50 years of happiness resulted from this: Talented people, Unparalleled Cleaning, & Awestruck customers.

Table Of Contents The Beginning pg. 08 The Rise pg. 16 Vacuums and Providing More pg. 26 Fabrication pg. 34 Mobile Water Fleet pg. 44 Automotive pg. 52 Fundmentals pg. 64 Porta Kleen pg. 72 Safety pg. 82 Community pg. 92 Spirit OF Family pg. 100 Expanding pg. 108 Aviation pg. 118 The Future pg. 124

50 years of happiness resulted from this: Talented people, Unparalleled Cleaning, & Awestruck customers.

Table Of Contents The Beginning pg. 08 The Rise pg. 16 Vacuums and Providing More pg. 26 Fabrication pg. 34 Mobile Water Fleet pg. 44 Automotive pg. 52 Fundmentals pg. 64 Porta Kleen pg. 72 Safety pg. 82 Community pg. 92 Spirit OF Family pg. 100 Expanding pg. 108 Aviation pg. 118 The Future pg. 124

I

years

INTRODUCTION

t all began modestly more than 50 years ago when entrepreneur and business leader Monte R. Black founded MPW Industrial Services in 1972 with one waterjet cleaning truck and a commitment to being the best. Fast forward to 2022, and the company employs over 4,000 people at more than 80 locations across North America. Today, MPW is one of the premier industrial service companies in North America. But, MPW’s first half-century, while very successful, wasn’t always easy and the company’s journey is a testament to the power of teamwork, passion and persistence. In honor of MPW’s 50th anniversary, the company’s monthly newsletter—called the Leader—devoted each 2022 edition to telling the story of MPW’s rich history and how it overcame all the challenges associated with growing a thriving family business from humble beginnings. This publication’s 12 chapters illustrate how it takes unwavering customer service, high standards, a strong work ethic and responsiveness to win in the marketplace. But, in addition, the team at MPW proved that true success can’t be achieved without having fun along the way!

I

years

INTRODUCTION

t all began modestly more than 50 years ago when entrepreneur and business leader Monte R. Black founded MPW Industrial Services in 1972 with one waterjet cleaning truck and a commitment to being the best. Fast forward to 2022, and the company employs over 4,000 people at more than 80 locations across North America. Today, MPW is one of the premier industrial service companies in North America. But, MPW’s first half-century, while very successful, wasn’t always easy and the company’s journey is a testament to the power of teamwork, passion and persistence. In honor of MPW’s 50th anniversary, the company’s monthly newsletter—called the Leader—devoted each 2022 edition to telling the story of MPW’s rich history and how it overcame all the challenges associated with growing a thriving family business from humble beginnings. This publication’s 12 chapters illustrate how it takes unwavering customer service, high standards, a strong work ethic and responsiveness to win in the marketplace. But, in addition, the team at MPW proved that true success can’t be achieved without having fun along the way!

BEGINNING in the

Early days of MPW

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BEGINNING in the

Early days of MPW

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“- HELP -—a simple word yet one that Monte Black and his company MPW have always provided. I’ve worked in the power industry for 45 years and Monte’s friendship helped me find my own success.” Matt Roush —Maintenance and Operations Manager, AEP Rockport

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022 marks MPW’s 50th anniversary! To commemorate this milestone, The Leader will showcase a monthly historical feature from our proud past. Enjoy!

In 1972, Monte recruited his former basketball teammate and friend, Dave Brown, to help make the dream of owning and operating a successful truck washing company a reality. MPW—originally called Central Ohio Mobile Power Wash—began with Monte, Dave, one mobile waterjet and the drive to succeed. Every day, Monte would learn more and more about the proper equipment, operations and the business savvy needed to reach his goal of building a successful and hardworking team. Dave, who would later spend his career with MPW and help the company reach its standard of success, remembers the early days of washing trucks fondly. “The trucks we would wash weren’t being driven on weekends, so that’s when we could clean them,” Dave said. “Early on, I was working as a truck driver during the weekdays and I’d jump over to help Monte and our friend Bob on the weekends to wash as many trucks as possible.” Dave enjoyed competing with Monte and Bob to see how many trucks each of them could wash in a day. “One of my favorite parts was always our evening meetups to check in and see where we landed. It was exciting,” Dave said. “We were young and learning, so those hangouts at the end of the shift were important not only to our success at the time, but it started the foundation for us to grow.” Every day would end with a discussion about everything that happened and what could be done to improve upon what they were doing and become more efficient. “We didn’t know it then, but it made troubleshooting while on jobs sites that much easier,” Dave said. He said most of the time everyone would meet at the last stop after washing trucks and then wash MPW trucks for the day. “It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun!” Dave said. “We thought MPW did the best job of all our competitors, so it was easy for Monte to go around during the weekdays and sell our services. Bob and I made sure we did the job right every time,” Dave said. As business increased, so did the need to hire more people and purchase more equipment. “We wanted to make sure the new people did it right and to our standards, so we started by getting people we knew were hard workers and wanted to hustle,” he said.

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“- HELP -—a simple word yet one that Monte Black and his company MPW have always provided. I’ve worked in the power industry for 45 years and Monte’s friendship helped me find my own success.” Matt Roush —Maintenance and Operations Manager, AEP Rockport

2

022 marks MPW’s 50th anniversary! To commemorate this milestone, The Leader will showcase a monthly historical feature from our proud past. Enjoy!

In 1972, Monte recruited his former basketball teammate and friend, Dave Brown, to help make the dream of owning and operating a successful truck washing company a reality. MPW—originally called Central Ohio Mobile Power Wash—began with Monte, Dave, one mobile waterjet and the drive to succeed. Every day, Monte would learn more and more about the proper equipment, operations and the business savvy needed to reach his goal of building a successful and hardworking team. Dave, who would later spend his career with MPW and help the company reach its standard of success, remembers the early days of washing trucks fondly. “The trucks we would wash weren’t being driven on weekends, so that’s when we could clean them,” Dave said. “Early on, I was working as a truck driver during the weekdays and I’d jump over to help Monte and our friend Bob on the weekends to wash as many trucks as possible.” Dave enjoyed competing with Monte and Bob to see how many trucks each of them could wash in a day. “One of my favorite parts was always our evening meetups to check in and see where we landed. It was exciting,” Dave said. “We were young and learning, so those hangouts at the end of the shift were important not only to our success at the time, but it started the foundation for us to grow.” Every day would end with a discussion about everything that happened and what could be done to improve upon what they were doing and become more efficient. “We didn’t know it then, but it made troubleshooting while on jobs sites that much easier,” Dave said. He said most of the time everyone would meet at the last stop after washing trucks and then wash MPW trucks for the day. “It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun!” Dave said. “We thought MPW did the best job of all our competitors, so it was easy for Monte to go around during the weekdays and sell our services. Bob and I made sure we did the job right every time,” Dave said. As business increased, so did the need to hire more people and purchase more equipment. “We wanted to make sure the new people did it right and to our standards, so we started by getting people we knew were hard workers and wanted to hustle,” he said.

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As MPW expanded its industrial services, the company grew quickly, and teams were working around the clock. “The coordination was fun and made our heads spin, but we did it,” Dave said. “When I think back to all that work; I’m glad that in the beginning it was us two, Monte and me, because we trusted each other, and we knew what we wanted.” People would ask Monte and Dave if they ever thought they would be successful, and they would reply that they didn’t know they couldn’t be successful. They agree that all they did was find out what the mission was and did it. “It was a little different back then,” Monte said. If the job required working 24 hours a day, then everyone on the team had the opportunity to do that. “We’d sleep fast in our truck, smile and keep going. We just didn’t know any better,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest reason, or one of the biggest reasons we’ve been so successful over the years.” “The beginning was hectic and crazy and such a whirlwind, but it was fun and exciting,” Dave said. “We learned so much and we are still learning and growing. MPW has come a long way since 1972, and we aren’t done yet!” The rest, as we’ll see, is history!

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As MPW expanded its industrial services, the company grew quickly, and teams were working around the clock. “The coordination was fun and made our heads spin, but we did it,” Dave said. “When I think back to all that work; I’m glad that in the beginning it was us two, Monte and me, because we trusted each other, and we knew what we wanted.” People would ask Monte and Dave if they ever thought they would be successful, and they would reply that they didn’t know they couldn’t be successful. They agree that all they did was find out what the mission was and did it. “It was a little different back then,” Monte said. If the job required working 24 hours a day, then everyone on the team had the opportunity to do that. “We’d sleep fast in our truck, smile and keep going. We just didn’t know any better,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest reason, or one of the biggest reasons we’ve been so successful over the years.” “The beginning was hectic and crazy and such a whirlwind, but it was fun and exciting,” Dave said. “We learned so much and we are still learning and growing. MPW has come a long way since 1972, and we aren’t done yet!” The rest, as we’ll see, is history!

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RISE Of Industrial Cleaning

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RISE Of Industrial Cleaning

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Y

ears ago, MPW Owner and Founder Monte Black was making a sales call for a truck washing account. While waiting to speak to the client, he was thumbing through a magazine when an article caught his eye about a 10,000 psi water blaster. “We’re working with 1,000 psi,” Monte thought to himself. “Just think of what we could do with a 10,000 psi.” Dave Brown and Monte wasted no time in catching a red-eye flight to Houston, Texas to purchase a 10,000 psi unit. The first project for the pump was cleaning resin from tankers at the Majestic Paint Company. The new water blasting unit was definitely a handful and it wasn’t designed to clean tankers. Still, they mastered the pump. “Our next job at Majestic Paint involved cleaning reactors and heat exchangers. That opened the door to other business targets such as PPG and additional paint companies,” Monte said. One industrial cleaning job led to another, including The Mead Corporation (now Pixelle Specialty Solutions) and The Stone Container Corporation (now the SmurfitStone Container Corporation), among others. One Sunday night, after a long day of washing trucks, the phone rang around 8 p.m. It was an emergency call from the Conesville generating station near Coshocton, Ohio. An ash line was frozen and needed to be cleaned immediately. “I asked for volunteers after being out all day and we still managed to put a crew together for our first shift at a utility plant,” Monte said. “We’d never tackled a job like this before, but we knew we could do it.” The job was incredibly successful; we used a hot water wash truck to feed the water blast pump to clean the 2,200 feet long frozen ash line. We could clean 200 feet of line at a time, versus the plant struggling to remove 20-foot sections of the line to bring it inside to thaw. The temperature outside was 20 degrees and the working conditions were difficult. The MPW process cleaned the line faster without removing sections. This allowed the Conesville power plant to get online faster to generate megawatts for customers. “They thought we were heroes,” Monte said, “and we were. We got everyone’s attention because the unit was offline, and they needed the ash line cleaned to get back online. Because of our professionalism and ‘can-do’ attitude, we were awarded a lot of opportunities after that project. We quickly made a name for ourselves.” “After we got that first pump, it really started to grow,” Dave said. “It just led us to another pump, and another pump. It really took off in the ‘80s.” The industrial sites were large projects with multi-pieces of equipment and larger crews. The magnitude of these projects lasted several days, instead of completing daily truck washing jobs. The industrial cleaning division grew at a very fast pace. 18

19

Y

ears ago, MPW Owner and Founder Monte Black was making a sales call for a truck washing account. While waiting to speak to the client, he was thumbing through a magazine when an article caught his eye about a 10,000 psi water blaster. “We’re working with 1,000 psi,” Monte thought to himself. “Just think of what we could do with a 10,000 psi.” Dave Brown and Monte wasted no time in catching a red-eye flight to Houston, Texas to purchase a 10,000 psi unit. The first project for the pump was cleaning resin from tankers at the Majestic Paint Company. The new water blasting unit was definitely a handful and it wasn’t designed to clean tankers. Still, they mastered the pump. “Our next job at Majestic Paint involved cleaning reactors and heat exchangers. That opened the door to other business targets such as PPG and additional paint companies,” Monte said. One industrial cleaning job led to another, including The Mead Corporation (now Pixelle Specialty Solutions) and The Stone Container Corporation (now the SmurfitStone Container Corporation), among others. One Sunday night, after a long day of washing trucks, the phone rang around 8 p.m. It was an emergency call from the Conesville generating station near Coshocton, Ohio. An ash line was frozen and needed to be cleaned immediately. “I asked for volunteers after being out all day and we still managed to put a crew together for our first shift at a utility plant,” Monte said. “We’d never tackled a job like this before, but we knew we could do it.” The job was incredibly successful; we used a hot water wash truck to feed the water blast pump to clean the 2,200 feet long frozen ash line. We could clean 200 feet of line at a time, versus the plant struggling to remove 20-foot sections of the line to bring it inside to thaw. The temperature outside was 20 degrees and the working conditions were difficult. The MPW process cleaned the line faster without removing sections. This allowed the Conesville power plant to get online faster to generate megawatts for customers. “They thought we were heroes,” Monte said, “and we were. We got everyone’s attention because the unit was offline, and they needed the ash line cleaned to get back online. Because of our professionalism and ‘can-do’ attitude, we were awarded a lot of opportunities after that project. We quickly made a name for ourselves.” “After we got that first pump, it really started to grow,” Dave said. “It just led us to another pump, and another pump. It really took off in the ‘80s.” The industrial sites were large projects with multi-pieces of equipment and larger crews. The magnitude of these projects lasted several days, instead of completing daily truck washing jobs. The industrial cleaning division grew at a very fast pace. 18

19

I’ve always had much respect for monte and the MPW organization, and I appreciated everything they did as an Excellent Supplier for PPG. Doug Hawkins— Manager, PPG Indirect Material & Services

COMPW — Central Ohio Mobile Power Wash, MPW’s original title — continued investing in additional equipment and personnel to keep up with demand and opportunities ahead of us. The industrial cleaning group was turning and burning. The experience and training we gained from every opportunity transferred to the next project. All industries were targeted, including paper, automotive, steel, utilities and refineries. COMPW’s success on each job would generate repeat business while we were still seeking long-term growth. COMPW’s truck washing division dominated the Central Ohio market for many years and helped build the company, but the water blaster was the first piece of equipment that entered us into the industrial service market. Clearly, COMPW was evolving. “Our ability to excel at industrial cleaning was based on the skills we learned through truck washing,” Monte said. Central Ohio provided a strong available workforce to meet the demand for truck washing and industrial services. Our work ethic and positive attitude made the most difficult job easy. We always enjoyed the challenge. We just found the impossible job took a little longer. We began working not only in Ohio but ventured outside the state. We also worked internationally with Alcoa and Westinghouse in the ‘80s. At that point, the “Central Ohio” in COMPW no longer applied, so we simplified it to MPW Industrial Services. We’ve always been an operationally driven company with a “can-do” attitude. Top management and key employees were always in front of our customers and employees to ensure our services exceeded our customers’ expectations, putting MPW’s best foot forward.

