P&Q Profile: All States Materials Group’s Seth Hankowski

All States Materials Group’s Seth Hankowski took over as board chair of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) during the organization’s Annual Convention earlier this year. P&Q recently visited with Hankowski to discuss his leadership role at NSSGA and more.

What did you take away from the recent NSSGA Young Leaders Annual Meeting and the makeup of the next generation of aggregate industry leaders?

It brought back a lot of fond memories for me. I started in Young Leaders more than 15 years ago. The energy and excitement of the group is every bit of what I experienced and then some. NSSGA’s Young Leaders program continues to grow and evolve. More and more, the Young Leaders are taking up the challenge to not just make their group better, but to make our industry better by engaging at all levels of the association’s work.

During the Young Leaders meeting, you touched on the fact that you are the youngest board chair in the history of NSSGA. What originally drove you into leadership positions at NSSGA years ago, and what about the board chair role interested you?

I’ve been fortunate to be involved at NSSGA for a long time. The Young Leaders program gave me the chance to take responsibility and speak up when input is needed. It gave me the chance to take a leadership role within my peer group.

Shortly after aging out of Young Leaders, I was approached about entering leadership for the association and being a committee chair and on the Executive Committee, which led to becoming an officer. Once you get involved and see the opportunities NSSGA provides, there are many ways to remain involved.

I hope the great people in Young Leaders now know that we need them to stay involved, and there are opportunities for them to stay involved and grow as a leader.

How do you see your tenure as NSSGA board chair unfolding? What industry issues do you foresee having to tackle in the next year, and what would you ultimately like to accomplish when your tenure is said and done?

There are always challenges we face as an industry, and this year is no different. Increased regulations, supply chain issues, workforce shortages, growing NIMBYism – there is a lot that impacts the effectiveness of running our businesses. That is why the role NSSGA serves is so important for our members.

We continue to work to make sure infrastructure funding is implemented as the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act) legislation called for. The WOTUS (Waters of the U.S.) rule has been in flux for years. NSSGA is the conduit for our member companies to come together and represent our collective interests, and we will continue to push forward, because a successful aggregates business means a successful America.

Our industry is obviously made up of a number of large producing companies. Yours is more on the smaller end of the spectrum. What’s it like being a small producer in today’s day and age, and what do you see as the role of the small producer at NSSGA?

As a small producer, we have issues at our local levels. Quite often, our issues are similar to those of larger companies – just at a different scale.

NSSGA provides value for all of us, but in particular for us small producers, NSSGA provides an invaluable service at the federal level to provide the information and expertise that many of us just don’t have in our companies. What NSSGA also provides is a forum for small producers to not only get together with each other, but to represent the perspective of a small producer in committee meetings across the board.