Contributed by Brandy Gordon, Director of Quality & Compliance, 19 years

The Start of My Journey

I joined R.S. Hughes in 2005 as a management trainee in Seattle, Washington. Shortly after joining, I realized that sales wasn’t meant to be my path. I knew, however, that I had many other valuable skills to offer the organization.  

Launching the National Accounts Program

In 2006, I accepted a hybrid role on the team that was just starting to build our National Accounts program. Our founding team comprised Joe Vargas, Marc Eddings, Marcia Sandrick and myself. My role at the time was split between inside sales and the National Accounts team. There wasn’t enough work for me to be hired as a full-time team member, but that would soon change! This is when my career path in the organization was jump-started. 

I was entrusted to play a key role in building the program’s framework and how we would internally organize things from an operational standpoint. There was plenty to accomplish, and we all worked to ensure the program’s growth.

I continued supporting National Accounts for 15 years, during which time we increased our signed agreements a hundredfold. Today, the group has expanded to include several departments and teams, with roughly 40 employees and over 1,200 accounts. National Accounts is a critical function of our business, generating nearly half of our company’s total revenue.

As a fun anecdote, it was also during this time that I became the resident Excel subject matter expert on the team. Customers and vendors would reach out to me for some of my spreadsheet magic!

Building the Quality Program

Fast forward several years, and I was in a new role as the Agreements and Compliance Team Lead when quality was brought under my purview. It began with me simply ensuring that the company’s certified locations maintained their certifications.

As I learned more about the world of quality, the standards and certifications, I realized that we could achieve major organizational efficiencies by applying what we know to each of our locations. That’s how I decided to craft a program proposal. Like National Accounts, a quality program needed to be built from the ground up. Only this go-around, I was a team of one. 

In 2022, I launched my plan, which outlined the program’s structure and how we would grow it. It was well received, and our initial goal was to help each of the company’s locations achieve compliance using the same manuals, procedures and documents by 2025. 

Today, we have quality program team members around the country, from Anaheim to Dallas. I’m incredibly proud that we doubled the number of certified locations and we are ahead of schedule in accomplishing our 2025 company compliance goal. We will undoubtedly have all R.S. Hughes locations compliant with ISO and aerospace standards by 2025.

It is a significant accomplishment for our organization’s Quality Management System (QMS) to go from zero to aerospace, so to speak, in about two years. This benchmark will also benefit our Sales team since they can share our commitment to excellence in quality with prospects, providing an additional layer of assurance that we’re their ideal partner.

Empowered to Forge My Path

I have been blessed to have played a vital role in the organization’s launching of two significant programs. This was only possible because I was given the freedom to do so and empowered to forge my own path. 

That’s one of the reasons why R.S. Hughes is an amazing company to work for—I feel supported in using my skills to continue adding incredible long-term value.

When I speak to new team members, I love to reinforce that if they have great ideas, they should share them. As long as they can take their ideas and show the organizational value behind them, no one will stand in their way. 

Take your vision and carve a unique career path at R.S. Hughes!