Snapshot of Glenn Chambers, A

Michael Fickes

Glenn Chambers earned his post as president of today's Heil Environmental Industries Ltd., in 1995, after spending 23 years working in just about every key company department.

Chambers graduated from college in 1972, with a degree in computer science. He hoped to go to work for NASA's new Huntsville, Ala., facility. Instead, he ended up building garbage trucks.

“I started in the Fort Payne [Alabama] plant,” Chambers recalls. “The company wanted to install computer accounting, billing and estimating systems, and that's what I focused on for several years.”

Chambers developed Heil's early back-room computer operations with the help of a computer the size of three refrigerators and a 28K memory.

“After that project, I started to get bored sitting behind a desk,” Chambers says. “I wanted to get into the action, so I got into purchasing and production control, where I worked for about four years. Next I joined the aftermarket parts division. Finally, I got into manufacturing as shop superintendent at Fort Payne. In 1983, I was promoted to plant manager.”

At that time, the Fort Payne operation was struggling with profitability, quality issues and schedules. By 1990, Fort Payne was the gem of the Heil operation, and Chambers had earned a promotion to vice president of manufacturing for the entire company, with all the plant managers reporting to him.

When Joseph Heil sold the company to Dover Industries in 1993, Chambers moved up again, becoming general manager of the Refuse and Dump Body Groups.

In 1995, he became president of the company.