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I’ve always had much respect for monte and the MPW organization, and I appreciated everything they did as an Excellent Supplier for PPG. Doug Hawkins— Manager, PPG Indirect Material & Services

COMPW — Central Ohio Mobile Power Wash, MPW’s original title — continued investing in additional equipment and personnel to keep up with demand and opportunities ahead of us. The industrial cleaning group was turning and burning. The experience and training we gained from every opportunity transferred to the next project. All industries were targeted, including paper, automotive, steel, utilities and refineries. COMPW’s success on each job would generate repeat business while we were still seeking long-term growth. COMPW’s truck washing division dominated the Central Ohio market for many years and helped build the company, but the water blaster was the first piece of equipment that entered us into the industrial service market. Clearly, COMPW was evolving. “Our ability to excel at industrial cleaning was based on the skills we learned through truck washing,” Monte said. Central Ohio provided a strong available workforce to meet the demand for truck washing and industrial services. Our work ethic and positive attitude made the most difficult job easy. We always enjoyed the challenge. We just found the impossible job took a little longer. We began working not only in Ohio but ventured outside the state. We also worked internationally with Alcoa and Westinghouse in the ‘80s. At that point, the “Central Ohio” in COMPW no longer applied, so we simplified it to MPW Industrial Services. We’ve always been an operationally driven company with a “can-do” attitude. Top management and key employees were always in front of our customers and employees to ensure our services exceeded our customers’ expectations, putting MPW’s best foot forward.

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VAC-TRUCKS & Providing More

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VAC-TRUCKS & Providing More

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After we successfully completed a job at the Columbus and Southern Electric Company’s Conesville generating station, the phone kept ringing. Conesville asked us to clean a coal reclaim pit. The emergency job required roughly 400 feet of vacuum hose going into what was basically a huge basement full of coal and equipment. The Conesville coal reclaim pit was a major opportunity. “We found a way to service the plant with our existing fleet,” Monte said. To maximize use of crews and equipment, Unit 14 would go to Conesville from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to help clean the reclaim pit after it finished its night shift in Columbus.

M

PW’s entrance into industrial vacuuming is a story of entrepreneurship and innovation. It begins with the City of Columbus facing a challenge at its waste transfer stations. Trash would fall from conveyor belts and become a fire and safety hazard. The city looked for help to clean the conveyors. Several companies, including MPW, bid the project, each ready to send crews carrying shovels and brooms—except for us. We proposed the use of a vacuum truck, which could complete the cleaning much more efficiently with a smaller crew. A vacuum truck was a unique solution at the time. “That’s what differentiated us,” said MPW Owner and Founder Monte Black, and MPW landed one of its first multi-year industrial vacuuming contracts. The crews would clean the material that fell from the conveyor belts overnight from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., five days per week. Our fleet was growing to include wash trucks, water-blasters and vacuum trucks. We had accumulated 13 wash trucks before purchasing Unit 14, our first vacuum truck. We continued to build our vacuum truck fleet with units 15 through 17. We were always looking for more equipment, while at the same time picking up new customers and hiring more people. We were running wide open. It was challenging but so much fun! 28

MPW Introduces Vacuum Trucks to the Industrial Cleaning World

We ran all the vacuum trucks around the clock. It was fun, challenging and profitable. At times we would even have our mechanics service our equipment at plant sites. We couldn’t afford the lost time to take it back to the shop. We worked hard to serve our customers as the company grew. We continued to invest in equipment and people to meet our growth opportunities. Today, we have a fleet of several hundred vacuum trucks with Mack chassis and Super Products vacuum systems. We standardized our fleet of trucks for ease of repair and operator training long before Southwest Airlines standardized its fleet of planes. Our standardization was the beginning of a long-term relationship with Mack that helped foster innovation and productivity. In addition to Conesville, Columbus and Southern Electric (which sold out to AEP) had several generating stations, and we were household names in all of them. It was good work, and with those opportunities came competition. Years ago, like today, our initiatives and engineering skill allowed us to stay ahead.

29

After we successfully completed a job at the Columbus and Southern Electric Company’s Conesville generating station, the phone kept ringing. Conesville asked us to clean a coal reclaim pit. The emergency job required roughly 400 feet of vacuum hose going into what was basically a huge basement full of coal and equipment. The Conesville coal reclaim pit was a major opportunity. “We found a way to service the plant with our existing fleet,” Monte said. To maximize use of crews and equipment, Unit 14 would go to Conesville from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to help clean the reclaim pit after it finished its night shift in Columbus.

M

PW’s entrance into industrial vacuuming is a story of entrepreneurship and innovation. It begins with the City of Columbus facing a challenge at its waste transfer stations. Trash would fall from conveyor belts and become a fire and safety hazard. The city looked for help to clean the conveyors. Several companies, including MPW, bid the project, each ready to send crews carrying shovels and brooms—except for us. We proposed the use of a vacuum truck, which could complete the cleaning much more efficiently with a smaller crew. A vacuum truck was a unique solution at the time. “That’s what differentiated us,” said MPW Owner and Founder Monte Black, and MPW landed one of its first multi-year industrial vacuuming contracts. The crews would clean the material that fell from the conveyor belts overnight from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., five days per week. Our fleet was growing to include wash trucks, water-blasters and vacuum trucks. We had accumulated 13 wash trucks before purchasing Unit 14, our first vacuum truck. We continued to build our vacuum truck fleet with units 15 through 17. We were always looking for more equipment, while at the same time picking up new customers and hiring more people. We were running wide open. It was challenging but so much fun! 28

MPW Introduces Vacuum Trucks to the Industrial Cleaning World

We ran all the vacuum trucks around the clock. It was fun, challenging and profitable. At times we would even have our mechanics service our equipment at plant sites. We couldn’t afford the lost time to take it back to the shop. We worked hard to serve our customers as the company grew. We continued to invest in equipment and people to meet our growth opportunities. Today, we have a fleet of several hundred vacuum trucks with Mack chassis and Super Products vacuum systems. We standardized our fleet of trucks for ease of repair and operator training long before Southwest Airlines standardized its fleet of planes. Our standardization was the beginning of a long-term relationship with Mack that helped foster innovation and productivity. In addition to Conesville, Columbus and Southern Electric (which sold out to AEP) had several generating stations, and we were household names in all of them. It was good work, and with those opportunities came competition. Years ago, like today, our initiatives and engineering skill allowed us to stay ahead.

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I have always admired and respected Monte’s vision for his company and his ability to create a practical, successful, working model of that vision, be it a physical tool or a business practice. Tom Householder— VP Labor Relations, AEP

One way we used innovation to beat the competition was with vacuum pipe selection. Our competitors were using 6-inch flex pipe for their vacuums while we used 8-inch hard pipe to optimize performance and outdo our competitors.

Our Steubenville Operations Manager Gary “Moe” Berger had a famous line. He’d always say, “MPW vacuums; the competition sucks!”

We took every advantage we could to increase productivity and reduce cost. Industry competitors were using aluminum dredge pipe, which was expensive and wore out quickly when vacuuming abrasive material. We did our own research and began using HDPE (high-density polyethylene pipe) for all abrasive materials and non-heat-related jobs.

And then there was the time a large Pennsylvania steel mill hired MPW to clean a blast furnace. The purchasing agent insisted we needed to send 20 vacuum trucks to the cleaning job because that’s how many trucks the previous companies sent. But we didn’t need 20 trucks. We rode in with 15 trucks and completed the job to their satisfaction, which got everybody’s attention. “If the plant wins, everybody involved wins,” Monte said.

We used heavier walled pipe for heat-related vacuuming and purchased our aluminum directly from the manufacturer for cost-savings. And then, we fabricated our own 20-foot pipe sections and vacuum ends. As a result, we increased our pipe’s longevity. Innovation and professionalism set us apart. Crews always cleaned up the work site area after a job was completed. Another innovation was placing racks on our pick-up trucks to haul materials faster and more efficiently. Our trucks were clean, our crews looked more professional than the competitors and we took pride in our work. “We would not take short cuts,” Monte said. “We were never satisfied, and we were always striving to be the best in the business. Whether we were washing trucks, water-blasting or vacuuming we always had great equipment and our own approach to the work, but it was always the people who made the difference, then and now.” Our goal was to give our customers a little more than what they expected, so we could come back to do more. The work was challenging, and the days were long, but we always found a way to keep FUN in the equation. That’s what driven the growth of the company for the last 50 years! 30

Industrial vacuuming procedures demand respect. Without the proper safety equipment and training, there are dangers. We are focused on industrial vacuuming safety, just like all our services. “Don’t lose your fear of this; this is real,” said General Manager Jimmy Peck. “I don’t think the industry as a whole has given as much attention to industrial vacuuming as MPW has.” MPW uses safety tools like Newson Gale devices and Safety T valves. High-tech robotic crawlers, with vacuuming and water-blasting technology, are increasingly used to enter tanks, large pipes, and other hazardous environments. “We’ll see more and more uses for the robotic crawlers,” said VP of Operations Dave Brown. Our employees are adapting to new technology by learning to clean with advanced automated systems instead of relying on traditional methods. As an organization today, we are well positioned—with our strong workforce, and our engineering, IT and training departments working hand-in-hand with operations—to look for new initiatives and find more productive ways to serve our customers.

Monte Black

Dave Brown

Jimmy Peck

Moe Berger

31

I have always admired and respected Monte’s vision for his company and his ability to create a practical, successful, working model of that vision, be it a physical tool or a business practice. Tom Householder— VP Labor Relations, AEP

One way we used innovation to beat the competition was with vacuum pipe selection. Our competitors were using 6-inch flex pipe for their vacuums while we used 8-inch hard pipe to optimize performance and outdo our competitors.

Our Steubenville Operations Manager Gary “Moe” Berger had a famous line. He’d always say, “MPW vacuums; the competition sucks!”

We took every advantage we could to increase productivity and reduce cost. Industry competitors were using aluminum dredge pipe, which was expensive and wore out quickly when vacuuming abrasive material. We did our own research and began using HDPE (high-density polyethylene pipe) for all abrasive materials and non-heat-related jobs.

And then there was the time a large Pennsylvania steel mill hired MPW to clean a blast furnace. The purchasing agent insisted we needed to send 20 vacuum trucks to the cleaning job because that’s how many trucks the previous companies sent. But we didn’t need 20 trucks. We rode in with 15 trucks and completed the job to their satisfaction, which got everybody’s attention. “If the plant wins, everybody involved wins,” Monte said.

We used heavier walled pipe for heat-related vacuuming and purchased our aluminum directly from the manufacturer for cost-savings. And then, we fabricated our own 20-foot pipe sections and vacuum ends. As a result, we increased our pipe’s longevity. Innovation and professionalism set us apart. Crews always cleaned up the work site area after a job was completed. Another innovation was placing racks on our pick-up trucks to haul materials faster and more efficiently. Our trucks were clean, our crews looked more professional than the competitors and we took pride in our work. “We would not take short cuts,” Monte said. “We were never satisfied, and we were always striving to be the best in the business. Whether we were washing trucks, water-blasting or vacuuming we always had great equipment and our own approach to the work, but it was always the people who made the difference, then and now.” Our goal was to give our customers a little more than what they expected, so we could come back to do more. The work was challenging, and the days were long, but we always found a way to keep FUN in the equation. That’s what driven the growth of the company for the last 50 years! 30

Industrial vacuuming procedures demand respect. Without the proper safety equipment and training, there are dangers. We are focused on industrial vacuuming safety, just like all our services. “Don’t lose your fear of this; this is real,” said General Manager Jimmy Peck. “I don’t think the industry as a whole has given as much attention to industrial vacuuming as MPW has.” MPW uses safety tools like Newson Gale devices and Safety T valves. High-tech robotic crawlers, with vacuuming and water-blasting technology, are increasingly used to enter tanks, large pipes, and other hazardous environments. “We’ll see more and more uses for the robotic crawlers,” said VP of Operations Dave Brown. Our employees are adapting to new technology by learning to clean with advanced automated systems instead of relying on traditional methods. As an organization today, we are well positioned—with our strong workforce, and our engineering, IT and training departments working hand-in-hand with operations—to look for new initiatives and find more productive ways to serve our customers.

