Brian has been with Gorbel since the beginning, but he celebrated his official 20 years with Gorbel earlier this week!
“Gorbel® has pretty much been a part of my life in some way for my entire life. I was almost 4 years old when my dad founded the business. Many a weekend my brothers and I spent “playing” in the factory while my dad worked in the office. We’d play hide and seek, swing each other around on Jib cranes, make knives on the grinder from scrap metal; ya know, all the things that we encourage kids to do today…ha!”
Q: What’s your life like outside of the office?
A: I am blessed to be married to Gayle for the last 18 years. She is from Boston and has a big family there. So many weekends are spent with them. And life is full playing with and raising our 3 crazy kids…Nolan (age 14), Adam (age 11) and Anna (almost 8). We live in the woods and love to be out in nature walking or mountain biking on our trails or doing yard work. And, of course, the kids’ activities are plentiful between soccer, piano, robotics, etc…but not over-the-top-consuming like we see many families living on the road each weekend at the next sports tournament. We strive for as much together time as we can get because the years are flying by!
Q: Who is your role model and why?
A: My dad is on that top of the list. I could talk for hours but the simplest answer is that he modeled humble, hard-working behavior every single day…and he did it with a smile and a handshake. That’s the kind of behavior that I strive to emulate and love to work with and play with people who demonstrate it as well. While he has moved on to heaven about 2 months ago, I still carry him with me every day.
Q: What do you wish people knew about Gorbel®?
A: I wish everyone could feel the joy of building a business that is truly focused on Improving People’s Lives. That’s our Mission…and we work hard to do this for all employees, all customers, and the communities we live in. We are restless about growth which keeps us antsy and always looking to be better. Yet at the same time we’re living our core values and trying to make the world a better place…while having fun and supporting each other.
Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: For me, there’s nothing as good as seeing someone make a positive mark in the world each day. I think a simple way to think about this is this. Each night my family goes around the dinner table and we do a “high / low” exercise where we share the best and worst parts of our day. What I like to see at Gorbel® is when someone does something for someone else that will make the “high” list at that night’s dinner table. The high could come from the giver or the receiver. The receiver could be a co-worker, customer, guest, or random stranger. In the end, something positive came out of a human interaction. If we can create an environment where this kind of positive output is happening all day, every day…then THAT is going to make a difference in the world.
Congratulations on 20 years with Gorbel, Brian! We appreciate everything you do. Thank you for being such an incredible leader to everyone here!