Selling always came easy to Ed Dunlap. That much he knew — and held onto as a backup — if his plans for starting his own janitorial supply business fell through. What the Cleveland-based roofing materials salesman didn’t know in 1968 was that he was on his way to establishing one of the biggest and most successful roofing companies in the trade while embarking on an extraordinary business career most entrepreneurs can only dream of.
Northern Industrial Maintenance, the company Dunlap started in the basement of his home with $1,000, was the foundation of CentiMark.