Monte Black

Dave Brown

Jimmy Peck

Moe Berger

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FABRICATION Our Competitive Edge

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FABRICATION Our Competitive Edge

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MPW was always an aggressive company and our equipment was on the leading edge. Our first fabricator was Ted Nieser, a very talented mechanic and welder who was instrumental in starting our in-house fabrication group. After Ted retired, his son, Rod, took over fabrication with his brothers, Rob and Randy. When Rod began, there were only three fabricators. With such a small crew, each fabricator was highly skilled. The fabrication shop added several machines, so crews no longer had to wait on vendors and others to supply parts or do other work. “It all changed when we did that,” Rod Nieser said. He said we performed general fabrication and maintenance on all the equipment, built aluminum bases for fiberglass DI vessels and all the internals in the tanks. Our tools steadily improved. Today, we have a CNC mill and lathe, a plasma table for cutting parts, a press brake for forming metal and a shear for shearing plates to correct dimensions. We also have a CNC router table for plastic and aluminum, and a plate roll for rolling any round cylinder for tanks and filter vessels along with an angle and channel rolling machine.

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At one point, the fabrication department was running three shifts with a crew of 15. Now we have nearly 60 fabricators. Director of Engineering Justin Pierce leads a talented and creative engineering team that uses the latest technology to continually increase our capabilities. Our engineering team helps our fabricators create the tools and equipment necessary to meet and exceed customer expectations.

ince Day One, MPW has made its own destiny, and its own equipment. There are many reasons why we’ve been successful over the years—our people, our passion, our willingness to get up and go the extra mile—and we’ve fabricated in-house since business began in 1972. MPW built its own equipment because the gear that was available all had standardized water pressure and almost no volume. It wasn’t capable of cleaning everything we wanted it to clean, from trucks to heavy equipment, power plants, steel mills and all industrial jobs. We needed equipment we could take into industrial sites to tackle cleaning coal bins, deslagging boilers and anything else the customer asked us to do. We looked for every possible advantage over our competitors, so we built equipment with more pressure, temperature and volume than theirs, allowing us to do the job better and faster. And, we could fabricate it with specific capabilities to meet all our customers’ needs. As an entrepreneur, Monte’s mission was always to beat the competition. In-house fabrication gave us the upper hand. We began with building our own wash trucks, which led to building vac trucks, water blasters and trailers for industrial cleaning. As we grew, we fabricated whatever we needed to get the job done. 36

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MPW was always an aggressive company and our equipment was on the leading edge. Our first fabricator was Ted Nieser, a very talented mechanic and welder who was instrumental in starting our in-house fabrication group. After Ted retired, his son, Rod, took over fabrication with his brothers, Rob and Randy. When Rod began, there were only three fabricators. With such a small crew, each fabricator was highly skilled. The fabrication shop added several machines, so crews no longer had to wait on vendors and others to supply parts or do other work. “It all changed when we did that,” Rod Nieser said. He said we performed general fabrication and maintenance on all the equipment, built aluminum bases for fiberglass DI vessels and all the internals in the tanks. Our tools steadily improved. Today, we have a CNC mill and lathe, a plasma table for cutting parts, a press brake for forming metal and a shear for shearing plates to correct dimensions. We also have a CNC router table for plastic and aluminum, and a plate roll for rolling any round cylinder for tanks and filter vessels along with an angle and channel rolling machine.

S

At one point, the fabrication department was running three shifts with a crew of 15. Now we have nearly 60 fabricators. Director of Engineering Justin Pierce leads a talented and creative engineering team that uses the latest technology to continually increase our capabilities. Our engineering team helps our fabricators create the tools and equipment necessary to meet and exceed customer expectations.

ince Day One, MPW has made its own destiny, and its own equipment. There are many reasons why we’ve been successful over the years—our people, our passion, our willingness to get up and go the extra mile—and we’ve fabricated in-house since business began in 1972. MPW built its own equipment because the gear that was available all had standardized water pressure and almost no volume. It wasn’t capable of cleaning everything we wanted it to clean, from trucks to heavy equipment, power plants, steel mills and all industrial jobs. We needed equipment we could take into industrial sites to tackle cleaning coal bins, deslagging boilers and anything else the customer asked us to do. We looked for every possible advantage over our competitors, so we built equipment with more pressure, temperature and volume than theirs, allowing us to do the job better and faster. And, we could fabricate it with specific capabilities to meet all our customers’ needs. As an entrepreneur, Monte’s mission was always to beat the competition. In-house fabrication gave us the upper hand. We began with building our own wash trucks, which led to building vac trucks, water blasters and trailers for industrial cleaning. As we grew, we fabricated whatever we needed to get the job done. 36

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“I’ve worked with Monte since 1972 and he’s always been professional, responsive and fair. I consider him both a customer and a friend.” Theresa Sulzer— Procurement Manager, Pixelle

Much of the fabrication staff has been with us for more than 21 years. Initially, the fabrication shop was a 12,000 square feet facility. In 2009, we added another 12,000 square feet of fabrication space. Fabrication’s growth continued when we built the new 76,000 square foot technology center in 2015.

“We’re looking to expand resources and for more opportunities for the shop to grow,” Pierce said. It’s always a matter of doing a cost benefit analysis. Occasionally, there are items where it’s more economical to buy than to produce them. “But, if we can, we’re going to try to do it ourselves,” he said.

Roughly 37,000 square feet of the technology center is devoted to fabrication, including docks to accommodate Industrial Water trailer production and an assembly area to free up space in the fabrication building. The docks create additional floor space for the fabrication crew.

“There is very little we outsource today,” said Fabrication Production Manager Brandon Hale. “It’s also bringing more jobs into the community.” He said in-house fabrication helps the company control lead-in times and quality. In-house fabrication also controls cost.

“We really deal with emergency response,” Pierce said. “We have to be able to act quickly. Sometimes there really isn’t an option to buy something off the shelf.”

For example, Hale said MPW used to purchase steel tanks externally. The tank manufacturer folded but was repurchased. The new owners wanted to charge MPW twice the amount per tank as the previous owner. That’s when we began to make our own tanks.

Expanding our capabilities, we are beginning to fabricate parts and equipment for external customers, such as Kenworth, Toyota, AEP, Kraton, AK and Stanley Steemer, just to name a few. “We don’t want to rely on outsourcing,” Pierce said. “Fabrication gives us more ownership.” Our fabrication department constantly identifies operations that are currently being outsourced or completed off campus and works to figure out how to bring them in-house. For instance, there are fittings MPW can produce for less than half the cost of purchasing them from a vendor. “We’re always changing; we’re always adding equipment and technology,” Pierce said.

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Hale, who’s been with the company 21 years, said we fabricate roughly 90 percent of our equipment. “Half of the ten percent we don’t fabricate is simply because we can’t get to it,” he said. Hale predicts a day when our facilities and personnel will increase to where we can fabricate nearly everything in-house. Hale encouraged all employees to tour our fabrication facility to see everything that happens every day. “Everybody who has taken a tour is wowed,” he said. “What we didn’t do yesterday, we do today.” President Jared Black said he expects us to continue to expand in-house fabrication services through additional machinery and automation. It could also be advantageous to de-centralize and add a second fabrication shop. 39

“I’ve worked with Monte since 1972 and he’s always been professional, responsive and fair. I consider him both a customer and a friend.” Theresa Sulzer— Procurement Manager, Pixelle

Much of the fabrication staff has been with us for more than 21 years. Initially, the fabrication shop was a 12,000 square feet facility. In 2009, we added another 12,000 square feet of fabrication space. Fabrication’s growth continued when we built the new 76,000 square foot technology center in 2015.

“We’re looking to expand resources and for more opportunities for the shop to grow,” Pierce said. It’s always a matter of doing a cost benefit analysis. Occasionally, there are items where it’s more economical to buy than to produce them. “But, if we can, we’re going to try to do it ourselves,” he said.

Roughly 37,000 square feet of the technology center is devoted to fabrication, including docks to accommodate Industrial Water trailer production and an assembly area to free up space in the fabrication building. The docks create additional floor space for the fabrication crew.

“There is very little we outsource today,” said Fabrication Production Manager Brandon Hale. “It’s also bringing more jobs into the community.” He said in-house fabrication helps the company control lead-in times and quality. In-house fabrication also controls cost.

“We really deal with emergency response,” Pierce said. “We have to be able to act quickly. Sometimes there really isn’t an option to buy something off the shelf.”

For example, Hale said MPW used to purchase steel tanks externally. The tank manufacturer folded but was repurchased. The new owners wanted to charge MPW twice the amount per tank as the previous owner. That’s when we began to make our own tanks.

Expanding our capabilities, we are beginning to fabricate parts and equipment for external customers, such as Kenworth, Toyota, AEP, Kraton, AK and Stanley Steemer, just to name a few. “We don’t want to rely on outsourcing,” Pierce said. “Fabrication gives us more ownership.” Our fabrication department constantly identifies operations that are currently being outsourced or completed off campus and works to figure out how to bring them in-house. For instance, there are fittings MPW can produce for less than half the cost of purchasing them from a vendor. “We’re always changing; we’re always adding equipment and technology,” Pierce said.

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Hale, who’s been with the company 21 years, said we fabricate roughly 90 percent of our equipment. “Half of the ten percent we don’t fabricate is simply because we can’t get to it,” he said. Hale predicts a day when our facilities and personnel will increase to where we can fabricate nearly everything in-house. Hale encouraged all employees to tour our fabrication facility to see everything that happens every day. “Everybody who has taken a tour is wowed,” he said. “What we didn’t do yesterday, we do today.” President Jared Black said he expects us to continue to expand in-house fabrication services through additional machinery and automation. It could also be advantageous to de-centralize and add a second fabrication shop. 39

Black would also like to see us increase fabrication for external companies. “People have a need,” he said, “Especially in the business we’re in.” He said we provide high-level service to an industry that can be very specialized. Eventually, Black said he would like to see us offer 3D printing services. “Fabrication has always been a big-time competitive advantage,” Black said. He said companies come to us with problems and not only do we provide customized solutions, but our equipment is more reliable than our competitors. Black said our Ultra Filtration Reverse Osmosis system was particularly impressive, as was the staff’s ability to do HDPE plumbing, versus the traditional fragile PVC plumbing. “Everyone worked together to become experts,” he said. Black said the automated robotic blast booth system we recently created for Toyota is yet another achievement. “It way exceeded my expectations,” he said. “The bigger the problem, the more that our people jump in.” Black said our creations are designed with Safety First. “It’s a big component of how we design our systems,” he said, with advanced robotics as an example. We were also awarded a design patent (soon to receive a utility patent) for a fully double-contained chemical injection system. Director of Safety Matt Dawson said fabrication poses unique safety risks from welding hazards to flying metal shavings. “And, they have to ensure what they fabricated is sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure applied to it,” he said. Dawson said it’s important for MPW to hire trained and qualified people into these skilled trade positions to mitigate risks. There are also specific classes to review safety for various jobs. “My goal has always been to insource as much work as possible,” Monte said. We started with wash trucks, vac trucks and then mobile ROs, followed by shower trailers and all the parts that go into the equipment. The list is endless. “This gives the entire team, from fabricators, to operators and the support staffs the pride of developing and building equipment that exceeds our customers’ expectations,” Monte said. “I’ve often said, people would ask us if we ever thought we would be successful, and I often told them, we didn’t know we couldn’t be.” 40

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Black would also like to see us increase fabrication for external companies. “People have a need,” he said, “Especially in the business we’re in.” He said we provide high-level service to an industry that can be very specialized. Eventually, Black said he would like to see us offer 3D printing services. “Fabrication has always been a big-time competitive advantage,” Black said. He said companies come to us with problems and not only do we provide customized solutions, but our equipment is more reliable than our competitors. Black said our Ultra Filtration Reverse Osmosis system was particularly impressive, as was the staff’s ability to do HDPE plumbing, versus the traditional fragile PVC plumbing. “Everyone worked together to become experts,” he said. Black said the automated robotic blast booth system we recently created for Toyota is yet another achievement. “It way exceeded my expectations,” he said. “The bigger the problem, the more that our people jump in.” Black said our creations are designed with Safety First. “It’s a big component of how we design our systems,” he said, with advanced robotics as an example. We were also awarded a design patent (soon to receive a utility patent) for a fully double-contained chemical injection system. Director of Safety Matt Dawson said fabrication poses unique safety risks from welding hazards to flying metal shavings. “And, they have to ensure what they fabricated is sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure applied to it,” he said. Dawson said it’s important for MPW to hire trained and qualified people into these skilled trade positions to mitigate risks. There are also specific classes to review safety for various jobs. “My goal has always been to insource as much work as possible,” Monte said. We started with wash trucks, vac trucks and then mobile ROs, followed by shower trailers and all the parts that go into the equipment. The list is endless. “This gives the entire team, from fabricators, to operators and the support staffs the pride of developing and building equipment that exceeds our customers’ expectations,” Monte said. “I’ve often said, people would ask us if we ever thought we would be successful, and I often told them, we didn’t know we couldn’t be.” 40

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MPW: building one of the largest mobile industrial water fleets in North America “Monte is a visionary with lots of high energy—a ‘no task is too big’ type of individual—and we formed a partnership with Monte and MPW that lasted over 40 years. I wish to express my appreciation for the efforts of the MPW team members and to say, ‘Thank you Monte Black!’” Robert K. Brown— Maintenance Facilities Manager, Kenworth Truck Company

I

n 1986, MPW was well-established in the industrial cleaning business, serving smokestack industries around the country. The MPW mentality was to find opportunities to provide services for the plant that we were not providing at the time. Monte began seeing mobile demineralization trailers—or trailers that create deionized, or DI, water—at the plants, which piqued his interest. Monte looked over one of the trailers and talked to a chief chemist to learn how it worked. At this point, Monte decided that Industrial Water was a business MPW needed to be in. “If they can do it, we can do it,” he said. “So, that’s how we got started in the water business.” Industrial Water was significantly less labor intensive than Industrial Cleaning and truck washing. Industrial Water was a matter of transporting the trailer to the plant, running water through the deionization process until the trailer was exhausted, and then taking the trailer back to a home base to be regenerated for the next job. At the time, the two biggest mobile DI water companies were Arrowhead and Ecolochem. With some reverse engineering, MPW imitated Ecolochem’s design to build its own trailers. It didn’t take long for the Ecolochem owner to learn that MPW was operating trailers based on an Ecolochem design. The next thing you know, he showed up at Monte’s door with lawyers in suits. They told Monte that the trailer design was legally patented, and he had two choices—either pay expensive royalties to Ecolochem or stop using the trailers entirely. Monte chose not to use the trailers. But, he figured if Ecolochem wanted MPW out of the business that badly, there must be a good reason. Monte’s entrepreneurial spirit and determination drove him to find a way to beat the patent. With the trailers permanently parked, the MPW Industrial Water team regrouped. The team set up shop in Newark, Ohio and Monte collaborated with the owner of a Memphis mobile technology company who had a process different from Ecolochem, which we found to be an improvement over Ecolochem’s design. Project Manager Mike McGonagle, who helped build the first DI trailers, said he and the MPW fabrication team valued the Memphis company’s ideas and then improved upon them to gain the competitive advantage, such as replacing the competition’s heavy steel tanks with fiberglass tanks, which are much lighter and allow for more media.

