GCC Ready Mix Market Manager Named Promoter of the Year – Pavements

NRMCA’s Promoter of the Year – Pavements Award is presented for outstanding contributions in support of concrete promotion; this year Dave Gray, market manager for Producer member GCC Ready Mix has won the award. Mr. Gray has been in the cement and concrete industry for 26 years and with GCC Ready Mix since 2006. His first assignment with GCC focused on specialty products and he embraced it with enthusiasm, noted NRMCA Vice President, Local Paving, Phil Kresge. Gray's experimentation with special mix designs for expansive cement and rapid setting cement products resulted in an ACI Award for Innovation in Mix Designs.

More recently, Gray became deeply involved in the promotion of concrete overlays of asphalt parking lots. While at a GCC sales meeting, he saw a presentation by Kresge's colleague, Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Jon Hansen, regarding concrete overlays and the potential market opportunity they represent. Capitalizing on his new-found opportunity, Gray worked with the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association to organize a concrete overlay seminar. Along with Hansen, Gray gave a presentation to 30 contractors and industry professionals. From this seminar, one local contractor promoted and completed a 52,000 sq. ft concrete overlay for the John Elway auto dealerships in Denver. The project was just the first in a number of projects for Elway and became a springboard for other overlay projects in Colorado.

Within GCC, Gray has also been a leader in developing marketing plan for parking lots. Working with NRMCA, he organized three Selling Concrete Parking Lots Boot Camps in Tulsa, OK; Rogers, AR and Sioux City, IA. The Boot Camps brought members of the GCC sales team and one select contractor from each market together for intense, 10-hour training programs. As a result of the Boot Camps, several projects have been secured. Gray is now working with NRMCA Vice President, Local Paving, Don Clem on converting a 28,000 sq. ft. parking lot overlay for the city of Thornton, CO. When the project is completed this spring, it will be used to show how concrete overlays can correct existing drainage problems.