Building a Legacy
How glass industry leaders can start planning their exit
In May, I attended a construction trades career fair organized by the Maryland Center for Construction Education and Innovation. The National Glass Association partnered with Atmos Solutions, the Association’s glazier apprenticeship sponsor for the Washington, D.C., area to help educate 1,100 high school students about potential careers in glazing.
When I asked Atmos’ Senior Manager of Compliance and Workforce Operations Khalilah Woodland Adams why it’s important for employers to invest in construction education programs like an apprenticeship, she said that these programs are crucial for construction to continue to exist. “If you want a legacy, if you want your business to continue, it’s something you have to invest in,” she said.
That question of legacy, and how current businesses can transition to the next generation, has already come to a head for many in the industry as owners consider their exit and succession plan. According to a joint 2024 study published by FMI and the Construction Financial Management Association, 38% of surveyed construction business owners who plan to step down in 3-5 years did not have an ownership plan in place.
“Too often, owners rely on a buyer coming to the table or key employees coming up with a buyout plan; however, passively waiting isn’t a strategy,” says Matt Godwin, managing director, FMI financial advisory services. “Taking a proactive approach is essential to mitigating potential transition risks, ensuring continuity and safeguarding the legacy you’ve built.”
Exit and succession models
CFMA outlines six potential options for passing on the company business.
- Family succession. Transferring ownership and management of the business to family members is common, but it can be a complex process, CFMA warns. Training successors, establishing a governance structure and implementing legal and financial mechanisms are critical, they say.
- Liquidation. Before shutting the business down, CFMA suggests having business assets professionally appraised to ensure a fair price when sold. Paying debts and taxes, notifying stakeholders and closing accounts are also part of the process.
- Employee Stock Option Plans. Familiarly known as ESOPs, these plans transfer ownership of the business to employees. Getting employee buy-in is crucial for this type of succession plan.
- Selling to Management. This exit option allows for business continuity and allows outgoing owners and leaders to reward high-performing employees, CFMA reps say.
- Selling to Private Equity. While many private equity firms purchase businesses with the goal of exiting the investment in a few years, CFMA says they’ve seen this patten slightly shift, with smaller groups having a longer hold period. CFMA notes that strong management is attractive to private equity and recommends that owners be ready to discuss how their exit strategy aligns with the firm’s goals.
- Selling to a Strategic Buyer. As with a private equity firm, selling to strategic buyers requires aligning goals between the two entities. One advantage is that “strategic buyers often value culture fit more than private equity buyers,” according to CFMA.
When selling to a buyer outside the business, profitability is not the only thing to consider, say the leaders of Beacon Exit Planning, a firm specializing in exit and succession planning. Founder and CEO Kevin Kennedy and COO Joseph Bazzano shared their insights at GlassBuild America 2025, advising glass industry business owners that potential buyers are evaluating the business based on future returns, not just current ones.
“They’re looking to the future, and the ability to scale the business,” says Bazzano. “They want to know that there are opportunities and the potential for growth—that’s going to be a better return on investment, in the end.”
Exit Planning: Two Glass Industry Case Studies
Exit and succession planning also took center stage at BEC Conference this year, with two sessions focusing on the challenges and rewards of successful exit strategies. In “New Gen, New Rules: Fresh Perspectives on Family Business Succession Strategies,” moderator Ted Baumgardner, president, Guthrie AI Inc. spoke with Patric Murphy, president, Texas Commercial Glass Concepts; Emily Yukish, president/CEO, Specified Systems Inc.; and Evan Afenir, president, DP Glass Co. about their shared experience as next generation leadership of family-owned businesses.
In the session “Protecting Legacies, Transitioning Leadership and Building the Next Generation,” Priscilla Koeckeritz, president & CEO, Brin Glass Co. offered her insights on taking on leadership of an installing company as a glass industry outsider, and what kind of transformations were needed during the transition. Together, the two sessions offered business owners a range of ideas for getting started on their own succession plan.
Start small, and start early
Panelists and presenters urged glass industry companies to start thinking seriously about a succession plan for the business. Koeckeritz, who joined Brin Glass in 2019 as a consultant, saw first-hand the difficulties of a business that did not have a succession plan in place. The unexpected passing of CEO Doug Nelson, the onset of the pandemic, and a wave of leadership retirements all created challenges for the company at the start of her tenure.
While firm succession planning can help mitigate unexpected challenges, early planning is also important because there is no “one size fits all” approach, says panelist Patric Murphy. His company is three years into a succession plan that is still being finalized; he anticipates it will likely take 13 years to complete.
Panelist Emily Yukish agreed that starting early is critical, as it’s not always obvious what pathway for the company is best. At Specified Systems, leadership considered different scenarios, including selling the company, liquidation, and implementing an ESOP. She said leadership had to also consider the ramifications of succession if her father, the owner of the company, suddenly passed, and suggested that the first step for owner exit planning could be getting a life insurance policy.
Succession planning can also be an expensive process, panelists warned, and another reason why it’s best to start early. Specified Systems hired lawyers specializing in company transitions, as well as an executive trainer from a Fortune 100 business during the process.
Draw on veteran knowledge and invest in future generations
Succession planning inevitably brings into focus intergenerational shifts. This can be especially important for family-owned businesses that are shifting to the next generation.
Yukish, who worked at the family business as a teenager before pursuing a career outside the industry, says that taking the reins from her father was a gradual process. “Respect always has to be earned. It can be hard to grow up in the business, because employees will see you as a child,” she shared. “But my father also helped me get that buy-in during the transition, and it helped ensure employee’s feelings of security.”
Beyond establishing continuity, retiring owners are also critical sources of institutional knowledge, panelists agreed. While Yukish’s father is now part of the company on a consultatory basis, she continues to value his insight. “We need that knowledge while we have it. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” she said.
While continuity can help create trust with employees, change is also necessary, as Koeckeritz found when she joined Brin Glass, which celebrated its 114th anniversary this year. Despite the challenges of the pandemic and leadership transitions, many veterans in the company wanted to “go back to the way things were,” a mindset that Koeckeritz had to push against during her early years at the company. “We're not going back to the way we've always done it, but we are going to build on the legacy of the way we've done it, so that we can learn and we can grow the next generation,” she said.
Like Khalilah Woodland Adams at Atmos Solutions, Koeckeritz sees workforce development itself as part of successful succession planning; training and investing in employees increases the likelihood that someone will want to replace leadership when they retire. To create this pathway to leadership, Koeckeritz made all job roles, including hers, transparent by making job descriptions available to all employees. “If they know what I do, they might want to do what I do,” she says.
Despite the fact that her son is training to be a glazier, Koeckeritz emphasized that glass industry companies cannot always count on their children entering the trade; instead, they need to work on company culture and embracing the different expectations of Gen Z in order to continue. “We have to be a company that people want to work for.”