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MPW: building one of the largest mobile industrial water fleets in North America “Monte is a visionary with lots of high energy—a ‘no task is too big’ type of individual—and we formed a partnership with Monte and MPW that lasted over 40 years. I wish to express my appreciation for the efforts of the MPW team members and to say, ‘Thank you Monte Black!’” Robert K. Brown— Maintenance Facilities Manager, Kenworth Truck Company

I

n 1986, MPW was well-established in the industrial cleaning business, serving smokestack industries around the country. The MPW mentality was to find opportunities to provide services for the plant that we were not providing at the time. Monte began seeing mobile demineralization trailers—or trailers that create deionized, or DI, water—at the plants, which piqued his interest. Monte looked over one of the trailers and talked to a chief chemist to learn how it worked. At this point, Monte decided that Industrial Water was a business MPW needed to be in. “If they can do it, we can do it,” he said. “So, that’s how we got started in the water business.” Industrial Water was significantly less labor intensive than Industrial Cleaning and truck washing. Industrial Water was a matter of transporting the trailer to the plant, running water through the deionization process until the trailer was exhausted, and then taking the trailer back to a home base to be regenerated for the next job. At the time, the two biggest mobile DI water companies were Arrowhead and Ecolochem. With some reverse engineering, MPW imitated Ecolochem’s design to build its own trailers. It didn’t take long for the Ecolochem owner to learn that MPW was operating trailers based on an Ecolochem design. The next thing you know, he showed up at Monte’s door with lawyers in suits. They told Monte that the trailer design was legally patented, and he had two choices—either pay expensive royalties to Ecolochem or stop using the trailers entirely. Monte chose not to use the trailers. But, he figured if Ecolochem wanted MPW out of the business that badly, there must be a good reason. Monte’s entrepreneurial spirit and determination drove him to find a way to beat the patent. With the trailers permanently parked, the MPW Industrial Water team regrouped. The team set up shop in Newark, Ohio and Monte collaborated with the owner of a Memphis mobile technology company who had a process different from Ecolochem, which we found to be an improvement over Ecolochem’s design. Project Manager Mike McGonagle, who helped build the first DI trailers, said he and the MPW fabrication team valued the Memphis company’s ideas and then improved upon them to gain the competitive advantage, such as replacing the competition’s heavy steel tanks with fiberglass tanks, which are much lighter and allow for more media.

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McGonagle said the MPW team developed a DI trailer on the go that’s half the weight of other trailers and still has a higher cleaning capacity. “The other people have to make two trips to our one trip,” he said. This greatly saves the customer in transportation costs because we can provide the same amount of DI water as the competition with half the number of trailers. MPW’s mobile DI fleet grew into one of the largest, even while competing with companies like Arrowhead and Ecolochem— which were bought by GE and Siemens, and today are called Evoqua and Suez, respectively. Our mobile system spawned other MPW services, such as mobile RO and fixed-based systems to the point we are today, where we’re one of the foremost water treatment companies in North America.

“We bring a high level of service like we do in anything, any of our service lines. We really work hard for the customer,” said President Jared Black, who began working along-side the Industrial Water crew while he was still in school. “On the innovation side, we’ve invested a lot with engineering and fabrication. We build the best equipment in the industry, which gives us competitive advantages.” “Our competitive advantage grew from our willingness to design and build custom equipment that was tailored to meet the customer needs,” said Director of Engineering Justin Pierce. “We excel at providing customers guidance to solve their problems as economically as possible.” “We’re continually investing in our existing fleet. I think that’s the one thing that really separates us, is the investment that we’re continually doing in existing technology with DI trailers and RO units,” said IW General Manager Tim Dondero. “But, we’re also investing in the newer technologies such as the High Solids UF and High Solids Clarifiers. These things are opening up new markets for us.” Dondero predicts Industrial Water will continue to expand into the reclaimed water market for environmental discharge and coal ash pond closures, as well as general water recycling and preservation. “I see us going down that path,” he said. However, Dondero’s pleased that some things stay the same. “What hasn’t changed is the customer service focus and the family-driven culture that’s been part of MPW since the day I got here, which is unique,” he said. “Throughout MPW’s history, our competitors would underestimate our drive to succeed.” Monte said. “MPW’s goal was never to be the largest; it’s always been to be the best at every service we offer! As a 50-year-old company, we have a lot to be proud of, but we can never afford to rest on our accomplishments. There’ll always be someone out there trying to beat us. We will continue to invest and innovate to keep MPW on the leading edge of the industry so we can best serve our customers today and long into the future.”

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McGonagle said the MPW team developed a DI trailer on the go that’s half the weight of other trailers and still has a higher cleaning capacity. “The other people have to make two trips to our one trip,” he said. This greatly saves the customer in transportation costs because we can provide the same amount of DI water as the competition with half the number of trailers. MPW’s mobile DI fleet grew into one of the largest, even while competing with companies like Arrowhead and Ecolochem— which were bought by GE and Siemens, and today are called Evoqua and Suez, respectively. Our mobile system spawned other MPW services, such as mobile RO and fixed-based systems to the point we are today, where we’re one of the foremost water treatment companies in North America.

“We bring a high level of service like we do in anything, any of our service lines. We really work hard for the customer,” said President Jared Black, who began working along-side the Industrial Water crew while he was still in school. “On the innovation side, we’ve invested a lot with engineering and fabrication. We build the best equipment in the industry, which gives us competitive advantages.” “Our competitive advantage grew from our willingness to design and build custom equipment that was tailored to meet the customer needs,” said Director of Engineering Justin Pierce. “We excel at providing customers guidance to solve their problems as economically as possible.” “We’re continually investing in our existing fleet. I think that’s the one thing that really separates us, is the investment that we’re continually doing in existing technology with DI trailers and RO units,” said IW General Manager Tim Dondero. “But, we’re also investing in the newer technologies such as the High Solids UF and High Solids Clarifiers. These things are opening up new markets for us.” Dondero predicts Industrial Water will continue to expand into the reclaimed water market for environmental discharge and coal ash pond closures, as well as general water recycling and preservation. “I see us going down that path,” he said. However, Dondero’s pleased that some things stay the same. “What hasn’t changed is the customer service focus and the family-driven culture that’s been part of MPW since the day I got here, which is unique,” he said. “Throughout MPW’s history, our competitors would underestimate our drive to succeed.” Monte said. “MPW’s goal was never to be the largest; it’s always been to be the best at every service we offer! As a 50-year-old company, we have a lot to be proud of, but we can never afford to rest on our accomplishments. There’ll always be someone out there trying to beat us. We will continue to invest and innovate to keep MPW on the leading edge of the industry so we can best serve our customers today and long into the future.”

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AUTOMOTIVE Partner

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AUTOMOTIVE Partner

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n the early 1980s, as MPW was providing industrial cleaning services at automotive plants, it was apparent to Monte that there was a significant amount of support services that we could also provide. “Larger plants have more opportunities. It was like having multiple customers in one location,” Monte said. The strength of our industrial cleaning business helped fuel Facility Support’s early growth. Since we were already at the plant providing industrial cleaning services, we could expand the customer relationship by offering others, such as grate cleaning, paint shop management, sludge removal, and robot covers, to name just a few. Combining related services like industrial cleaning and paint shop management allowed us to provide a more integrated technical cleaning process for the automotive plant. Through this combination of services, we built relationships with paint shop manufacturing companies TKS, Durr and Eisenmann, as well as chemical suppliers Nalco, ChemTreat and Abednego. These relationships helped establish MPW in the automotive plants. And, because we were close to the paint shop manufacturers, we got the early business for the deep cleans at new automotive assembly plants. This kept us a step ahead of the competitors for the plants’ ongoing business. The Honda Marysville Motorcycle plant was our first automotive facilities support customer. Monte visited these plants frequently by helicopter, which gave MPW a branding that everybody knew. From there, in the early years, our facilities support business grew quickly as we added Kenworth of Chillicothe, Ohio; Honda of Alliston, Ontario; Toyota of Cambridge, Ontario; Sterling Trucks of St. Thomas, Ontario; Toyota of Georgetown, Kentucky and others. In the beginning, all of MPW’s services were managed under industrial cleaning. Having all those services under one umbrella allowed us to have a common voice to the customer and capitalize on the administration and support functions.

MPW’s facility support becomes deeply established in the automotive industry

The first time I met Monte was in Texas when MPW was bidding on our contracted cleaning scope of work. He himself joined the bid meeting and impressed me immediately the way he guaranteed our satisfaction. He was not only a top notch owner of a World class company but a good friend. Live Long and Prosper my Friend!! Dan Antis general manager, Toyota

However, as demand for facilities support rapidly increased, we lacked the infrastructure to execute up to MPW quality standards. The industrial cleaning group didn’t have the size to manage both cleaning and facilities support. 54

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n the early 1980s, as MPW was providing industrial cleaning services at automotive plants, it was apparent to Monte that there was a significant amount of support services that we could also provide. “Larger plants have more opportunities. It was like having multiple customers in one location,” Monte said. The strength of our industrial cleaning business helped fuel Facility Support’s early growth. Since we were already at the plant providing industrial cleaning services, we could expand the customer relationship by offering others, such as grate cleaning, paint shop management, sludge removal, and robot covers, to name just a few. Combining related services like industrial cleaning and paint shop management allowed us to provide a more integrated technical cleaning process for the automotive plant. Through this combination of services, we built relationships with paint shop manufacturing companies TKS, Durr and Eisenmann, as well as chemical suppliers Nalco, ChemTreat and Abednego. These relationships helped establish MPW in the automotive plants. And, because we were close to the paint shop manufacturers, we got the early business for the deep cleans at new automotive assembly plants. This kept us a step ahead of the competitors for the plants’ ongoing business. The Honda Marysville Motorcycle plant was our first automotive facilities support customer. Monte visited these plants frequently by helicopter, which gave MPW a branding that everybody knew. From there, in the early years, our facilities support business grew quickly as we added Kenworth of Chillicothe, Ohio; Honda of Alliston, Ontario; Toyota of Cambridge, Ontario; Sterling Trucks of St. Thomas, Ontario; Toyota of Georgetown, Kentucky and others. In the beginning, all of MPW’s services were managed under industrial cleaning. Having all those services under one umbrella allowed us to have a common voice to the customer and capitalize on the administration and support functions.

MPW’s facility support becomes deeply established in the automotive industry

The first time I met Monte was in Texas when MPW was bidding on our contracted cleaning scope of work. He himself joined the bid meeting and impressed me immediately the way he guaranteed our satisfaction. He was not only a top notch owner of a World class company but a good friend. Live Long and Prosper my Friend!! Dan Antis general manager, Toyota

However, as demand for facilities support rapidly increased, we lacked the infrastructure to execute up to MPW quality standards. The industrial cleaning group didn’t have the size to manage both cleaning and facilities support. 54

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The integration of ICG and FEM under one strong leadership team was instantly beneficial. “It was certainly the right thing to do, and I have to give Jared and Jimmy the credit because they made it happen,” Monte said. “It has absolutely exceeded our expectations,” Peck said. “It was really a combination of two extremely dedicated and talented teams. It was a situation where once we combined the groups they became much more than the sum of their parts.” Facilities support continued its growth. In the late 1990s and early 2000s we began servicing many more automotive companies including BMW, PACCAR, Volvo Truck, Mercedes-Benz Van and Volkswagen. Business thrived, and facilities support was renamed FMSS, or Facilities Management and Support Services.

MPW facilities support has changed dramatically since Duane Jolliff was an account manager who joined us in 1986. “It was a different work atmosphere back in the early years. It was insane and busy. We’ve come a long way,” Jolliff said. “We became a big part of the customer’s manufacturing team to help them build cars every day.”

