Part of being a leader is metaphorically putting out fires — those issues and emergencies that pop up and need immediate addressing. Brian Spence not only puts out figurative fires, he battles literal ones.

Spence, 56, was recently named a district manager for Gulfeagle Supply, bringing with him 38 years of experience in commercial construction, retail and wholesale building materials. Mixed in with that experience is nearly 22 years of volunteer firefighting.

“It really has helped me grow in my leadership skills. You want to learn a lot? Sit at a fire and listen to the chief and watch what they do and watch how the scene changes,” he said.

Combined with first-hand knowledge of construction and working for a nationwide big-box retailer, Spence is leading the charge in Gulfeagle’s Northeast region as the company continues to grow.

Building a Career

Since the age of 15, the New Yorker has been involved in the industry, working as a laborer for a commercial construction company. Being a minor, he performed smaller tasks but was later taught by some foremen how to install drywall.

After graduating high school, he continued working in the trades to support himself through college until he took a position at a small industrial supply company. He remained there for two years, working his way up to repair shop manager. Working for a family company, he realized that an upward trajectory wasn’t in the cards, so he took a leap of faith and went to work at Home Depot.

“I started in the hardware department, worked my way up through a hardware associate to a department manager, to an assistant manager, to a store manager,” he said. “And all through that, I worked in five different locations in Western New York.”

He ran a location in West Seneca for two years as a store manager, but after 14 years of donning the orange apron, he wanted a change, so he became a store manager at Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, where he learned how to manage commissioned sales reps.

“I figured if I couldn’t build it, I might as well furnish it,” he said with a laugh.

Unfortunately, the job didn’t afford him the work/life balance he desired with his wife and children, so he decided to shift careers back toward construction and worked for Alside, a building material supplier division of Associated Materials.

Once more, Spence proved to be the stuff of leaders, working his way up to branch manager, regional vice president and senior environmental and safety manager, at one point running the Midwest region consisting of 21 locations. However, due to labor reductions, his position was eliminated, and he sought a new place to call home.

That’s when, earlier this year, a recruiter introduced him to Gulfeagle Supply.

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“I did my homework and found that the values of the Gulfeagle family really mirrored mine: taking care of your people, managing the safety of your team, ensuring everybody goes home at the end of the day, and really focusing on customer service and doing the right thing,” he said.

Seeing their values mirrored in Spence, the company brought him on as district manager for its Northeast division.

“I’ve been through a couple of onboardings in my career … at the end of the day, I can honestly tell you, this company is top-notch. First impressions, from the hiring process to the onboarding process, to the allowing me to go out and become the leader of my business,” he said.

Leadership Forged in Fire

Working for Home Depot gave Spence more than experience — it inspired a desire to give back. He said the company promotes volunteerism, so he participated in projects like building playgrounds, wheelchair ramps and landscaping children’s hospitals.

“It really had an impact on me in the way I managed my personal life, and I felt strongly enough about it after I left Home Depot that it had left a void that I wanted to fill, and I became a volunteer fireman,” he said.

Spence signed up with the Williamsville Fire Department, where he’s served as an officer for the company and as an interior attack firefighter — those who enter a burning structure to directly combat fires at the source. The volunteer work provides a balance that Spence enjoys.

“I’m a boss at work — I prefer to be a laborer at the fire grounds,” he said. “I do anything and everything. I’m the first guy to go grab a broom or a ladder … it’s just a great opportunity to give back to the community.”

The volunteer position has also been a great learning opportunity. Although the urgency of fighting a fire doesn’t compare to managing distribution operations, the parallels quickly became apparent when Spence described the lessons learned from observing fire chiefs manage volunteers.

“It really has helped me grow in my leadership skills,” he said. “You sit back, and you watch, and you listen to the chief, and as this event evolves, they’re getting different information in different methods from different people, and they need to process it very quickly and make a decision that’s going to impact the outcome as well as the safety of everyone that’s on site.”

He said one of the key lessons he learned, both from his volunteering and his career, is that clear communication is crucial.

“The clearer you are in what you ask for, the cleaner the results become,” he said. “If you’re not willing to tell somebody specifically what has to be done, or in some cases, have the difficult conversation, how can you possibly expect to change your results?”

Growing Forward

Still new in his position at Gulfeagle Supply, Spence acknowledged he's still “drinking from the firehose” to acclimate to the nomenclature and Gulfeagle way of conducting business. Pun intended or not, his leadership skills have already been put to use.

As a district manager, each day is different. One day, he might be working with sales reps or customers directly. Other days, he is out in the field visiting one of the nine locations he oversees to help address challenges.

“Every facility has its own character,” he said. “I can honestly tell you each location is different. They're unique, and that's part of what's exciting about our role, right? We're able to pull — again, from some supply centers that do certain things really well — we're able to pull ideas and pull processes and procedures from them and implement them across the organization in my other locations that maybe are struggling on something.”

He said that at the end of the day, he can only be as good as the people who report to him, so his day-to-day communications often include coaching or assisting branch managers to further improve operations.

“None of us is the perfect employee, none of us is the perfect leader, and we all have the opportunity to learn and grow every day, right? And it's our job as leaders to identify those opportunities as quickly as we can, leverage the strengths and improve on the weaknesses,” he said.

With Gulfeagle’s acquisition of Elite Roofing Supply, expanding its operations to more than 140 locations nationwide, the company is in growth mode. Although the economic uncertainty caused by shifting tariffs is something the company, like others in construction, is monitoring, Spence is excited not only for Gulfeagle’s potential, but its customers.

“Being involved in seeing that customer that comes in, that's brand new, just bought the pickup truck, just bought the ladder rack, and you had a part. You … played a part in their ability to become a successful business.

“In our world, in my position, from a customer side, there's nothing better,” Spence said.

As for personal success, he says outside of hobbies like riding his motorcycle, fishing, and belonging to the diehard Buffalo Bills fans known as the “Bills Mafia,” he enjoys spending time with his wife of 31 years and their two children.

“I did something right because we got them both through college," he said with a grin.