With more than 30 years in the concrete and ready-mix industry, Gibbons is the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute’s (CRSI), Schaumburg, Ill., resident expert with regard to the material aspects of concrete.
Gibbons’ career started at Master Builders (now BASF), Cleveland, where he became a national account manager. Then he moved to Euclid Chemical, Columbus, Ohio, as its director of technical services and in 1995 joined Central Ready Mixed in Milwaukee, a division of Prairie Materials, Bridgeview, Ill., managing its cement lab and quality control department. While there, he developed practical high-performance mixes, low-shrinkage mixes for slabs on ground, low heat mixes for mass concrete, high-strength concrete for structures, and self-consolidating concrete mixes.
When he joined the CRSI staff, he was told his job was to help put the “C” back in CRSI. As one of eight regional managers, each with expertise in different areas, his job is to meet with owners, engineering and architectural firms, universities, public bodies, contractor groups, and community groups to educate and encourage them to consider the benefits of using reinforced concrete. Their specific focus is structural concrete; if they can sell the values and benefits of concrete construction, reinforcing steel comes along as part of the package.
Gibbons’ full-time job is delivering the value and benefits message and reinforced concrete; he is constantly presenting to groups within his Midwest region, as well as all across the country. The irony is that an organization whose historical purpose was to represent members who sell rebar ends up marketing the benefits of using concrete. With all his hands-on concrete experience, he is the ideal person to do this work and he probably presents the personal concrete message to more than anyone else in the country.
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