Eventually it was renamed FEM, or Facilities and Environmental Management, when environmental and recycling opportunities were brought into the business unit.

“Facilities Support may have changed over the years, but there was always only one goal,” Monte said. “And, that was always to put the best version of MPW in front of the customer.”

The MPW Industrial Cleaning Group, or ICG, was adding customers, equipment and staffing at a fast pace. Both ICG and FEM were generating excitement in the market and building strong business models. In 2021, President Jared Black and ICG General Manager Jimmy Peck agreed that it was time to re-integrate the two business units to capitalize on the infrastructure that ICG had developed over the years to help support growth and management of the automotive business. Peck said both business units had grown to where they were often assisting each other on jobs, which led to administrative and staffing challenges. Re-integrating the business units under single management would solve those challenges. The newly integrated business unit was called Industrial Services, or IS, as it is today.

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The integration of ICG and FEM under one strong leadership team was instantly beneficial. “It was certainly the right thing to do, and I have to give Jared and Jimmy the credit because they made it happen,” Monte said. “It has absolutely exceeded our expectations,” Peck said. “It was really a combination of two extremely dedicated and talented teams. It was a situation where once we combined the groups they became much more than the sum of their parts.” Facilities support continued its growth. In the late 1990s and early 2000s we began servicing many more automotive companies including BMW, PACCAR, Volvo Truck, Mercedes-Benz Van and Volkswagen. Business thrived, and facilities support was renamed FMSS, or Facilities Management and Support Services.

MPW facilities support has changed dramatically since Duane Jolliff was an account manager who joined us in 1986. “It was a different work atmosphere back in the early years. It was insane and busy. We’ve come a long way,” Jolliff said. “We became a big part of the customer’s manufacturing team to help them build cars every day.”

Eventually it was renamed FEM, or Facilities and Environmental Management, when environmental and recycling opportunities were brought into the business unit.

“Facilities Support may have changed over the years, but there was always only one goal,” Monte said. “And, that was always to put the best version of MPW in front of the customer.”

The MPW Industrial Cleaning Group, or ICG, was adding customers, equipment and staffing at a fast pace. Both ICG and FEM were generating excitement in the market and building strong business models. In 2021, President Jared Black and ICG General Manager Jimmy Peck agreed that it was time to re-integrate the two business units to capitalize on the infrastructure that ICG had developed over the years to help support growth and management of the automotive business. Peck said both business units had grown to where they were often assisting each other on jobs, which led to administrative and staffing challenges. Re-integrating the business units under single management would solve those challenges. The newly integrated business unit was called Industrial Services, or IS, as it is today.

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FUNDAMENTALS Winning MPW Way

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FUNDAMENTALS Winning MPW Way

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hat does it take to win?

Winning is accomplished through the fundamentals that have driven MPW for the last 50 years—customer service, high standards, work ethic and responsiveness. It’s answering that last sales call of the day even though it’s time to go home. “To me, life, business, everything in the world is competitive,” Monte said. “In life, you have to be competitive to be on an athletic team, to land that job interview, or to win the next opportunity.” That determination is what’s built MPW over the last half century and that’s what we need to maintain. When we roll up to the plant in clean uniforms with the American flag on our sleeves, our shirt tails tucked in and operating clean equipment, we want people to notice us. People notice us through our appearance, our professional attitude, our communication skills, our hard work and our safety. We’ve instilled this in our people throughout the company’s history. It’s what got us here today and it’s what we must continue to do for the next 50 years. We’ve got to be confident, good at our jobs and always better than the competition. But, we can’t be arrogant. It is so important to be available when the customer needs us. Our job is extremely critical to all industries across the country, whether it’s steel, automotive, power, petrochemical or pulp and paper. What we do is necessary for them to be successful. When we wrap our professionalism around that, it separates us from everybody else.

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hat does it take to win?

Winning is accomplished through the fundamentals that have driven MPW for the last 50 years—customer service, high standards, work ethic and responsiveness. It’s answering that last sales call of the day even though it’s time to go home. “To me, life, business, everything in the world is competitive,” Monte said. “In life, you have to be competitive to be on an athletic team, to land that job interview, or to win the next opportunity.” That determination is what’s built MPW over the last half century and that’s what we need to maintain. When we roll up to the plant in clean uniforms with the American flag on our sleeves, our shirt tails tucked in and operating clean equipment, we want people to notice us. People notice us through our appearance, our professional attitude, our communication skills, our hard work and our safety. We’ve instilled this in our people throughout the company’s history. It’s what got us here today and it’s what we must continue to do for the next 50 years. We’ve got to be confident, good at our jobs and always better than the competition. But, we can’t be arrogant. It is so important to be available when the customer needs us. Our job is extremely critical to all industries across the country, whether it’s steel, automotive, power, petrochemical or pulp and paper. What we do is necessary for them to be successful. When we wrap our professionalism around that, it separates us from everybody else.

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“I often visit our field operations. Recently, on one of those visits, it wasn’t what I expected, so we’re not always as good as we should be. It’s important to make sure all our locations meet the high standards we’ve instilled over the 50 years,” Monte said. “I thought to myself, ‘We’re better than this.’ So, this is the perfect time to talk about it.” We can’t lose sight of what 50 years means. It doesn’t mean that we have arrived. It means that we have 50 years’ experience and we should know how to navigate the next 50 years based on that experience. This is so important to operations because from a sales aspect, we’ve already raised the bar on our customers’ expectations, and we must deliver consistently high-quality work. If we can deliver what we say, which most of our competitors can’t do, we have instant credibility and we develop customer relationships. Then, we get to go back and do it again. Life and business are very competitive. Our service and quality have to be better than our competitors if we’re going to keep the business. Otherwise, we don’t deserve it. We can think about it like this: In athletics, the franchise players—the superstars— will deliver on what they say they can do nearly every single game!

“Monte was always a man of his word and a high energy kind of guy. He energized everyone who spent any time with him. He’s a man that when you meet him you don’t forget him.” Terry Vollick— Engineering Manager, PPG Engineering

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The culture and future of MPW relies on us maintaining our high standard and service to our customers. No matter what new business, customers or acquisitions we have, we must continue to innovate, add resources and transfer these qualities to our new businesses. All our standards are a process that still relies on leadership. This includes leadership of the business unit, leadership of the district, leadership of the branch, leadership of the project or job and leadership in all staff areas. We are a service company and it isn’t only customer service and quality execution that drives our company—it’s our people! We have 3,500 employees, many of whom are married with families. Our goal is to provide all employees with career opportunities for advancement. We like to promote from within. Working at MPW is a great opportunity to grow and enhance skill sets in so many different areas. “I love this business and I love our organization,” Monte said. “Thanks to all the people who have helped in the past 50 years and all who are helping us today to keep MPW sustained and growing.” MPW will continue to focus on continuous improvement and beating the competition. “It’s beating the competition and exceeding customer expectations that makes every day a winner!” Monte said. “If we continue this mindset, we’ll keep winning for the next 50 years!”

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“I often visit our field operations. Recently, on one of those visits, it wasn’t what I expected, so we’re not always as good as we should be. It’s important to make sure all our locations meet the high standards we’ve instilled over the 50 years,” Monte said. “I thought to myself, ‘We’re better than this.’ So, this is the perfect time to talk about it.” We can’t lose sight of what 50 years means. It doesn’t mean that we have arrived. It means that we have 50 years’ experience and we should know how to navigate the next 50 years based on that experience. This is so important to operations because from a sales aspect, we’ve already raised the bar on our customers’ expectations, and we must deliver consistently high-quality work. If we can deliver what we say, which most of our competitors can’t do, we have instant credibility and we develop customer relationships. Then, we get to go back and do it again. Life and business are very competitive. Our service and quality have to be better than our competitors if we’re going to keep the business. Otherwise, we don’t deserve it. We can think about it like this: In athletics, the franchise players—the superstars— will deliver on what they say they can do nearly every single game!

“Monte was always a man of his word and a high energy kind of guy. He energized everyone who spent any time with him. He’s a man that when you meet him you don’t forget him.” Terry Vollick— Engineering Manager, PPG Engineering

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The culture and future of MPW relies on us maintaining our high standard and service to our customers. No matter what new business, customers or acquisitions we have, we must continue to innovate, add resources and transfer these qualities to our new businesses. All our standards are a process that still relies on leadership. This includes leadership of the business unit, leadership of the district, leadership of the branch, leadership of the project or job and leadership in all staff areas. We are a service company and it isn’t only customer service and quality execution that drives our company—it’s our people! We have 3,500 employees, many of whom are married with families. Our goal is to provide all employees with career opportunities for advancement. We like to promote from within. Working at MPW is a great opportunity to grow and enhance skill sets in so many different areas. “I love this business and I love our organization,” Monte said. “Thanks to all the people who have helped in the past 50 years and all who are helping us today to keep MPW sustained and growing.” MPW will continue to focus on continuous improvement and beating the competition. “It’s beating the competition and exceeding customer expectations that makes every day a winner!” Monte said. “If we continue this mindset, we’ll keep winning for the next 50 years!”

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PORTA KLEEN Joins The Fray

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PORTA KLEEN Joins The Fray

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In 1994 the entrepreneurial bug bit again, and Monte found another opportunity to take a small portable restroom business and grow it into one of the country’s premier sanitation companies. In the early days, MPW was looking for opportunities to complement its service offerings and leverage its expertise. Monte’s first interest in what is now Porta Kleen began with an observation. MPW was present in many industrial environments where portable restrooms were common. These portable restrooms were often unprofessional and not serviced well. Monte knew that MPW had raised the bar for industrial services and thought the MPW team could do the same for portable restrooms, separating us from competitors. Waste Management had a portable restroom division that caught Monte’s attention. Waste Management was struggling with the division and was willing to sell. Monte saw an opportunity to acquire the entire division at a reasonable price, and Porta Kleen was born. “I thought it would be easy to bring the restroom business up to MPW standards. But I was dead wrong,” said Monte. “We were robbing Peter to pay Paul, using MPW people and resources across two companies.” For example, MPW’s Denise Denton was sent to help get the ball rolling. She was joined by Pat O’Rourke, who was responsible for human resources. Porta Kleen needed a dedicated leader.

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In 1994 the entrepreneurial bug bit again, and Monte found another opportunity to take a small portable restroom business and grow it into one of the country’s premier sanitation companies. In the early days, MPW was looking for opportunities to complement its service offerings and leverage its expertise. Monte’s first interest in what is now Porta Kleen began with an observation. MPW was present in many industrial environments where portable restrooms were common. These portable restrooms were often unprofessional and not serviced well. Monte knew that MPW had raised the bar for industrial services and thought the MPW team could do the same for portable restrooms, separating us from competitors. Waste Management had a portable restroom division that caught Monte’s attention. Waste Management was struggling with the division and was willing to sell. Monte saw an opportunity to acquire the entire division at a reasonable price, and Porta Kleen was born. “I thought it would be easy to bring the restroom business up to MPW standards. But I was dead wrong,” said Monte. “We were robbing Peter to pay Paul, using MPW people and resources across two companies.” For example, MPW’s Denise Denton was sent to help get the ball rolling. She was joined by Pat O’Rourke, who was responsible for human resources. Porta Kleen needed a dedicated leader.

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In 2001, Larry Ailes was brought to MPW to interview for an operational position in industrial services. Monte saw Larry’s capabilities and believed they could be better utilized in the portable restroom business. He convinced Larry that the new Porta Kleen badly needed his skills to be successful. Larry took a long look at the new business and helped to create a business strategy. Portable restrooms were the start, but the plan was to add new equipment based on a couple small restroom trailers that were included in the original purchase from Waste Management. Porta Kleen redesigned those trailers into the CP2-CP3 trailers. They were an instant hit with customers and helped to drive early growth. Porta Kleen wasn’t merely going to supply portable restrooms to job sites, it was going to be much more. Larry understood Monte’s objectives and started building the Porta Kleen brand. Porta Kleen’s future was being defined.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude towards MPW. Monte is a good listener with strong leadership to ensure MPW meets our requests so we could achieve our customers’ demands. his customer services are outstanding and highly valued. Vivian Waters manager procurement, ppg

One day, Larry saw shower trailers at a local music event. Concert goers told him the showers didn’t offer enough hot water or privacy. Larry brought the idea to build our own shower trailers to Monte’s attention, who told Larry to get with then-Maintenance Director Curt Ruff and make it happen. “I talked about building one trailer, and Monte said, ‘let’s build four,’” said Larry, who admired Monte’s aggressive approach. “The courage and the confidence it takes to make a decision like that with very limited information is what makes MPW who we are.” That aggressive approach helped Porta Kleen to thrive, and the company was even named Fairfield County Small Business of the Year in 2011.

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In 2001, Larry Ailes was brought to MPW to interview for an operational position in industrial services. Monte saw Larry’s capabilities and believed they could be better utilized in the portable restroom business. He convinced Larry that the new Porta Kleen badly needed his skills to be successful. Larry took a long look at the new business and helped to create a business strategy. Portable restrooms were the start, but the plan was to add new equipment based on a couple small restroom trailers that were included in the original purchase from Waste Management. Porta Kleen redesigned those trailers into the CP2-CP3 trailers. They were an instant hit with customers and helped to drive early growth. Porta Kleen wasn’t merely going to supply portable restrooms to job sites, it was going to be much more. Larry understood Monte’s objectives and started building the Porta Kleen brand. Porta Kleen’s future was being defined.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude towards MPW. Monte is a good listener with strong leadership to ensure MPW meets our requests so we could achieve our customers’ demands. his customer services are outstanding and highly valued. Vivian Waters manager procurement, ppg

One day, Larry saw shower trailers at a local music event. Concert goers told him the showers didn’t offer enough hot water or privacy. Larry brought the idea to build our own shower trailers to Monte’s attention, who told Larry to get with then-Maintenance Director Curt Ruff and make it happen. “I talked about building one trailer, and Monte said, ‘let’s build four,’” said Larry, who admired Monte’s aggressive approach. “The courage and the confidence it takes to make a decision like that with very limited information is what makes MPW who we are.” That aggressive approach helped Porta Kleen to thrive, and the company was even named Fairfield County Small Business of the Year in 2011.

