As vice president and director of process safety at BakerRisk, Bill Mather saw an industry-wide need for high-protection building structures to protect personnel on-site in the event of disaster. Over the past two years, BakerRisk formed FORTRESS Protective Buildings LLC to solve this problem, with Mather as FORTRESS president. BIC Magazine recently spoke with Mather to learn more about FORTRESS' offerings to the industry.
Bill Mather, president of FORTRESS Protective Buildings LLC and vice president and director of process safety at BakerRisk
BIC: What drew you to create FORTRESS?
MATHER: After 20 years in the nuclear and oil and gas industries, I joined BakerRisk in September 2001 to focus on process safety consulting. During my 19-year tenure here, my focus has been to protect people and reduce site risk by working with clients to implement strategic risk mitigation solutions.
While conducting site visits across the globe, it became clear there was no industry solution for a fast-turnaround, high-protection building that truly protected site personnel from explosions, jet fires, toxic gas and fragments. It was frustrating to have clients require such a solution without having a modular, turnkey option that wouldn't take months or even years to design, engineer and construct.
What began as a need for a solution and a weekend team project in my garage evolved into a two-year investment by BakerRisk to design, build and test this solution. Within the past few months, this idea has developed into a new market option offered by FORTRESS Protective Buildings LLC.
BIC: What do the "5 Ps" mean to you?
MATHER: The "5 Ps" stand for "poor planning promotes poor performance." This arises from old military adages that have been adapted over the years. This version was passed along to me by my dad and has always really rang true to me; without well-thought-out plans, the likelihood of failure increases. This is especially true for new businesses like FORTRESS, where the product is creating a new market category for addressing site hazards. Because they're new, a significant amount of industry education is required about what actually happens to people in buildings traditionally selected for site use in the event of an incident and how FORTRESS overcomes these shortfalls.
Approaching this challenge with the "5 Ps" in mind has led to a successful company launch, which took a significant amount of teamwork and coordination. For success in launching a business that sells a product rather than billable hours, you need an adaptable mindset.
BIC: What is FORTRESS' goal for 2020?
MATHER: So much has changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. The processing industries continue to be critical to both our national infrastructure and the global economy. With our clients continuing to invest in protecting people, we are leveraging available technology to inform the market about FORTRESS and its benefits to the safety and protection of employees, while also offering a comfortable working environment.
Our goal is to provide clients with the best buildings available for protecting workers located in potentially high-hazard areas. To achieve this goal, it's essential that I maintain a healthy business for our employees so we can continue to offer FORTRESS buildings in our effort to support our clients' goal of protecting their people.
For more information, visit www.FORTRESSProtectiveBuildings.com or www.BakerRisk.com.
