MEET OUR EXECUTIVES-Part 2
It is now time to meet the three other members of the executive team at Texas Solar which includes the Director of Production, Jim Coffee, Director of Business Development, Wade Turner, and Director of Communications, Mark Buley. This week will focus on Jim, Wade, and Mark’s roles and impacts at Texas Solar.
Director of Production- Jim Coffee
Jim graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Texas State University and entered the education field as a teacher. After a brief time in the teaching field, he changed careers to electrical work, specifically in commercial work with the goal of breaking into the solar industry. Eventually, he was hired by a solar company in Austin, Texas. He worked as a panel installer, then as a site surveyor and designer, and then earned his NABCEP certification. He changed companies and continued to learn a lot about the industry, until he was finally hired by Texas Solar Integrated in 2017. He started out with multiple responsibilities, as Texas Solar Integrated was a small company at that time. He was responsible for permitting, design, installation scheduling, and several other parts from the start to completion of projects. It gave him a very comprehensive experience in solar and prepared him for the rapid growth the company experienced under the new ownership in 2019.
His workday consists of a combination of pouring over the CRM platform of projects and going over the progress of the pipeline in different segments. He also addresses urgent issues every day to keep the operations moving smoothly. Due to the wide variety of issues, he assists multiple people in many different departments daily. If there is an issue or concern, he steps in to help solve it.
As the Director of Production, he works with the site survey coordinator, the design team, and the permitting and utility departments in ensuring smooth operations. All areas of the company interface with Jim and his team.
Incoming projects are received by the finance department, which then screens the projects and hands it over to Jim’s team for processing. Jim and his team work together to understand the customer’s needs. They are responsible for conducting surveys, creating designs and submitting the documentation required by the concerned authorities. While doing so, he also works closely with the finance department to ensure the costs are correct for each project. As a result, this sets up the construction department with everything they need to complete the project, including permits, HOA documents, and Interconnection Agreements. His team facilitates every project all the way through construction, inspection, and completion.
Jim’s 3 words to describe his work life are “Rapid Fire Juggling.”
There are constantly moving parts and a lot that happens under his area of responsibility, so it is a finely curated juggling act to manage. The most significant part of his job is having a macroscopic view of almost all processes in the company. He is involved in all processes from the very beginning to the end and manages the people who facilitate those processes, so it is imperative that everything is done with purpose and direction. His most memorable moment at Texas Solar was the arrival of Mike Sardo and the immense growth of the company in such a short period of time. Seeing the company expand and be successful has been a major shift and extremely impressive.
Director of Business Development — Wade Turner
Wade has BAs in Business Communications and Economics from UTSA & UT Pan American, and an MBA from UT Pan American. After 21 years of service in active duty and the national guard, he retired in 2005 from the military. Wade has been married for 30 happy years, is hopeful for the next 30, and has 5 children.
Upon graduation, he started an insurance agency, grew it and sold it, going on to become a business development consultant. Through this experience, he worked with many different industries, from education to construction to waste disposal. The focus was to take companies who were struggling and help them find explosive success. Not long ago, one of his fraternity brothers at UTSA reached out after buying a solar company and needing a Director of Business Development, and shortly after, he started working at Texas Solar.
As Director of Business Development, Wade’s job is to support constant growth. Since he started, he has helped with approximately 20% of the growth of Texas Solar.
An average workday for Wade is long. He is up and working between 5 A.M. and 5:30 A.M., cleaning up emails and doing other administrative tasks. The rest of his day is spent identifying growth opportunities. In his daily work life, he is responsible for coaching his team and fostering personal development and growth. Moving past his normal realm, he does get involved a bit in the installation process and helps foster communication between homeowners and Texas Solar.
Three words Wade uses to describe his work life are: Motivated, Excited, and Happy.
One of his most memorable moments was during his training where all the pieces seemed to fall into place and he became comfortable with the industry model. His vision for Texas Solar is growth. Everything he does is focused around growing consistently and gracefully.
Director of Communications — Mark Buley
Mark is another executive who comes with a background in academia. He was a music educator, specifically a band director at the high school and middle school level for 32 years in the South-Central Texas area. The last 6 years of his career were in administration of fine arts programs for Seguin ISD. He retired from that life and made a transition to business. He became a travel consultant for a music travel company that took high school and junior high music groups around the country and world to perform and compete. Shortly after starting that, COVID hit, and the travel industry was adversely impacted. His hours were reduced, he started to look for other opportunities, and he started working for Texas Solar in July of 2020.
Mark’s average workday involves two levels of communication — internal and external. The internal communication happens among teams at Texas Solar and consists of monitoring communications systems, creating standard operating procedures for that system, and finally providing guidance on protocols on emailing and messaging. The external communication work consists of supervising a team of customer service representatives who take calls and emails from sales partners. His daily tasks also include assisting with overseeing project movement from phase to phase in the production pipeline.
His team impacts and works with several different departments. They communicate with the construction department regarding updates for the homeowners and sales representatives. They also receive and provide updates for the permitting and utilities departments, which includes assisting those departments with getting proper documents and signatures. There is a similar relationship with the finance department for assistance with loan applications, and constant back and forth discussion to keep projects moving through the pipeline.
The three words Mark would use to describe his work life are: Proud, Power, and Professionalism.
Mark is proud of the solar industry and the fact that he is a part of something that saves homeowners money and has a positive impact on the environment. Solar provides power, and he is surrounded by professionals who care deeply about customers and that shows in their daily work.
The most significant part of Mark’s job is the continual flow of information between Texas Solar and sales companies. Without clear and proper communication, relationships can be damaged and can negatively impact the company, so he takes this continuous flow of information very seriously. Mark has two very memorable moments at Texas Solar. The first was when the company moved from their old facility to the new offices. It was the same work, but the environment in which the office thrives now has raised everyone’s demeanor for getting work done. It has completely changed and raised the game. The second one is a leadership retreat that the executives attended at a ranch in Bandera, TX. This time was spent together focusing on roles and improving the level of service to customers in an organized and formulaic way. The theme that emerged from that experience was that work is intentional; it elevated the company and encouraged all executives to be proactive.
With this, we come to the end of part 2 of ‘Meet Our Executives’ series. We have more in the ‘pipeline’ ! Keep following our page and keep enjoying our blogs.
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