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Larry managed Porta Kleen’s operations until 2012, when he decided to pursue another opportunity. With Larry’s departure, Porta Kleen needed a new leader to take the company to the next level. Adam Black said, “Let me take a shot at it.” And the rest is history. Adam saw Porta Kleen’s growth potential and wanted to be the driver. He became general manager and later assumed the company president role. Adam’s vision was to continue to grow Porta Kleen. He was very familiar with MPW’s capabilities and wanted to leverage the resources to scale the organization. MPW had the means to manufacture most of Porta Kleen’s new equipment in the Hebron complex. Additionally, we also had the infrastructure to help support Porta Kleen’s growth, such as marketing, accounting, safety policies and human resources. Under Adam’s direction, Porta Kleen expanded regionally, creating offices in Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, West Virginia; Piqua, Ohio; and Yuma, Arizona in addition to its original Lancaster, Ohio location. “Porta Kleen is a team effort,” Adam said. “It’s the people that drive our organization and the talent we have added who help us achieve our goals.” With the portable restrooms and event trailers as Porta Kleen’s original focus, the company expanded into the three unique business segments that exist today—mobile shower, mobile sanitation and hydro-excavation. Porta Kleen’s Mobile Shower Division services huge gatherings like NASCAR races, California’s giant Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and industrial projects. The Shower Division also offers its large equipment for disaster relief services. Porta Kleen has the ability to move assets into any afflicted area rapidly and can often mobilize within 24 hours. “We had the capabilities in our engineering and fabrication departments to incorporate technology into our equipment, while innovating newer solutions for our customers’ sanitation needs. Our philosophy has been simple, listen to our customers, understand their problems and see if we can find a solution that can be beneficial for both the customer and the business.

That is exactly how the Water System was created. And now, Porta Kleen offers mobile showers and locker rooms, mobile bunkhouses, handwash trailers, water systems and even mobile laundry services,” said Adam. In 2016, Porta Kleen assumed primary ownership of the previously MPW supported hydro-excavation business, with plans to expand into the general contractor market. Hydro-excavation is a service provided to construction companies with whom Porta Kleen already had a partnership because these companies rely heavily on portable restrooms. The business relationship was already established, which helped propel the hydro-excavation segment’s growth. “It’s gratifying and exciting to see how Porta Kleen’s 28-year growth has mirrored MPW’s over the last 50 years,” Monte said. “Both companies have come a long way and we’re just getting started. There are a lot of good things ahead of us!” Acquisitions have been an important part of Porta Kleen’s business growth. Most of them have been small sanitation companies; however, recently Porta Kleen strategically acquired a company, Special Operations Group, in Wyoming that provides mobile sleep units for the firefighting industry on the West Coast. In true entrepreneurial spirt, Adam sees leveraging the mobile sleeper units into other disaster relief work and large events, as well as providing Porta Kleen an opportunity to sell its complete service line into California and beyond. This relentless entrepreneurial spirit has brought Porta Kleen to where it is today. “We always have to keep our eyes open for new ways of doing things and for opportunities that complement our core services,” Monte said. “Even with the most basic of services, we must continually innovate and ask ourselves, ‘What else can we do?’”

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Larry managed Porta Kleen’s operations until 2012, when he decided to pursue another opportunity. With Larry’s departure, Porta Kleen needed a new leader to take the company to the next level. Adam Black said, “Let me take a shot at it.” And the rest is history. Adam saw Porta Kleen’s growth potential and wanted to be the driver. He became general manager and later assumed the company president role. Adam’s vision was to continue to grow Porta Kleen. He was very familiar with MPW’s capabilities and wanted to leverage the resources to scale the organization. MPW had the means to manufacture most of Porta Kleen’s new equipment in the Hebron complex. Additionally, we also had the infrastructure to help support Porta Kleen’s growth, such as marketing, accounting, safety policies and human resources. Under Adam’s direction, Porta Kleen expanded regionally, creating offices in Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, West Virginia; Piqua, Ohio; and Yuma, Arizona in addition to its original Lancaster, Ohio location. “Porta Kleen is a team effort,” Adam said. “It’s the people that drive our organization and the talent we have added who help us achieve our goals.” With the portable restrooms and event trailers as Porta Kleen’s original focus, the company expanded into the three unique business segments that exist today—mobile shower, mobile sanitation and hydro-excavation. Porta Kleen’s Mobile Shower Division services huge gatherings like NASCAR races, California’s giant Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and industrial projects. The Shower Division also offers its large equipment for disaster relief services. Porta Kleen has the ability to move assets into any afflicted area rapidly and can often mobilize within 24 hours. “We had the capabilities in our engineering and fabrication departments to incorporate technology into our equipment, while innovating newer solutions for our customers’ sanitation needs. Our philosophy has been simple, listen to our customers, understand their problems and see if we can find a solution that can be beneficial for both the customer and the business.

That is exactly how the Water System was created. And now, Porta Kleen offers mobile showers and locker rooms, mobile bunkhouses, handwash trailers, water systems and even mobile laundry services,” said Adam. In 2016, Porta Kleen assumed primary ownership of the previously MPW supported hydro-excavation business, with plans to expand into the general contractor market. Hydro-excavation is a service provided to construction companies with whom Porta Kleen already had a partnership because these companies rely heavily on portable restrooms. The business relationship was already established, which helped propel the hydro-excavation segment’s growth. “It’s gratifying and exciting to see how Porta Kleen’s 28-year growth has mirrored MPW’s over the last 50 years,” Monte said. “Both companies have come a long way and we’re just getting started. There are a lot of good things ahead of us!” Acquisitions have been an important part of Porta Kleen’s business growth. Most of them have been small sanitation companies; however, recently Porta Kleen strategically acquired a company, Special Operations Group, in Wyoming that provides mobile sleep units for the firefighting industry on the West Coast. In true entrepreneurial spirt, Adam sees leveraging the mobile sleeper units into other disaster relief work and large events, as well as providing Porta Kleen an opportunity to sell its complete service line into California and beyond. This relentless entrepreneurial spirit has brought Porta Kleen to where it is today. “We always have to keep our eyes open for new ways of doing things and for opportunities that complement our core services,” Monte said. “Even with the most basic of services, we must continually innovate and ask ourselves, ‘What else can we do?’”

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SAFETY Comes First

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SAFETY Comes First

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PW’s devotion to safety and training was ahead of its time. In the early 1970s, safety in most industry was a buzzword— generally, plants just paid it lip service. The automotive, steel, paper and utility plants that MPW would clean were more focused on the job than their employees’ safety.

“From the military and sports background I had, the company was based on athletics and military training,” Monte said. “So, to me, as we grew the company, and we figured out how to sustain it and execute at a higher level to beat the competition, we had to be better conditioned. Everybody who worked here had to have the best skill sets.”

“There was never a time when MPW didn’t focus on safety,” said IS General Manager Jimmy Peck. “We’ve learned more and adopted better techniques over the years.” He said actually living and doing the business inspired Monte’s passion for safety since Day One. “He wasn’t just being an owner or a manager. He’s always been in the field working next to his teammates.”

“We don’t do the right thing because OSHA’s there. We do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do,” said Director of Safety Matt Dawson. “Forever, the most important safety equipment is the grey matter between our ears. We want people predicting and preventing, not responding to issues or near misses.”

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PW’s devotion to safety and training was ahead of its time. In the early 1970s, safety in most industry was a buzzword— generally, plants just paid it lip service. The automotive, steel, paper and utility plants that MPW would clean were more focused on the job than their employees’ safety.

“From the military and sports background I had, the company was based on athletics and military training,” Monte said. “So, to me, as we grew the company, and we figured out how to sustain it and execute at a higher level to beat the competition, we had to be better conditioned. Everybody who worked here had to have the best skill sets.”

“There was never a time when MPW didn’t focus on safety,” said IS General Manager Jimmy Peck. “We’ve learned more and adopted better techniques over the years.” He said actually living and doing the business inspired Monte’s passion for safety since Day One. “He wasn’t just being an owner or a manager. He’s always been in the field working next to his teammates.”

“We don’t do the right thing because OSHA’s there. We do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do,” said Director of Safety Matt Dawson. “Forever, the most important safety equipment is the grey matter between our ears. We want people predicting and preventing, not responding to issues or near misses.”

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MPW is a family-owned and operated company and its employees are its extended family. Ensuring their safety isn’t just a priority—it’s a core value! In the early days MPW relied on on-the-job training for those working in the field. Soon after, an in-house training program was adopted consisting of one person, which may not sound like much today, but for its time it was ground-breaking in the industry! In-house training programs allowed MPW to standardize its training and procedures, so all employees are educated on best practices, and they’re prepared to create solutions proactively when they run into something unexpected. Today, our Safety and Training Department has developed into a superior group of professionals who have become an integral part of all MPW services. The department positions us to become much more sustainable in the future when dealing with safety in the variety of industries we serve. In talking about athletics, MPW is only as good as the players we put in the field. Our associates have to be trained, conditioned and mentally ready to service our customers in today’s business climate, which is much different than it was in the 1970s. “I’m proud of how our safety department has evolved from a small group into a 20-person plus strong training department that’s completely integrated and constantly prepares us for the ever-changing industrial environment,” Monte said. “The growth of our Safety and Training Department continues to guide the organization to continuously improve our safety programs,” said IW General Manager Tim Dondero. “The safety culture within MPW has certainly evolved over the past 50 years.” Dondero said that during his 10 years with MPW he’s seen dramatic improvements in various safety initiatives and engineering solutions, including required monthly safety observations, incident management and advanced PPE. “As a core value, MPW continues to invest in infrastructure and technology to improve the safety of our employees,” such as Intelex, Samsara and equipment automation, he said.

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monte surrounds himself with a good management team and field generals who eventually made mpw our secives provider of choice at mitchell and cardinal plants. Chuck George— Plant Manager, AEP Cardinal

MPW is a family-owned and operated company and its employees are its extended family. Ensuring their safety isn’t just a priority—it’s a core value! In the early days MPW relied on on-the-job training for those working in the field. Soon after, an in-house training program was adopted consisting of one person, which may not sound like much today, but for its time it was ground-breaking in the industry! In-house training programs allowed MPW to standardize its training and procedures, so all employees are educated on best practices, and they’re prepared to create solutions proactively when they run into something unexpected. Today, our Safety and Training Department has developed into a superior group of professionals who have become an integral part of all MPW services. The department positions us to become much more sustainable in the future when dealing with safety in the variety of industries we serve. In talking about athletics, MPW is only as good as the players we put in the field. Our associates have to be trained, conditioned and mentally ready to service our customers in today’s business climate, which is much different than it was in the 1970s. “I’m proud of how our safety department has evolved from a small group into a 20-person plus strong training department that’s completely integrated and constantly prepares us for the ever-changing industrial environment,” Monte said. “The growth of our Safety and Training Department continues to guide the organization to continuously improve our safety programs,” said IW General Manager Tim Dondero. “The safety culture within MPW has certainly evolved over the past 50 years.” Dondero said that during his 10 years with MPW he’s seen dramatic improvements in various safety initiatives and engineering solutions, including required monthly safety observations, incident management and advanced PPE. “As a core value, MPW continues to invest in infrastructure and technology to improve the safety of our employees,” such as Intelex, Samsara and equipment automation, he said.

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monte surrounds himself with a good management team and field generals who eventually made mpw our secives provider of choice at mitchell and cardinal plants. Chuck George— Plant Manager, AEP Cardinal

Throughout MPW’s history, its associates, supervisors and managers have worked together to identify hazards and assess them. “PPE is not the most important thing; it’s the last line of defense,” Dawson said. “The most important thing is eliminating the hazards and then controlling them, so they don’t cause injuries.” MPW has fostered a culture where all employees feel comfortable calling out dangerous situations. “It’s employees’ willingness to stop work and report something they are unsure about or if the conditions aren’t right—to step back and reevaluate,” Dawson said. “That’s very critical part of the puzzle.” In 2006, Monte introduced the MPW Safety Coin—based on Military Challenge Coins—as a physical representation and reminder of the company’s commitment to safety. “I thought it would be something different, something that would be a constant reminder to stay focused on safety,” Monte said. “It’s a compliment to us that lot of our customers have seen what we do as beneficial, and they’ve adopted their own Safety Coins as a reminder in their organization.” There have since been five versions of the MPW Safety Coin, including the current 50th Anniversary version. A new version is slated for production next year. All employees are expected to have a safety coin in their possession at all times. Peck, who is also president of the WJTA (the WaterJet Technology Association, which is dedicated to promoting safety in the waterjetting and related industries), said MPW and the WJTA share safety and training philosophies. He said it only makes sense that the two organizations are closely aligned, especially when it comes to safety and training. “Monte has always said we—referring to our industry—are only as good as the weakest player,” Peck said. “I believe that’s especially true when it comes to the safety mindset of adopting hands-free and automated technology. That’s always been important to Monte—removing people from dangerous situations. And, of course, the WJTA carries that torch as well.”

