This Storehouse makes a difference
With a resume that includes leadership roles at Wickes, PrimeSource, ProBuild and (most recently) Kodiak Building Partners, where he serves as chairman, Paul Hylbert is on the attendee A-list for Design and Construction Week in Las Vegas next month.
And one event that he’s particular eager to join and promote is the Crystal Vision Award breakfast supporting the Storehouse of World Vision.
“They do a great service for people who need shelter and need help,” Hylbert told HBSDealer. “The idea is they take donated products and materials that are either excess, or no longer meet a brand’s requirements but are still useful– and get those materials to people in need. And they do a great job at that.”
Hylbert has been involved with the Storehouse of World Vision effort for years, which enjoys strong participation from the industry. “Companies like Kohler, and Owens Corning, and CertainTeed, and James Hardie—and the list goes on and on,” he said. “They have been extremely helpful in getting those products to people who need them.”
The Storehouse story
In 2000, a group of business, community, and faith-based volunteers joined together to match these products with children and families in need. Together with World Vision, they formed the Crystal Vision Committee and launched the Storehouse of World Vision.
And during the upcoming Design & Construction Week in Las Vegas, the idea will flourish in the form of the Crystal Vision Awards Breakfast to raise awareness and celebrate businesses and individuals who are helping to equip families in the United States to lift themselves out of poverty.
The event is slated for Feb. 28, from 7-9 a.m. at the Westgate Las Vegas. Register here for free.
The concept of giving back to the community and to society has a healthy following throughout the building material industry. He pointed to the relatively new Kodiak Building Partners Foundation, which supports causes including support for employees who have come across medical or other financial burdens. Charitable examples of that nature are common.
Beginning his career at Wickes in 1966, Hylbert was introduced to the concept of the “inverted pyramid” which places C-suite leaders at the bottom, and clients, employees and others at the top. He’s been an advocate ever since.
“The way we maximize shareholder value is not just through earnings, but through treating our employees right, participating in the communities, obviously doing the right thing by our suppliers, by our lenders,” Hylbert said. “And so it all goes together to help the company succeed. Because the company can't succeed unless the employees succeed, the customers succeed, the communities in which we operate are prospering. All those things go together.”
This year’s breakfast event on the morning of Feb. 28 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, will include a panel presentation focused on “Reimagining Home Improvement: Strategies for Success Amidst Slow Home Sales.” Leaders from The Home Depot, McCoy’s Building Supply and James Hardie are slated to participate on the panel.
The state of the housing market is just one of the trends that will permeate the Design and Construction Week, Hylbert said. “Not only the need for affordable housing, which is kind of almost always there, but the need for housing in general,” he said. “We went for a decade or so under-building, and now we have the opportunity with rates coming down a bit and inflation getting more under control. We should see a good opportunity over the next several years.”
