Jim Hovey

Account Manager

“I started my career as an apprentice in the Dow Chemical Electrical training program in the late 1960s, ultimately working my way up to a supervisory role with Dow. In 1971, I moved to the J.W. Construction Company as a superintendent for electrical and instrumentation work. That business was ultimately bought out by Collinson Construction, and I continued to work as a superintendent with the company until 1979. That year, my wife Rita and I acquired Collinson’s Electrical Division and turned it into our own business, Hovey Electric.

We ran Hovey Electric for 36 years, out of an office in Midland. By the end of 2013, Rita and I were starting to think about retirement and wondering how we were going to exit the business without closing the doors or leaving our employees without jobs. Many of our team members had been with us for the bulk of our three-plus-decade run, and we wanted to make sure the business could continue on without us.

The answer arrived in the form of Windemuller President Dave Beemer. He approached us and basically said that Windemuller wanted to establish a presence in Midland but didn’t want to compete against Hovey Electric. We talked and put together a deal where Windemuller would acquire Hovey Electric and make employment offers to all our employees. We closed the deal in 2014 and the last day of the year marked the last day of business for Hovey Electric. Since January 1, 2015, we have been a part of the Windemuller family.

I have been extremely pleased with the way things have gone since. Everyone on my team decided to accept the offers from Windemuller and we all came over as a team. Throughout my career, it’s always been important to me to bring young folks into the trade and support them as they go from apprentices to journeyman to supervisory roles and beyond. Being able to stay true to that side of things, even under the Windemuller umbrella, has been amazing. Windemuller is a very fair employer and I know that, when I retire at the end of 2018, all the people I have spent the past 20 or 30 years working with will be in very good hands.”