Women in Aggregates: Anne Noonan

An Industry Outsider Makes Her Mark. 

By Josephine Patterson

This is the first in a new series that highlights women in the aggregates industry. – Ed 

Anne Noonan decided it was time to undertake a new challenge in a different industry. So, after a successful 30-plus-year career in the chemical industry, she took on the role of President and CEO of vertically integrated construction materials producer Summit Materials. 

Two years into her new role and Noonan is clearly making her mark. 

Since taking over the reins from founder Tom Hill in September 2020, Noonan has steered the company through a global pandemic and successful launch of its Elevate Summit Strategy. In fact, Summit Materials reported in May that it already achieved three of four objectives set for Horizon One of the strategy, significantly reduced its leverage and completed 10 divestitures. 

Outside Perspective

Sometimes it takes the viewpoint of someone from outside the industry, like Noonan, to recognize what is working and where there are opportunities for improvement. “I would say there’s a lot of good things about the aggregates industry, which is why I joined it in the first place. Really strong market dynamics and very committed people in this industry,” Noonan told Rock Products. 

“One of the first big ‘ah-has’ for me being new to the industry was when I talked to my team about safety,” she explained. “They didn’t just say ‘it’s about safety of our employees,’ which is what anyone would say in any industry. The difference here is that it’s the safety of our communities as well.”

“Because, think about it. Think about what we do. We touch every part of every community. We have drivers out on the roads all the time that must watch out for safety; we are building the foundations of our communities. So that’s a tangible difference in this industry that is different from others that I have worked in. A big, positive takeaway is that our people really care. It’s not just words for them, it’s something they live every day. So that’s to me a huge positive,” Noonan said. 

Another thing the industry is doing well compared to others: embracing technology, especially using it to improve the customer experience. Simple things like e-ticketing, not only improve the customer experience but also the industry because time is money around quarries, noted Noonan.

“The one area I will say that needs an awful lot of work is attracting and retaining talent,” she said. “The turnover rate shocked me in this industry, frankly.” Noonan believes the problem lies with the inability for people to see a career path from the quarry floor to the corporate suite. “Until you make that linkage in an industry, you are not going to first of all, attract the right talent, and then secondly, retain them,” she stated.

What can we do as an industry to fix this? Once again Noonan can provide some insight: “I saw this in the chemical industry, it starts in the classrooms, goes to the colleges and universities, then we must have detailed career paths through our organizations. It takes an army to get this done but it is doable.”

Diversity is another area the industry and Summit needs to focus on, according to Noonan. Summit has enacted several programs to address this issue. “We are challenging ourselves to be very intentional about seeking out diverse talent to join our company. Not just gender, not just ethnicity. Across the board, bringing in different backgrounds and experiences. You can get very myopic when you convince yourself that you’re only going to hire someone with single industry experience in any industry setting,” said Noonan.

She is right, of course. As an industry, we need to think outside the box in our talent search. Hiring candidates from other sectors opens the door for innovation and fundamental progress. “Having the strength of our core, our operations and industry-based knowledge, augmented by some special talents that help us drive our strategy, particularly in innovation and sustainability, is absolutely critical,” noted Noonan. “I believe it will be a competitive advantage for Summit Materials moving forward.”

Breaking Barriers

There has been a women’s movement in the industry since Noonan took control of Summit. In the past year, we have seen the first chairwoman of the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (Karen Hubacz, president and CEO of Bond Construction) as well as the first woman chair of the association’s Young Leaders group (Ericka Baxter, senior environmental director of CRH Americas).

“I was very encouraged to see Karen and Ericka in their new roles at NSSGA,” said Noonan. “I applaud NSSGA for leading by example. I think that’s a great first step when your industry association makes a move in this direction.”

She pointed out that Summit has done an excellent job in promoting women to leadership roles as well. Not only did the company hire her as its first female CEO but women also make up 56% of its board of directors. “Now where our company needs more work, and I don’t think we are any different from peers in our industry, is in improving diversity at all levels of our company. We only have 12% females and 34.3% ethnic diversity throughout our whole corporation – nowhere near where we think is acceptable,” Noonan said, noting again the need to represent the communities you serve. 

In regard to keeping the momentum going, Noonan said that women need to be advocates for each other. “I’m not sure we’ve always done that in the industry as we should – really encourage career progression,” she said. “I can honestly say, personally, that wasn’t one of my top priorities as I was working my way through a male-dominated chemical industry.” However, her perspective has changed, and she offers the following advice for those women wanting to elevate into leadership roles in the industry: 

“It is particularly important to work with a company where you feel you belong and are respected. Not just included, not just hired – belong and respected. That is how you will thrive, not by pretending that you don’t have feelings. Second thing, you need to embrace change. At Summit we’ve actually moved away from the word ‘change’ – because we found that the word had a negative association with many of our teammates. So instead we’ve changed the word to ‘evolving’ and constantly ‘transforming.’ It is important to think about positively transforming yourself every day. That takes commitment.”

“One of the reasons I am CEO today is not because I sat at my desk and said, ‘I’m going to be CEO,’ it is because I was open to trying a lot of different things. The only thing I haven’t worked in formally is procurement. I have done sales, marketing, advocacy, innovation, M&A and run many businesses throughout my career. You name it, I’ve tried it to get more experiences. I worked on the plant floor, I worked with customers. And I never worried at any point of my career about ‘Am I getting the right title?’ You don’t need to take a job just because someone gives you a fancy title. You need to take a role because it advances your career and you are continuously learning through new experiences.”

Additionally, she noted the need to have great mentors, a support system (see Women in Aggregates sidebar), the ability to be vulnerable enough to seek help, and being your authentic self.

Women Wanted

Having women in the industry seeking leadership roles is just one important step on the pathway to better representation. The other is encouraging more women to join the industry.

As an industry, we need to do a better job marketing the great careers offered today, said Noonan. “I don’t think anyone outside of the industry would know how much we pay a truck driver. They wouldn’t even think to be a ready-mix driver,” she said. “A lot of females wouldn’t think that’s something they could do.”

Furthermore, we need to “show talent what potential roles are open to them in the future and offer targeted career progression… One observation I have made is that it is quicker to progress from school to plant manager in this industry than the chemical industry,” Noonan added.

“…It’s a great time to be in this industry. And I would selfishly say that it’s a great time to be at Summit. And why do I say that? We have a strong strategy that drives our next phase of growth and value creation and on top of that, we live our values. Our values of Safety, Sustainability, Integrity, and Inclusivity should help to attract and attain teammates over time and we are very committed to living them every day,” concluded Noonan.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 

This article contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts, and you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “intends,” “trends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “projects” or “anticipates” or similar expressions that concern our strategy, plans, expectations or intentions. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We derive many of our forward-looking statements from our operating budgets and forecasts, which are based upon many detailed assumptions. While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, it is very difficult to predict the effect of known factors, and, of course, it is impossible to anticipate all factors that could affect our actual results. 

In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the results or conditions described in such statements or our objectives and plans will be realized. Important factors could affect our results and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the factors discussed in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Summit Materials’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2022. Such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.