THE INTERVIEW | RICHARD WARRINER
A winding path to the top
In a world where experience and key technical skills are increasingly in short supply, Richard Warriner, who is vice president of business development at Spanguard Corporation, is determined to make every moment of his career journey count. With an insatiable appetite for work and a keen eye for how the industry is changing, he is not about to rest on his laurels even after more than 40 years in the business.
R
ichard Warriner likes to wear many different hats. Even now, as vice president of business development at Spanguard Corporation, he also runs his own consultancy business WK2
Services Corp, drawing on his
understanding of the need to match skills and experience with the needs of smaller operators. Whichever hat he is wearing at any given time, his focus has nearly always been on the crane industry, to which he has brought an enviably strong work ethic and an eye for innovation. In his current role, he focuses on supplying, maintaining and expanding specialised electrification systems for industrial applications, including cranes and hoists, an area on which he has focused his mind and his effort for more than 40 years. In that time, he has helped industrial operations solve countless complex power system challenges with practical, field- proven solutions. His experience encompasses crane power delivery systems, modernisation projects, infrastructure upgrades, troubleshooting and
technical evaluation across a host of industrial environments, and throughout his career he has honed his knowledge of how plant teams, contractors, engineers and manufacturers work. Working directly with Spanguard’s customers and partners he continues to identify challenges and create solutions to solve their problems with a unique blend of experience, collaboration and understanding of how systems actually work in the field. This is a long way from the path he might have followed, had he been persuaded to join the family business.
“I have always enjoyed meeting people and working, and when I was growing up my dad was in sales, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps,” Warriner explains. “He worked for a wholesale distributor of ladies’ hosiery, but things were changing in that industry at the time. One of the nylon manufacturers came out with a new model of merchandising in retail establishments on consignment, so it was not an area where I felt I could compete.”
Having moved out of the hosiery business,
Warriner took a job managing manufacturing operations for commercial chemicals for a while, but an auto accident put him out of action for four months and he lost the job. Soon to be married and wanting to start out that stage of life on the right foot, he took a sales training opportunity that would put him on a long and varied path through the crane and hoist industry.
Taking chances The opportunity was with American Monorail, a manufacturer of patented track, a specialised, engineered composite rail system used for overhead cranes and monorails in place of standard structural steel beams. It comprises a hardened, raised tread that is often made of high- carbon steel and offers superior strength, reduced wheel wear and lighter weight per section for similar load capabilities. The company, which is now TC/American Monorail since the 1990 merger of Twin City Monorail and American Monorail, was then
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