With a heavy heart, time to say goodbye

[rrnsr. n Hnppv New Yeen. I hope you enjoyed a great holiday .l-' and time off with your family. As I indicated in my last column, we have changes afoot here at our publications.

Fourteen years ago, I became the owner and publisher of BPD and The Merchant Magazine.I inherited two magazines with a tremendous history supporting this industry back to 1922. David Cutler handed over the reins to me in 2001, and I will be handing them over to our new owner and publisher, Patrick Adams, in the next month as I head for retirement.

At that time in 2001 , I simply had no clue as to the adventure I was about to embark on leading to the best fourteen years of my long career and it was so unsuspected. As I hit 66 just a few weeks back, as one of my recent columns suggested, you need to find the right time to walk away. I have sadly come to the conclusion that time is now. I have been a presidentic.e.o. since I was 24, managing companies in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, UAE, moving continents several times. It is time to take a breather.

I would like to take a brief opportunity to thank two people who early in my career had great faith in me. Reinhold Wuerth (Wuerth KG) and Rodnay Zaks (Sybex) who both hired me at an early age and were responsible for bringing me to the U.S. to manage their companies. In both companies, I learned that I had to work and run hard and anybody who has seen me in this industry knows that to this day I lead my life the same way. I believe in doing nothing without a l00%a passion, energy and commitment and running a company with the highest level of ethics and integrity. I have believed in people and have resisted strongly the hire and fire mentality in the corporate world today.

In 2001, I bought a P&L and a piece ofpaper. I had not counted on finding a home that was a perfect fit for me and my skills. More importantly,I joined an industry with simply the best people I have ever come across in a variety of industries. The friends I have made will I hope be enduring during my retirement. I cannot thank enough the many, many people I have met who have given me hope, commitment and outright friendship. It is only when you have worked in other industries do you realize the value of this one.

So this will be my last column. In 2001, the thought of writing a monthly column was daunting. I had never written before, so I simply shared my thoughts and ideas, which, from your amazing feedback, appears to have hit a chord. I never saw myself as right, I just wanted readers to be intrigued with what I wrote enough to look at themselves or their companies to see if they could do ber ter. Many of my columns have been as an industry cheerleader through a time when, as owners, managers and employees, we were tested to our limits. Of course, today is the perfect time for me to go out, now that the industry has begun to grow again.

I would like to thank a number of people. First, I would like to thank all the wonderful ladies in this industry (there are not enough by the way) who were gracious to have their photos taken with me which has given me such joy and many of my readers too, who have thought I might be enjoying my job too much.

I would like to thank many of the young people of this indus-

Readers Respond

Have a thought or story to share about Alan or our publications as he heads into retkement? Please send a brief email to letters@building-products.com by Jan. 15 to be included in our February issue!

try. They have proved to me that they still do want to read a magazine, despite what you may all hear. Their questions and feedback have been extremely encouraging for the future of this industry. However, this industry is not attracting enough of them, which needs to be overcome.

I would like to thank the many who have given feedback through the years and who have supported our publications through thick and thin. Our advertisers are the most loyal I could ever imagine. And the thousands of comments on how our readers enjoy what we do is what keeps us going.

I would like to thank in particular three of my colleagues who were here in 2001, David Koenig, Chuck Casey, and Heather Kelly. All have supported me through these years, and I will miss them deeply. All will continue with the new owner.

Lastly, I would like to thank my long-suffering wife of 45 years, Pierrette, who has supported my career at every turn and been my partner in this business. As a wife and mother, she is second to none. She has had about 15 career moves to deal with domestically and internationally and should take much of the credit for raising our two wonderful and successful children.

And now to the future. When I made the decision to retire and sell our company, it was critical to me that I found a company that would continue to expand and grow our magazines. Our history back to 1922 was paramount to me in finding a buyer who would believe in the way we do things at this company-very unlike ffaditional publishing houses-and who would lead us on to bigger and better things for a long time to come.

After a few months of talking to a number of companies and mostly remembering the reasons I left corporate life, I came to the conclusion that I needed to find someone like me 15 years ago, who wanted their own show and was disillusioned with corporate life. I am so excited that in Patrick Adams I believe we have found that person. He will tell you more about himself next month, but he joins us with 25 years of executive magazine and publishing experience and will bring new ideas to meet the future. Patrick is just getting to grips with our industry and has already found out at a number of events that he is part of an incredible community of professionals, who do business the old-fashioned way, "on a handshake," who are loyal to the core, love what they do, and have a deep commitment to this industry.

My exit will continue for a few months and still more shows to do, but as I again wrote a few months back in a column-Hey, I am not dead yet-l have plenty to do. My passion is travel, but I will consult for comoanies and individuals and I hope to find ways to continue to support this industry. My email address will stay the same, so please keep in contact.

Dear readers and friends, thank you for what you have given me. I enter retirement happy that I have had the best 14 years of my life, but leave with a very heavy heart. Thank you. Wishing you great sales and success and hoping you will have as much joy in your life as I have had.

Alan Oakes Publisher ajoakes@aol.com

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