BIC Alliance Founder & CEO Earl Heard
Welcome to our April 2019 issue of BIC Magazine -- your business and industry connection for the past 35 years. In addition to celebrating our 35th year of publishing BIC Magazine, we are celebrating the 26th year since BIC Alliance CFO Theresa Kennedy joined the company. We are also celebrating the 20th year since my partners, Thomas and Dane Brinsko, and BIC Alliance Associate Publisher Heather Cavalier joined the company.
We are celebrating our 15th year since we launched BIC Media Solutions and published our first "Media That Matters" book, "It's What We Do Together That Counts: The BIC Alliance Story." 2019 is also our five-year anniversary since John Zapalac and I expanded BIC Media Solutions to produce inspirational and faith-related/family- friendly films, TV series and videos.
As we celebrate these milestones, we want to begin by thanking everyone -- God, family, friends, staff, marketing partners, readers and suppliers -- for your prayers, kindness and support, and your role in our success. As most of you already know, "BIC" is our abbreviation for "Business & Industry Connection," and our mission is to connect key decision makers in business and industry and our 300-plus marketing partners with each other for the betterment of all.
When we launched BIC Alliance and published our first BIC Magazine 35 years ago, the energy sector was in an economic downturn. Thankfully, through networking and after I went bust and closed the doors of VideoScan in 1982, my former plant manager, Merlin Koenecke of Ethyl Corp. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, helped get me an interview with John Bender of Hill Petroleum at the refinery in Krotz Springs. I was hired as the training manager at the refinery.
For the Hill Petroleum job, I was also able to get some excellent referrals from other safety and training managers I had met and worked with through API, the Association for Talent Development, and the fire and safety programs associated with ExxonMobil, Shell, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, Louisiana State University and Lamar University. When I got that job interview at Hill Petroleum because of networking, I vowed from that day on to always make training and networking -- which I define as "getting together to get ahead" -- top priorities in my personal, professional and community life for as long as I live.
In this issue, we feature a two-page spread about our 35th anniversary, but I would like to use the limited space I have here to share some thoughts about teamwork and networking. I'd also like to review a few highlights of what has happened since our 30th anniversary in 2014 and this past year since my wife, Bodi, and I moved to League City, Texas.
First, I'd like to discuss teamwork and the role it has played in our success and the success of others about whom we have been blessed to write over the past 35 years. Two "Earl's Pearls" I like to share about teamwork are the definition of "team" as an acronym, "together everyone accomplishes more," and there is no "I" or "U" in the words "team" or "teamwork."
As for networking, it has been jokingly said if the world is coming to an end tomorrow, folks could move to Louisiana and still have five years to live. Louisiana has been historically recognized as being behind the times. My reply is people from Louisiana have learned the importance of making others special. You see this in Texas and other parts of the Gulf Coast as well. I believe the Gulf Coast is the networking capital of the world. I can also say this about the energy sector because it seems networking is in our DNA when it comes to networking in the Gulf Coast region.
In the past five years, BIC Magazine, IVS Investment Banking and BIC Recruiting have enjoyed banner years. IVS Investment Banking completed its largest transaction in our 22-year history, and Hazel Kassu was promoted to president of recruiting for BIC Recruiting. Our Texas office moved into a new building on Columbia Memorial Parkway, and we expanded our digital and social media capabilities. We have also promoted and added several top executives and managers to our organization, and we are filming online content daily, expanding our global readership and working on putting together a networking event in the fall.
BIC Alliance President and COO Thomas Brinsko and our highly capable management team are running the dayto- day operations, and I'm acting as our ambassador, while focusing on creating "Media That Matters." This includes our latest film, "Urban Country," released last year. Also, since moving to Texas, I have been partaking in more speaking engagements, and BIC Media Solutions has relaunched its "Leisure Connection" magazine as a TV series. We have begun filming an "Earl's Pearls" TV series focused on career enhancement, management and leadership. We are partnering with Provicom in Houston to produce two episodes of "The Power of Networking" and with DBM Films in Baltimore to produce three episodes of "Champions of Christian Networking." BIC Media Solutions is also re-releasing and revising "It's What We Do Together That Counts: The BIC Alliance Story," in celebration of BIC Alliance's 35th anniversary. LaunchPad Writing + Research's Ted Moon will co-author the book with me.
In this issue, we include interviews and articles with commentary from Kip Middendorf, vice president and managing director, Wolf Lake Terminals; Jason Duncan, plant manager, ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant; Dan Ducoté, CEO and senior managing member, Enginuity Global; Todd Peretti, president and CEO, Dragon Jacket Insulation; and Scot Desiderio, business development manager for chemical, petrochemical, and oil and gas, Dekker Vacuum Technologies.
We also feature the first part of our safety manager roundtable and bring you information on important topics such as the new Permian Strategic Partnership and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, as well as how to unlock operational efficiencies and optimize human performance.
Lastly, we want to thank each of you for helping make BIC Magazine the largest and most-read multi-industry, multidepartmental energy magazine in North America. We also want to remind everyone that happiness is a choice and great stories need telling! We welcome the opportunity to tell your great story in print or video. Blessings to all!
