Kennedy is a huge sports fan (Go O’s and Buffalo Bills) and being able to talk the talk about sports helped her become of “one the guys” back when the industry was a male-dominated business and a female construction equipment salesperson was very rare. Jill Kennedy is possibly the lone woman in the world who has sold both pile driving equipment and large-diameter foundation drills. She is certainly the only one who has crossed the industry gap between pile driving equipment sales and drilled shaft rig sales, a divide some might call joining the competition. After close to 25 years in the pile driving world, Kennedy has now worked a little more than two years for Watson Drill Rigs, Fort Worth, Texas. Kennedy, the northeast account manager for the firm, is based in Baltimore and travels a good part of her time. How did Kennedy get to be a familiar face in the foundation world? She started out by studying child psychology at Oneonta State University in New York. After college, she moved to Northern Virginia and started working as secretary for a pile driving equipment distributor. At the time, she says, she had no idea what a pile hammer was. Her career is quite a departure from her earlier college track. It didn’t take long, just four years, for her and others at the firm to see that a new pile driving equipment distributorship could be a successful endeavor. Kennedy and others, including her long-time business partner, Terry Lee, started Drive- Con in 1987. The company started out as a Watson employees at a DFI conference in Miami in 2003. Af ter seeing how persuasive she was, David Watson, a third- generation Watson, told her that one day she would be working for Watson. Both Watson and Kennedy talk about building trust. “We are not selling a commodity,” he says. “An OEM needs to build genuine relationships because both parties benefit through that collaboration. The advantage to the customer is that the OEM business model helps optimize their valuable equipment to best match their particular geology.” Watson adds that the equipment can be costly, from $300,000 up to over a million dollars. Kennedy puts great value on her customer relationships, “I have known Jill for over 25 years and found her to be very committed to success. She is a personable, hardworking, customer-oriented, problem-solving person, with a great sense of humor.” Working for Watson Doug Watson, for whom Kennedy now works, had long admired the way she got along with everyone in the industry — seeing her at conferences and meetings. “Jill has rapport with people, connects without pressure,” says Watson, noting that the foundation industry is a small world and everyone knows everyone else. “Her first hour on the job proved she was a good fit for our company. She arrived at a conference event late in the evening and walked into a room full of rowdy drillers in the Watson hospitality suite. I knew if she could handle that situation with poise and professionalism, she could handle anything.” Watson is president of Watson Drill Rigs, which has been in business for four generations. They are one of very few original equipment manufacturers (OEM) companies in the U.S. construction equipment business. Kennedy met some saying the “ideal” situation is one in which the customer knows they can count on her to solve any kind of problem, day or night. Her work is geared toward relationships, which include families. Constant Customer Contact Kennedy’s work week varies from week to week. Most weeks she is on the road meeting with customers. She might offer a presentation on drill rigs or check on the current status of the equipment. Some- times she makes cold calls, hoping to generate new business. As part of her job, she supports DFI, and other industry groups, such as ADSC. Other events she attends include utility contractor and transmission line conferences. Kennedy said she enjoys taking clients down to the Watson factory in Fort Worth. There, they can see the entire production process from start to finish. It’s a very impressive operation, she says: “From the DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JAN/FEB 2016 • 57
