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Worthington Products: A Worldwide Leader in Waterway Barrier Technology
Paul Meeks with an ODINBoom system and public-safety signage.
P
aul Meeks, the president of Worthington Products, is on a mission. His company, Worthington Products, is so well known for its orange TUFFBOOM product line that many people overlook Worthington’s other high-density polyethylene (HDPE), steel, and custom-fabricated waterway barrier systems. Worthington is a multidisciplinary designer, manufacturer, and installer of waterway barrier systems made from steel, HDPE, or molded plastic, and Mr. Meeks wants people to know that. In this interview, he talks with Hydro Leader about the origins of Worthington Products and how it has grown into a worldwide leader in waterway barrier technology.
Paul Meeks: I graduated from Ohio University in 1987, armed with degrees in international business and marketing. I never imagined, coming out of college, that I could marry my college degree with my passion for dams and the outdoors. I have my first postcollege employer, Oiles America, to thank for introducing me to the dams industry. Oiles
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PHOTO COURTESY OF WORTHINGTON PRODUCTS.
Hydro Leader: Please tell our readers about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
manufactures self-lubricating bearings and has its U.S. headquarters near Detroit, Michigan. I spent 5 years at Oiles focusing on the automotive stamping industry. Along the way, I got my first taste of hydro through a quarter-milliondollar project I sold to BC Hydro for its G.M. Shrum Generating Station. I had never been to a hydro plant, so I put on my best dark-blue power suit, white shirt, and red tie and headed west from Detroit to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, I took a puddle jumper 500 miles north, over the Canadian Rockies. My face was plastered to the window as I flew over the most majestic mountain ranges I had ever seen. I said to myself, if this is where hydro installations are located, then this is for me! When I arrived in the small town where the power plant was located, I learned that there, suits are for Sunday services and funerals. I was completely out of place, especially when we went 17 stories below the dam to the scroll cage, which was dewatered at the time. There was no choice but to slosh around, looking at a disassembled turbine unit and seeing where the wicket gates and bearings would be placed. I loved every second of it.
