Employee Spotlight- May 2018
Matt Ford- Journeyman I
For May’s “Employee Spotlight”, we would like to highlight Matt Ford, a Journeyman I here at Welch Tile and Marble Company. Matt has been with the company for a total of seven years and has recently passed his test to become a Certified Tile Installer! While installing, his favorite projects to work on are fast paced, large commercial installations. He also enjoys attending unique events, such as Coverings Trade Show. He appreciates “taking something unfinished, completing it to someone’s specifications, and seeing the happiness it can bring”. Matt also notes the change in the tile industry, “when I first started everything was 12” by 12”, now everything is 12” by 24” and larger”. He also mentioned how much the large, thin tiles have taken off.
Matt competing in bare back bronc riding
In his personal life, Matt has had a rather successful professional rodeo career. He competes in bare back bronc riding and has been in the top 20 in the world three times and the top 15 once, which then qualified him to attend the International Rodeo Finals. He has also won the Canadian Ram Circuit, the Central Region, and the State of Michigan series three times. He has been awarded “Rookie of the Year”, along with qualifying for mid-state finals five times and winning Reserved Champion twice. He mentions that he travels hundreds of miles to attend a rodeo for eight seconds of adrenaline-pumping excitement.
Outside of the rodeo, he enjoys riding horses on his farm, spending time with family, being a supportive husband, and chasing his little girl around. Matt and his wife are also due to welcome a new baby very soon! As a closing statement, Matt articulates, “I want to give all the glory to God for blessing me with my healthy family, my ability to work in the tile industry, and all my accomplishments with rodeo.”
Matt at a rodeo
Our C.O.O., Steve notes, “It’s been a pleasure getting to know our team members at Welch Tile and Matt Ford is no exception. From our first interactions, it’s easy to tell that Matt takes life, family, and career very seriously. After a few interactions, I learned more about Matt’s competitive nature as evidenced by his rodeo achievements, being recognized on a world level! Maybe it seems like an odd combination, even though Matt is very competitive, he is also caring about people, especially his family. One last story I’d like to share about Matt and his recent CTEF completion. After taking the hands-on portion of the CTIF exam Matt made several comments, the one I paraphrased for our readers, ‘I was confident going into the test, but sweating buckets near the end.’ This national recognized test, is a tribute to those who promote tile standards, training, education and a drive for identifying qualified tile installers. We congratulate you, Matt Ford for your successful achievement and all those at Welch Tile who have reached this level."