Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
“Project Sammy.”
That was the code name for a huge commercial construction project. The Detroit, Michigan-based contractor wasn’t interested in building in Shreveport-Bossier. It just wanted Brown Builders, a family-owned construction company, to help find subcontractors. In return, the contractor promised something along the lines of, “We will throw you some crumbs.”
But Kristen Brown, who at 42 years old was just settling into her role as Brown Builders’ President, wasn’t satisfied with “some crumbs.” She wanted to eat the whole sandwich and compete with five large cities – and bigger construction companies – for “Sammy”.
“We made several trips to Detroit. I had never been to Detroit. I discovered that at one point, Detroit is north of Canada. It was kind of cool, taking pictures looking down at Canada to our south.”
Ok. Great. But these were business trips. Kristen and her team had to convince the contractor to use pre-engineered metal buildings, instead of buildings made from structural steel, which is what the project architect wanted.
“There was a lot of resistance . . . . It didn’t look like we were going to do really well.”
Then again, David didn’t think he was going to do really well against Goliath. After almost a year, the Brown Builders’ phone rang. It was the folks in Detroit. A decision had been made.
“We convinced them to use this little contractor out of Bossier City. We were successful. They went with Shreveport, which was a success for Shreveport.”
So, what was “Project Sammy”? Oh, nothing more than construction of the 800,000 square foot, almost $26 million Benteler Steel manufacturing plant at The Port of Caddo-Bossier. Brown Builders ordered so much material for the job, Brown Builders was named the 2014 North American Volume Builder of the Year.
“I was excited. I was absolutely excited . . . . I was still so deep in the day-to-day parenting of small kids. I know today I would celebrate the victory a little bit more. At the time, it was just, ‘Okay, now I’ve got to go home and tell my kids, who were like, Cool. Whatever.’”
Kristen, who will turn 53 years old in July, told me this story, and her story, during lunch at a place of her choosing, The Noble Savage. Kristen had the Chicken Sammich, and iced tea. I enjoyed the Noble House Salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing on the side, and water.
“I really think God gives you what you need at the time. I wouldn’t change anything about the path I took to get here . . . . I think God had a plan.”
If so, his plan did not include a straight path. After graduating Top 10 in her high school class at Captain Shreve, Kristen studied broadcast journalism at Washington & Lee University in Virginia.
“I had always been curious about history and public events. I was also taking Russian my freshman year. We were right at the end of the Cold War. I was going to be some diplomat to Russia and solve all the world’s problems.”
But Wayne Brown would have none of it.
“My father arrived my sophomore year and asked me what major I had declared. I told him Broadcast Journalism . . . . My dad, who was a civil engineer and very open-minded for his upbringing, was like, ‘I’m not sending you to this expensive college to get a Journalism degree. You need to study something you can use to do something with your life”
Alrighty then.
Kristen switched to accounting, was good at it, but didn’t like it. Nearing graduation, some of Kristen’s friends were taking the Law School Admission Test, so she figured what the heck. “I had always been told I could argue.”
Kristen was accepted to LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Dad was pleased. Kristen graduated, passed the bar, and became a lawyer, first for a firm, before going into private practice.
“It was a great experience. I made great connections. But I just kept getting drawn back in (to construction). First, I did some construction law. I went and got my contractor’s license so I could represent general contractors and subcontractors on the corporate side. Then, I started helping my dad write letters and put his contracts together when he was running Brown Builders.”
Wayne Brown started Brown Builders in 1971 as a commercial construction company, following his and his wife’s return from California.
“Like so many people, they were drawn to, ‘Hey, I want to raise my family in Shreveport. It’s home.’”
Kristen’s parents earned their master’s degrees from Purdue University, and Kristen was the beneficiary of her mom and dad’s emphasis on education.
“I went to three-year-old kindergarten when very few people were doing that, but I didn’t have everything my friends had. I didn’t have designer clothes. A lot of the kids at First Baptist had the things we didn’t have, but I think a lot of that was by choice. My parents didn’t want to raise us to be materialistic.”
Nor did they want Kristen and her three sisters to be raised thinking they had to one day work for their father.
“My dad was very careful not to create an obligation for anybody. He wanted us to discover who we were.”
In 2010, Kristen had to re-discover who she was. Kristen and her husband of 13 years divorced. With three young children, practicing law became more of a struggle.
“Typically, when I was practicing, I would be in court and the judge would say, ‘Look, it’s five o’clock. I’m just going to finish up tonight. Mrs. Rockett (Kristen’s then-married name), you’ve got 15 minutes to go get child care, but we’re going to keep going.’”
Not much notice for any mother, much less a single mother.
“When it was just me, and I pretty much had full custody, I didn’t have the luxury of working late.”
So, Brown began spending more time around her father’s business. The person who was expected to eventually run the company didn’t work out, and Kristen seized the opportunity.
“I guess it was just in my blood. (My dad) started the company right before I was born, and I had grown up with it. All of our family vacations involved a stop to check out a job site or a prospect. Brown Builders was an older sibling in a lot of ways.”
Nowadays, if cut, Kristen may very well bleed gray.
“I get excited watching a concrete pour . . . . My granddad died at 82, working a full day on Friday, checking jobs on Saturday, and just didn’t wake up on a Sunday morning. The only way he would have died happier is if they had been pouring concrete right at the moment.”
In some ways, Kristen could be considered an artist.
“I love the idea of creating something. When (the kids) were younger, we would drive down the street and say, ‘My momma built that, and by granddaddy built that. You could see the products of your work. It was something visible.”
But surely there wasn’t room for a woman in the man’s world of construction, was there?
“Instead of resisting or fighting the stereotype, I tried to embrace it. I didn’t dress like a man and try to act like a man . . . . Just like practicing law, if you’re being underestimated, allow them to underestimate you until you get to the courtroom. Then, go in and show them you can outdo them.”
Being a mom also helped.
“Sometimes I would have to say, ‘Women are used to balancing it all. We can do a little bit of everything and not be distracted. I joked that a couple of guys fighting on a job site is nothing compared to my two boys that are less than two years apart. If I can break up their fights, two guys on a job site are nothing.”
Always looking for her company’s next project, Kristen, who remarried two years ago, had an appointment with a prospective client. So, it was time to ask my final question. As always, what is it about your story that can help others, especially women?
“Women can do whatever they want to do. Take control of your destiny. Don’t rely on anyone else for your future but depend on people who are willing to help. Find a good mentor. You’re not reinventing the wheel. Ask people who have done it before. Something I wish I had done more of, honestly, is be humble enough to know what you don’t know.”
Follow Kristen’s advice, and perhaps you will find your Project Sammy.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.