MEMBER PROFILE Vanessa Lucido: Excellent Business Sense 2. Responsibility – You have to come out Growing up, Vanessa Lucido remembers two distinct sounds: The sound of hooves in the dirt from horses running wild in the pasture, and the growl of engines in drill rigs turning augers into the earth. These days, her world still revolves around horses and horsepower. At age 26, Lucido became the CEO of ROC Equipment, a multi-million dollar foundation equipment company. She grew up learning every aspect of the industry while working at Becho Inc., her family’s drilling contracting company. After Becho was sold in 2011, she transitioned to ROC. In 2012, Lucido became CEO, but it came at a high price. At age 59, her father died in an industry-related accident and she was catapulted to the top position. Lucido’s parents purchased a ranch when she was 4 years old and her life became a mix of horses and drill rigs. A few years ago, she came across a blog entry at Freedom Woods, a hunter jumper stable, titled 10 Lessons I Learned from Horses. She believes these lessons relate to her role in the drilling industry. 1. Confidence – With horses, confidence comes from managing and training an animal of that size and ability. To Lucido, confidence is having the knowledge to speak eloquently about a topic. When she assumed the CEO role, many industry members were surprised. As a young woman, she was an anomaly in the industry. Frank Prosser of Legacy Foundations says, “She has done an excellent job dealing with being a rare woman executive in a predominantly male industry. She doesn’t let it bother her.” Growing up, she thought it was natural for women to do anything. Her mother was the only woman on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic committee, and her aunt owned and operated her own blasting company. Witnessing strong women and having the unending support of her father and brothers fostered her confidence. and care for a horse every day, even when you are sick or lazy. They depend on you. When Lucido’s father died, she saw the huge hole he had left. While she coped with her immeasurable sadness, Prosser saw her deter- mination to make ROC work to provide for her family and the ROC employees. Jim Close, another industry colleague, also commented on her great sense of respon- sibility. “She is the mother of a 6-year-old girl and she recently got her MBA, all while running successful companies.” 3. The value of hard work – Horses take hours, weeks and months to train. You may spend hours and hours thinking you will never get it. Drilling is not easy, and it takes hard work. Lucido has two brothers who are also very successful in the drilling industry. When they were children, Lucido’s father was adamant that they all should be treated the same, regardless of gender. At Becho, Lucido worked right alongside her brothers. It was also known in the Lucido family that the first sibling to graduate from college would take over the company. She crossed the line first when she received a B.A. in humanities and business, and then continued to obtain her MBA. 4. Nothing works ALL the time – Riding a horse is about balance and feel, you can’t ask for the same thing all the time. Drilling equipment breaks! Lucido remembers being anxious the first time this happened, but soon realized “this is life, and, more importantly, this is drilling.” Due to many variables and unknowns, equipment can be stressed and break, no matter the quality or how experienced the operator. This is a life lesson that Lucido tries to remember at ROC, where she thinks equipment can always be improved by focusing on making it stronger, safer and more efficient. During meetings at BUMA Equipment, for whom ROC is the North American distributor, she uses her safety training and contractor field experi- ence to help design improvements to their equipment. 5. Patience – You have to be patient when working with an over-sized animal. First, your horse needs to understand what you expect, then they need to be agreeable to it. If you jump the gun and get aggressive or upset, they react. Lucido strives to be patient in all aspects of her life. She understands that nothing comes without hard work, focus and perseverance. By clearly detailing her long-terms goals for the company, she has been able to set a course for obtaining those goals. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • SEPT/OCT 2017 • 61
