David Howard, President and CEO-Koss Construction Co.-Kansas, USA, has begun his new position as the 2021 Chair of the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). Aligned with the trend of virtual meetings and Zoom calls, the gavel was passed during the ACPA 57th Annual Meeting—a VIRTUAL EVENT for the first time in 57 years. On December 3, 2020, members and staff witnessed, via computer screens, the passing of a white gavel by 2020 Chair, James Mack, P.E, Director, Market Development, Infrastructure-CEMEX to David Howard—marking the start of his new role as the new ACPA Chair of the Board. To assure a smooth transition, the Chair holds seats as 2nd Vice-Chair, then 1st Vice-Chair, prior to the Chair appointment.
A volunteer position, the Board Chair sits as a partner to other board members, and the ACPA President/CEO, with whom communicates regularly. As the chair supports and sustains the work of the Association, and provides governance leadership, responsibilities include:
• Presiding over board meetings
• Leadership on issues
• Leadership on pursued Association plans
• Serves as the Ambassador of the Association by interacting with:
—Members
—Network of chapters
—Research and technology partners—National Center for Concrete (CP Tech Center)-Iowa State University; the International Grooving & Grinding Association (IGGA); and the Innovative Pavement Research Foundation (IPRF)
—Public officials
Bill Davenport, VP Communications-ACPA told ConstructionPros online news in an interview for an article, “Including some strategic oversight and fiduciary responsibilities, the Chair sets a course of action for ACPA staff, affiliates, and members to follow each year.”
Founded in 1964, ACPA has 2 headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois and Washington D.C. that support its public policy, funding advocacy efforts, and federal agency relationships. ACPA’s primary mission is to advocate for the use of concrete pavements in surface transportation applications. The association has approximately 400 members. Membership is made up of concrete pavement contractors (about 55% of the membership), cement companies, materials and equipment suppliers, and others.
Davenport explained, “On a day-to-day basis we are addressing a wide range of topics to provide the best pavements consistently over time. These include:
• Inter-industry competition, concrete overlay technology, performance-engineered mixtures
• Funding and public policy decisions (notably the support of a robust and adequately funded Federal-aid highway bill, and Federal-aid airport legislation)
• Research, technology and innovation aimed at pavement quality
• Sustainability and pavement resilience
• Downfield issues that may impact transportation-construction 10 to 20 years into the future
• More …”
Early in his career-since the 1990’s
Howard became involved with ACPA
& sees his new role as a way of
giving back to the association.
Another leadership role Howard has held within the ACPA includes Chair of the ACPA Strategic Advisory Committee—somewhat of a prerequisite to leading the board—where he made a significant impact and paved a new path. Howard explained (to ConstructionPros online news in the interview for the same article) that the goal or function of the Strategic Advisory Committee is to engage membership by dispensing ideas on marketing, technology, legislative, or membership engagement, where the association may have ‘blind spots’. The committee provides a mechanism to act upon what is needed. The committee attempted to meet with the entire membership one or two times a year, but when new things come up like COVID, Howard found it was not the most efficient way to engage.
“The vision was simply to restructure this in kind of a matrix organization chart—the matrix has an axis for each functional expertise in:
pavement design
communication
marketing
legislative affairs
construction, etc…”
“Our ACPA staff have all of these things—so we split them up in smaller teams.”
He planned a roadmap to create interest-based “focused” forums for members seeking more information on a specific type of project to hopefully produce an efficient action out of the experts in the Association. Howard’s vision took the existing advisory groups that honed in on specific areas, thereby recasting the model of its groups to create a:
• Highways market
• Permit airport market for streets
• Roads forum
• Industrial forum
Davenport said, “He had a vision for taking a different approach with our Strategic Advisory Committee and the task forces that existed at the time. These firms and committees are … already making a very dramatic difference, that I think, we’re going to see that continue. [David] has a vision for carrying the association well into the 21st century!”
Howard stated, “As the primary trade association for concrete pavement products, ACPA has been the #1 advocate for Koss and the products that we sell, both on a technical and a relationship basis – especially the federal and state levels.”
He added, “[as Chair of the Board, I like that] the ACPA is very good at what it does. It has a nice toolbox of resources on the technology front … and we have a network of chapter state organizations throughout the [United States and Canada]. I think we’re keeping our eyes on the road, looking ahead, and providing stability. Because in a time of change, you don’t want to get caught up in the minutiae, we have things to do, no matter what gets thrown at us.”
Howard looks to leverage the decades of his experience for his new role. “I understand how sales opportunities come in—the municipal owners/the state owner; I understand the process; and I understand the technical side of concrete pavement. And, having been involved in the ACPA for so long, I understand the association well.”
Through hard work and determination, Howard values focus. He imparts this piece of advice: “Somebody once said to me, when you get into executive-level positions, one of the strongest things you have to lean on is that you have pretty much seen everything before. There may be some nuances and some changes, but it’s the time-tested ability to deal with whatever comes up and maintain focus on the agenda.”
To learn about Koss Construction and its 119-year history, and to read the ConstructionPros online news article, please go to: https://www.forconstructionpros.com/concrete/article/21208415/a-vision-of-the-long-road-ahead-profile-of-david-howard-2021-acpa-chair-of-the-american-concrete-pavement-association