Peck said MPW has focused on developing automated and hands-free technology to improve workplace safety, particularly during the last 10 to 15 years. “A couple suppliers in the industry who focused on automated and hands-free technology rose to the top,” Peck said. “A lot of them would work hand in hand with our engineers to address specific problems and come up with customized solutions.” “I’m also proud of Jimmy and MPW’s involvement with the WJTA,” Monte said. “It’s an organization that’s improving the entire industry, which all of us need.” Commitment from the entire management team is critical to creating and maintaining a strong safety culture, as well as engaging every associate in strong safety practices from the first day of employment. MPW safety and training will continue to advance. “I think for every company there is always an improvement that can be made,” Dawson said. “There’s always something else to learn. Set a new priority; set a new goal and work to achieve that. You never want to say we’re the safest we can be.” “It’s our culture, leadership, processes and training that have kept MPW employees safe over the last 50 years,” Monte said. “It’s up to each one of us to create a safe work environment. Never hesitate to point out an unsafe situation or take steps to eliminate a hazard. See something, say something, do something!”

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Throughout MPW’s history, its associates, supervisors and managers have worked together to identify hazards and assess them. “PPE is not the most important thing; it’s the last line of defense,” Dawson said. “The most important thing is eliminating the hazards and then controlling them, so they don’t cause injuries.” MPW has fostered a culture where all employees feel comfortable calling out dangerous situations. “It’s employees’ willingness to stop work and report something they are unsure about or if the conditions aren’t right—to step back and reevaluate,” Dawson said. “That’s very critical part of the puzzle.” In 2006, Monte introduced the MPW Safety Coin—based on Military Challenge Coins—as a physical representation and reminder of the company’s commitment to safety. “I thought it would be something different, something that would be a constant reminder to stay focused on safety,” Monte said. “It’s a compliment to us that lot of our customers have seen what we do as beneficial, and they’ve adopted their own Safety Coins as a reminder in their organization.” There have since been five versions of the MPW Safety Coin, including the current 50th Anniversary version. A new version is slated for production next year. All employees are expected to have a safety coin in their possession at all times. Peck, who is also president of the WJTA (the WaterJet Technology Association, which is dedicated to promoting safety in the waterjetting and related industries), said MPW and the WJTA share safety and training philosophies. He said it only makes sense that the two organizations are closely aligned, especially when it comes to safety and training. “Monte has always said we—referring to our industry—are only as good as the weakest player,” Peck said. “I believe that’s especially true when it comes to the safety mindset of adopting hands-free and automated technology. That’s always been important to Monte—removing people from dangerous situations. And, of course, the WJTA carries that torch as well.”

Peck said MPW has focused on developing automated and hands-free technology to improve workplace safety, particularly during the last 10 to 15 years. “A couple suppliers in the industry who focused on automated and hands-free technology rose to the top,” Peck said. “A lot of them would work hand in hand with our engineers to address specific problems and come up with customized solutions.” “I’m also proud of Jimmy and MPW’s involvement with the WJTA,” Monte said. “It’s an organization that’s improving the entire industry, which all of us need.” Commitment from the entire management team is critical to creating and maintaining a strong safety culture, as well as engaging every associate in strong safety practices from the first day of employment. MPW safety and training will continue to advance. “I think for every company there is always an improvement that can be made,” Dawson said. “There’s always something else to learn. Set a new priority; set a new goal and work to achieve that. You never want to say we’re the safest we can be.” “It’s our culture, leadership, processes and training that have kept MPW employees safe over the last 50 years,” Monte said. “It’s up to each one of us to create a safe work environment. Never hesitate to point out an unsafe situation or take steps to eliminate a hazard. See something, say something, do something!”

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COMMUNITY

Charitable Engagement

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COMMUNITY

Charitable Engagement

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PW has a 50-year history of generously giving back to its community in many ways. “You don’t give to get attention or applause,” said Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement Kristen Black. “It’s all about doing what’s right; that’s why MPW’s always given back.” Kristen said MPW’s concept of giving has always been that the company prides itself on working hard and going the extra mile. “We have a good reputation because of all that and I also feel that giving back is so important because we’ve been blessed,” she said. “If you talk to my dad he will always say that. It isn’t just hard work. A little divine intervention working on your behalf always helps, with a little luck on the side.” MPW has never been a company that advertised its philanthropy. In fact, the opposite is true. “Since the beginning, MPW has always contributed to local charities, churches, colleges and schools in so many ways to support our communities. We never made it public,” Kristen said. “It was always Dad’s philosophy that you give because it’s the right thing to do.”

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PW has a 50-year history of generously giving back to its community in many ways. “You don’t give to get attention or applause,” said Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement Kristen Black. “It’s all about doing what’s right; that’s why MPW’s always given back.” Kristen said MPW’s concept of giving has always been that the company prides itself on working hard and going the extra mile. “We have a good reputation because of all that and I also feel that giving back is so important because we’ve been blessed,” she said. “If you talk to my dad he will always say that. It isn’t just hard work. A little divine intervention working on your behalf always helps, with a little luck on the side.” MPW has never been a company that advertised its philanthropy. In fact, the opposite is true. “Since the beginning, MPW has always contributed to local charities, churches, colleges and schools in so many ways to support our communities. We never made it public,” Kristen said. “It was always Dad’s philosophy that you give because it’s the right thing to do.”

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While providing monetary donations is just one of many examples of MPW contributing to the community, Kristen said it’s never been about simply handing out money. “I think employees like to feel involved,” she said. “We’ve had employees offer to contribute money, but we’ve also had employees volunteer to help set up playgrounds. It means something to our employees the same that it means something for us to give back.” For example, “we did monthly volunteers at the Licking County Food Pantry and it was great!” Kristen said. “We had such good feedback. Everyone got involved. You went in for two hours and you handed out food to all those who need some help, and everybody loved it.” She said.

MPW has traditionally supported police and military, and employees’ children at local fairs and athletic events. Kristen said MPW has also traditionally supported the American Red Cross, United Way, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club of Newark. We’ve regularly donated our older computers to churches and other organizations.

MPW has roughly 4,000 employees, which means we are an extended family of 14,000 to 16,000 people stretched across many communities. So, for that reason alone, we want to be a major part of those communities. As a company, we want our employees to play an active role in the communities in which they live. When the community wins, the employees win, and the company wins. MPW supports the communities in which its employees work. “We like to support the communities where we have offices,” Kristen said. “We like to support our employees who come forward and are associated with an organization. We have such great pride in our company, communities and employees, and when we all work toward the same goal, it’s so beneficial for everyone.”

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“We like to support our employees who come forward and are associated with an organization,” Kristen said. “Our employees have kids who are part of book drives, baseball teams, soccer teams and softball sponsorships—the list goes on. It’s really a simple process. The more recognition MPW has in the community and the more our employees support their own communities, the more opportunities those communities have to support MPW.” Our communities show their support by recognizing our organization, coming to work for us, and providing MPW with new customers and opportunities to work for more people; everybody wins. “Our employees are passionate and engaged in whatever they do,” Monte said. “It’s not just about writing a check; it’s about community involvement and engaging our employees in their own communities’ efforts. MPW’s tradition of philanthropy and giving back to the community is part of the formula that has helped this company be successful over the last 50 years.” 97

While providing monetary donations is just one of many examples of MPW contributing to the community, Kristen said it’s never been about simply handing out money. “I think employees like to feel involved,” she said. “We’ve had employees offer to contribute money, but we’ve also had employees volunteer to help set up playgrounds. It means something to our employees the same that it means something for us to give back.” For example, “we did monthly volunteers at the Licking County Food Pantry and it was great!” Kristen said. “We had such good feedback. Everyone got involved. You went in for two hours and you handed out food to all those who need some help, and everybody loved it.” She said.

MPW has traditionally supported police and military, and employees’ children at local fairs and athletic events. Kristen said MPW has also traditionally supported the American Red Cross, United Way, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club of Newark. We’ve regularly donated our older computers to churches and other organizations.

MPW has roughly 4,000 employees, which means we are an extended family of 14,000 to 16,000 people stretched across many communities. So, for that reason alone, we want to be a major part of those communities. As a company, we want our employees to play an active role in the communities in which they live. When the community wins, the employees win, and the company wins. MPW supports the communities in which its employees work. “We like to support the communities where we have offices,” Kristen said. “We like to support our employees who come forward and are associated with an organization. We have such great pride in our company, communities and employees, and when we all work toward the same goal, it’s so beneficial for everyone.”

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“We like to support our employees who come forward and are associated with an organization,” Kristen said. “Our employees have kids who are part of book drives, baseball teams, soccer teams and softball sponsorships—the list goes on. It’s really a simple process. The more recognition MPW has in the community and the more our employees support their own communities, the more opportunities those communities have to support MPW.” Our communities show their support by recognizing our organization, coming to work for us, and providing MPW with new customers and opportunities to work for more people; everybody wins. “Our employees are passionate and engaged in whatever they do,” Monte said. “It’s not just about writing a check; it’s about community involvement and engaging our employees in their own communities’ efforts. MPW’s tradition of philanthropy and giving back to the community is part of the formula that has helped this company be successful over the last 50 years.” 97

“I used to call Monte at his office every Christmas Eve and the phone never rang twice before he picked up. He quickly became a lifelong friend of our family.” Doug Bartow— Director of Innovation, IPI,

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“I used to call Monte at his office every Christmas Eve and the phone never rang twice before he picked up. He quickly became a lifelong friend of our family.” Doug Bartow— Director of Innovation, IPI,

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n 1972, MPW Industrial Services began with two men and a wash truck, cleaning the outside of tractortrailers. Fifty years later, the company boasts more than 4,000 employees and approximately 100 locations all across North America. MPW’s broad range of services touches nearly every industry in the United States. The company has grown organically from the entrepreneurial spirit that’s been ingrained in its culture since Day One. For the last 50 years, the word “no” has never been part of the MPW vocabulary. The company legacy is built upon actively seeking industry challenges, paying attention and providing solutions—don’t say no and keep your eyes open for opportunities when you’re at the plant. Where are the plant’s pain points? Where is the opportunity to improve business for the customer and how do you take advantage of it and solve problems? Porta Kleen President Adam Black said MPW managers are trained from the beginning to constantly look for new opportunities to better service the customers. “When you’re out on the job sites; when you’re out with the customers, you’re always looking for new opportunities for problems to solve and to provide them with more solutions,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are a serviced-based operation and our job is to make our customers’ job easy. If we make them look good, then we’re successful.”

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n 1972, MPW Industrial Services began with two men and a wash truck, cleaning the outside of tractortrailers. Fifty years later, the company boasts more than 4,000 employees and approximately 100 locations all across North America. MPW’s broad range of services touches nearly every industry in the United States. The company has grown organically from the entrepreneurial spirit that’s been ingrained in its culture since Day One. For the last 50 years, the word “no” has never been part of the MPW vocabulary. The company legacy is built upon actively seeking industry challenges, paying attention and providing solutions—don’t say no and keep your eyes open for opportunities when you’re at the plant. Where are the plant’s pain points? Where is the opportunity to improve business for the customer and how do you take advantage of it and solve problems? Porta Kleen President Adam Black said MPW managers are trained from the beginning to constantly look for new opportunities to better service the customers. “When you’re out on the job sites; when you’re out with the customers, you’re always looking for new opportunities for problems to solve and to provide them with more solutions,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are a serviced-based operation and our job is to make our customers’ job easy. If we make them look good, then we’re successful.”

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It’s never been just about growing the company; it’s about growing strategically. After going public for a short time in 1996—and discovering that all corporate America wanted to do at the time was buy businesses—MPW regained not only its private status in 2006 but also its focus upon its core value of growing organically and acquiring strategically. “Ultimately, the way any decisions are made at MPW is through an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Industrial Services General Manager Jimmy Peck. “So, whether we’re acquiring a company or planting a new flag in the ground in Tampa, Florida; Decatur, Illinois; Austin, Texas; or wherever, all those decisions are made with that in mind. There’s an opportunity for MPW to add value to that market.” For example, Jimmy said PPS Paint Stripping was added to the MPW family of businesses through a series of acquisitions. “There was an evaluation that said this is a service line that we intersect with on a regular basis in our other business units,” Jimmy said. With that in mind, he said it only made sense to add PPS’ services to the other services we offer. Adam said being in the field with the customers and listening to what their needs and problems are is the best way to learn which new services MPW should be providing. “When we listen to what their problems are, with our business philosophy we can bring it back and see if we can provide a solution that has business value,” Adam said. “That’s how new opportunities are driven.” “Providing solutions to a client’s needs builds relationships that endure the cyclic trends in business. In addition, setting the bar high demonstrates to our clients and our workforce that we care about their business,” said Porta Kleen Division Manager Bill Sheridan. “People want and deserve our full attention, and future decisions are based on past performance. Therefore, we work hard at cultivating new business relationships, and retaining those clients should always be our goal.”

