Talking Company Culture and Precast Concrete with Claude Goguen

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Claude Goguen. Claude is a civil engineer from Canada and works for the national precast concrete association, a trade association representing precast concrete manufacturers throughout North America. He's been with NPCA for 14 years and mainly works on training and outreach. So Claude, welcome to the show. Claude Goguen: Thank you very much for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with NPCA. Claude Goguen: I graduated with a civil engineering degree in Moncton, New Brunswick, this little town on the east end of Canada. And it was poor timing for me for graduation because the local economy was in a bit of a rough shape. So I expanded my job search and got hired by a precast manufacturing company in Columbus, Indiana. So I packed my Chevy cavalier at the time and drove 30 hours Southwest to a new land of new opportunities. And I ended up working there for ten years or so and then worked for general contractors and developers in Indianapolis, staying in Indiana. And finally, I ended up back in precast, where NPCA hired me in 2008. Lisa Ryan: wow. So what is it that you like best about precast? What's kept you in the industry for so long? Claude Goguen: Good question. I love concrete. I've always since I've been in construction. I've loved working with concrete, and precast concrete is a great industry because we get to make these amazing things out of concrete and then let them cure, and you can ship them out. It's almost like making art pieces, even for a manhole, sewer, or things. But just the idea and working with members and manufacturers have been a great industry from both sides. I've been on the precaster side and also on the association side. And it is a growing industry. It's something that even though concrete's been around for such a long time and seems such an ancient construction material, the technology behind concrete and the incre