At Associated Asphalt, we believe in the essence of opportunity, for our business, for our customers, and for our employees. We seek to provide opportunities for growth in all facets of our business. Kevin Cardwell, E&I Coordinator, has experienced the strength of this culture first hand during his 11 years working here.
After growing up in Covington, Kevin pursued an Associates Degree in Electronics at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College and later completed coursework at ECPI University to receive an Associates Degree in Information Technology. It was his education in these two closely related subjects that brought him to where he is today, at Associated Asphalt.
When Kevin joined the IT team at Associated Asphalt in 2008, he provided help desk support to employees and managed internal networks, servers, VPN connections and more. No two days were the same and that’s what Kevin liked about it.
Seizing Opportunities for Growth
As Associated Asphalt continued to grow, so did the opportunities for employees. After a major growth and acquisition period, our Operations team undertook a major upgrade project for all terminals. Kevin began working with the Electronics and Instrumentation (E&I) Manager to install terminal automation upgrades for all terminal locations. As a naturally curious person, he was immediately fascinated by the technology and process, asking a lot of questions along the way. After shadowing in E&I for a year, he was presented with the opportunity to join the Operations team to be responsible for maintaining the automated technologies they installed.
Today as the E&I Administrator, Kevin is able to fuse his two degrees in Electronics and Information Technology to make sure that the technology assisting drivers in loading and unloading materials is running accurately and efficiently. By streamlining this process, we are able to make sure that the transport of vital materials is on-time and in the right quantities. Paperwork is then generated automatically, reducing the time it takes to fully process a transport.
“I’m very happy for the opportunity. They could have easily gone outside of the company to find someone with more experience,” says Kevin. “They knew my work history and my work ethic and gave me this opportunity to prove myself.”
What’s Next for Kevin?
As an eager learner and someone who seeks to excel at his job, Kevin feels like he still has a lot to learn in his role as E&I Administrator. He looks forward to continuing to grow into his role, discovering more about technology automation, and traveling to work with terminal employees face to face.