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It’s never been just about growing the company; it’s about growing strategically. After going public for a short time in 1996—and discovering that all corporate America wanted to do at the time was buy businesses—MPW regained not only its private status in 2006 but also its focus upon its core value of growing organically and acquiring strategically. “Ultimately, the way any decisions are made at MPW is through an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Industrial Services General Manager Jimmy Peck. “So, whether we’re acquiring a company or planting a new flag in the ground in Tampa, Florida; Decatur, Illinois; Austin, Texas; or wherever, all those decisions are made with that in mind. There’s an opportunity for MPW to add value to that market.” For example, Jimmy said PPS Paint Stripping was added to the MPW family of businesses through a series of acquisitions. “There was an evaluation that said this is a service line that we intersect with on a regular basis in our other business units,” Jimmy said. With that in mind, he said it only made sense to add PPS’ services to the other services we offer. Adam said being in the field with the customers and listening to what their needs and problems are is the best way to learn which new services MPW should be providing. “When we listen to what their problems are, with our business philosophy we can bring it back and see if we can provide a solution that has business value,” Adam said. “That’s how new opportunities are driven.” “Providing solutions to a client’s needs builds relationships that endure the cyclic trends in business. In addition, setting the bar high demonstrates to our clients and our workforce that we care about their business,” said Porta Kleen Division Manager Bill Sheridan. “People want and deserve our full attention, and future decisions are based on past performance. Therefore, we work hard at cultivating new business relationships, and retaining those clients should always be our goal.”

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Monte understands the challenges in the industry. He sees something and goes and gets it. In the 70s and the 80s it was the power plant needs. He saw a DI trailer out in the old Conesville plant decades ago and he thinks, why can’t I do that? When a customer asks for something, they have a need. With the DI trailers, MPW was able to start, build and ultimately own the DI business and diversify to other parts of the country with regeneration plants, first in Newark, Ohio, followed by Sedalia, Missouri; Port Arthur, Texas; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Yuma, Arizona and Georgetown, South Carolina. Throughout MPW’s history, fulfilling that need didn’t necessarily mean we had the equipment available at the time. When someone asked us if we could crush cars, we said, sure we can! And, wasted no time in finding and refurbishing a crusher. Now MPW offers that service.

More often than not, providing the right equipment to meet customer needs required us to build it from scratch. For example, MPW once purchased two reverse osmosis trailers to meet a customer request, which proved very successful. Instead of purchasing more RO trailers, Monte and the team saw a new opportunity entirely—build them ourselves. From providing much-needed professional sanitary services through Porta Kleen, to providing cutting-edge industrial air and water services, ash pond remediation, robotic paint innovation, purchasing the container management business, natural disaster and community aid, hydro-excavation water recycling and, of course, advanced waterjetting technology, the examples of MPW’s expansion of its services and its reach into the industrial services industry is nearly endless. And, it’s just beginning. “I love to watch this place grow,” Monte said. “I don’t see our competitors focusing on what we focus on. We focus on the people.”

Visionary, Entrepreneur, Change Agent, Humanitarian, Servant Leader, a Force for Good, Congratulations Monte, you truly have and continue to make a difference! Mark Gordon General Manager, AK Steel

“We have talented, engaged people who are certainly committed, dedicated and driven to make this place better. It’s still something different every day; it’s challenging and that’s what’s exciting to me.” 114

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Monte understands the challenges in the industry. He sees something and goes and gets it. In the 70s and the 80s it was the power plant needs. He saw a DI trailer out in the old Conesville plant decades ago and he thinks, why can’t I do that? When a customer asks for something, they have a need. With the DI trailers, MPW was able to start, build and ultimately own the DI business and diversify to other parts of the country with regeneration plants, first in Newark, Ohio, followed by Sedalia, Missouri; Port Arthur, Texas; Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Yuma, Arizona and Georgetown, South Carolina. Throughout MPW’s history, fulfilling that need didn’t necessarily mean we had the equipment available at the time. When someone asked us if we could crush cars, we said, sure we can! And, wasted no time in finding and refurbishing a crusher. Now MPW offers that service.

More often than not, providing the right equipment to meet customer needs required us to build it from scratch. For example, MPW once purchased two reverse osmosis trailers to meet a customer request, which proved very successful. Instead of purchasing more RO trailers, Monte and the team saw a new opportunity entirely—build them ourselves. From providing much-needed professional sanitary services through Porta Kleen, to providing cutting-edge industrial air and water services, ash pond remediation, robotic paint innovation, purchasing the container management business, natural disaster and community aid, hydro-excavation water recycling and, of course, advanced waterjetting technology, the examples of MPW’s expansion of its services and its reach into the industrial services industry is nearly endless. And, it’s just beginning. “I love to watch this place grow,” Monte said. “I don’t see our competitors focusing on what we focus on. We focus on the people.”

Visionary, Entrepreneur, Change Agent, Humanitarian, Servant Leader, a Force for Good, Congratulations Monte, you truly have and continue to make a difference! Mark Gordon General Manager, AK Steel

“We have talented, engaged people who are certainly committed, dedicated and driven to make this place better. It’s still something different every day; it’s challenging and that’s what’s exciting to me.” 114

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PW Industrial Services’ 50-year legacy is rooted in its core values—customer service, the drive to win, professionalism, the spirit of family, long-term commitment and continuous improvement. As MPW’s second generation of leaders reflects on the past while looking to the future, they each agree that adhering to our core values will ensure the company’s next 50 years will be a successful and fitting tribute to all the people who have made MPW what it is today. “Expect change and evolution. It’s what we’ve done for half a century and we’ll continue the push to change and evolve as a company,” said President Jared Black. “We are never satisfied with where we are, and we’ll always try to make improvements. My dad and a lot of great people over the years have built a really good foundation for the company. Along the way, we created a great culture for winning, customer service and just having fun being at work.” MPW has never been about the money. Of course, money is necessary to pay employees, pay for loans, cover taxes and other business-related expenses, but the money MPW earns beyond those is reinvested into the company. “MPW is about doing the right thing,” Monte said. It’s also about family. There are roughly 150 instances of family members working together at MPW and its affiliates. Employees referring their family members to MPW is the greatest compliment we could ever have. This company has always been about instilling family values in our employees and operating MPW based on those values. “We very much enjoy being a family business, and the goal is to continue that spirit of family culture initiative,” Jared said. “We’re on the second generation with my brother, my sister and me, and we really look forward to working with the third generation.” But, a family business is far more inclusive than immediate family. “It’s all the families at the company. There are brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons,” Jared said. He said it’s exciting to see how the family dynamic has built up over time and the number of people who refer their friends and family to work at MPW. “The importance of family has been ingrained into us since a young age,” said Porta Kleen President Adam Black. “Our parents always did everything to put us first, and that has carried over into the business world, too. It’s a testament, obviously, to my father and what he believes in, but also to all the family members who work here together.” “With a family business, you have good standards and good values, and I think those have been upheld since Day One,” said Director of Philanthropy and Community Engagement Kristen Black. “And, because we’re a family business, we’ve encouraged employees and their family members to work here, too. The spirit of family is deeply rooted in MPW’s culture.”

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“I think the company is built on asking questions and learning the business,” Jared said. “You start at the field or technician level, working in the plants or being at the different offices. When you’re there you’re relating; you’re learning how the business works and what our customer expectations are, so you learn how to run the business and steer the ship in the right direction.”

One of the staples of MPW’s success is promoting from within. “More than 90% of the executive team is promoted from within,” Jared said. “And, if you look down through the managerial ranks, most managers have been promoted upward through the organization. I think that inherently helps our culture as well.” Promoting from within and developing employees’ skills goes hand in hand with growth, learning and solving problems. “We do a great job of learning from our challenges and problems, and making the organization better for the future,” Jared said. Adam agreed. “You’re going to be faced with adversity; you’re always going to be faced with challenges,” he said. Adam said over the years he’s learned the power of persistence—to be relentless and never give up. “Another lesson I’d like to take into the next 50 years is you don’t necessarily need to be the smartest person in the room; you don’t have to know everything,” Adam said. “You have to get your team united toward the common goal. It’s a big team effort in order for everybody to achieve success. You have to have the team 100% engaged.” “Growing up with the business, I’ve understood the importance of treating everyone with kindness, no matter what that person’s role is,” Kristen said. “It’s something that’s been instilled in us since an early age, and I think it’s vitally important in business as well.” Jared describes MPW as a “creative learning organization,” and that quality makes it possible for the company to pivot very well into many different new areas of business. “Whether it’s paint stripping, pump trailers, water treatment trailers or robotic water blasting, we do a lot of different things,” Jared said. “As long as we learn and listen to the customer we will successfully pivot to whatever technologies are needed.” Adam said the organization’s success in the next 50 years will be based upon the success of its first 50 years. “The way we’ve been able to do that is through hard working, dedicated, talented people,” he said. “I’m always asked, how have MPW and Porta Kleen been successful? It’s a simple answer. It’s the people who care about the organization. It’s the people who make up the organization that make it what it is today.” “We’ve come a long way in 50 years,” Kristen said. “I think MPW is here to stay and there’s so much possibility as to where the company can go from now until the next 50 years, which I think is exciting and great.” Into the future, Jared expects MPW to continue to expand its reach in automation, environmental initiatives, recycling and particularly data management. “There’s a strong 50-year culture that’s remained very intact over the years. As long as we continue to steer in that direction it’ll continue to work in that way,” he said. "We have a lot of great people working for us,” Monte said. “We have competitive personalities with the drive and determination to succeed. I am quite confident the third generation will continue on the same foundation that MPW was built upon."

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PW Industrial Services’ 50-year legacy is rooted in its core values—customer service, the drive to win, professionalism, the spirit of family, long-term commitment and continuous improvement. As MPW’s second generation of leaders reflects on the past while looking to the future, they each agree that adhering to our core values will ensure the company’s next 50 years will be a successful and fitting tribute to all the people who have made MPW what it is today. “Expect change and evolution. It’s what we’ve done for half a century and we’ll continue the push to change and evolve as a company,” said President Jared Black. “We are never satisfied with where we are, and we’ll always try to make improvements. My dad and a lot of great people over the years have built a really good foundation for the company. Along the way, we created a great culture for winning, customer service and just having fun being at work.” MPW has never been about the money. Of course, money is necessary to pay employees, pay for loans, cover taxes and other business-related expenses, but the money MPW earns beyond those is reinvested into the company. “MPW is about doing the right thing,” Monte said. It’s also about family. There are roughly 150 instances of family members working together at MPW and its affiliates. Employees referring their family members to MPW is the greatest compliment we could ever have. This company has always been about instilling family values in our employees and operating MPW based on those values. “We very much enjoy being a family business, and the goal is to continue that spirit of family culture initiative,” Jared said. “We’re on the second generation with my brother, my sister and me, and we really look forward to working with the third generation.” But, a family business is far more inclusive than immediate family. “It’s all the families at the company. There are brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons,” Jared said. He said it’s exciting to see how the family dynamic has built up over time and the number of people who refer their friends and family to work at MPW. “The importance of family has been ingrained into us since a young age,” said Porta Kleen President Adam Black. “Our parents always did everything to put us first, and that has carried over into the business world, too. It’s a testament, obviously, to my father and what he believes in, but also to all the family members who work here together.” “With a family business, you have good standards and good values, and I think those have been upheld since Day One,” said Director of Philanthropy and Community Engagement Kristen Black. “And, because we’re a family business, we’ve encouraged employees and their family members to work here, too. The spirit of family is deeply rooted in MPW’s culture.”

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“I think the company is built on asking questions and learning the business,” Jared said. “You start at the field or technician level, working in the plants or being at the different offices. When you’re there you’re relating; you’re learning how the business works and what our customer expectations are, so you learn how to run the business and steer the ship in the right direction.”

One of the staples of MPW’s success is promoting from within. “More than 90% of the executive team is promoted from within,” Jared said. “And, if you look down through the managerial ranks, most managers have been promoted upward through the organization. I think that inherently helps our culture as well.” Promoting from within and developing employees’ skills goes hand in hand with growth, learning and solving problems. “We do a great job of learning from our challenges and problems, and making the organization better for the future,” Jared said. Adam agreed. “You’re going to be faced with adversity; you’re always going to be faced with challenges,” he said. Adam said over the years he’s learned the power of persistence—to be relentless and never give up. “Another lesson I’d like to take into the next 50 years is you don’t necessarily need to be the smartest person in the room; you don’t have to know everything,” Adam said. “You have to get your team united toward the common goal. It’s a big team effort in order for everybody to achieve success. You have to have the team 100% engaged.” “Growing up with the business, I’ve understood the importance of treating everyone with kindness, no matter what that person’s role is,” Kristen said. “It’s something that’s been instilled in us since an early age, and I think it’s vitally important in business as well.” Jared describes MPW as a “creative learning organization,” and that quality makes it possible for the company to pivot very well into many different new areas of business. “Whether it’s paint stripping, pump trailers, water treatment trailers or robotic water blasting, we do a lot of different things,” Jared said. “As long as we learn and listen to the customer we will successfully pivot to whatever technologies are needed.” Adam said the organization’s success in the next 50 years will be based upon the success of its first 50 years. “The way we’ve been able to do that is through hard working, dedicated, talented people,” he said. “I’m always asked, how have MPW and Porta Kleen been successful? It’s a simple answer. It’s the people who care about the organization. It’s the people who make up the organization that make it what it is today.” “We’ve come a long way in 50 years,” Kristen said. “I think MPW is here to stay and there’s so much possibility as to where the company can go from now until the next 50 years, which I think is exciting and great.” Into the future, Jared expects MPW to continue to expand its reach in automation, environmental initiatives, recycling and particularly data management. “There’s a strong 50-year culture that’s remained very intact over the years. As long as we continue to steer in that direction it’ll continue to work in that way,” he said. "We have a lot of great people working for us,” Monte said. “We have competitive personalities with the drive and determination to succeed. I am quite confident the third generation will continue on the same foundation that MPW was built upon."

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