Meet our people

Alan Bracken Owner acbracken@brackenpaving.com	Tom Weinman Sales & Project Manager tweinman@brackenpaving.com
Enoch Chen Team Leader	Mark Roberts mroberts@brackenpaving.com
Amanda Bracken Marketing abbracken@brackenpaving.com	Suzanne Bawgus Marketing sbawgus@brackenpaving.com
Glen Gilbert Accounting ggilbert@brackenpaving.com	Randy Harris Team Leader
Phillip Mallory Team Leader

We're friends and family

Bracken Paving, LLC is a successful, progressive paving company located in Upper East Tennessee that is dedicated to exceeding our customer's expectations while providing professional quality service. Our company started with one dump truck 16 years ago and has now grown to employ over 30 people.

Alan Bracken was born in October of 1971 in South Carolina to a family devoted to loving and serving God. The Bracken family moved to Tennessee when Alan was seven years old. They lived on a farm where hard work and long hours were a part of every day life. When Alan and his brother, Michael, were not in school, they were busy entertaining themselves with outdoor adventures, like chasing goats, riding horses, and capturing raccoons instead of video games and TV. This started Alan on the road to a strong work ethic and the ability to think outside the box. Alan spent his early years in a Christian school and graduated in 1989. Upon graduation, although unsure of the direction God had for his vocation, he was certain that hands-on hard work was to be part of his livelihood. Alan started paving as a summer job with a local company and found that he had a natural ability to get a job done efficiently and effectively. This motivated him to venture out into the paving industry for himself. With the help of a generous and trusting friend, he was able to buy his first dump truck. This not only taught him the importance of generosity and friendship, but the value of believing in others. Thus, in the footsteps of Alan's father and grandfather, begins the journey of entrepreneurship.

From the beginning, it was important to Alan that his company, Bracken Paving, stood for honesty and quality. He chose to make the most of hard lessons and mistakes, knowing that it could only make him and his company better. The greatest joy in the company for Alan has been the satisfaction of being able to give generously towards causes that have eternal purpose.

1997 was a defining year for Alan. At that point, he knew his passion was for business, but was seeking direction for his personal life. God began to show him clearly the path he was to take and who he was to share his life with. Alan married Amanda in August of this same year. This opened a new door for him to begin understanding the importance of developing relationships and communication. Alan and Amanda welcomed a baby girl, Addison Sidney, into their family in December 2000 and a son, Hunter Jackson, in August of 2002.

Another defining moment for Alan happened in 2001, when he was introduced to John Maxwell?s leadership principles and the Catalyst Conference. This changed his entire perspective on leadership. From that point on, Alan has not only determined to develop himself as an effective leader, but to develop others in the same way. He continues to find ways to learn, to grow, to experience and to share leadership principles that will not only change the way he does business, but change the lives around him in a positive and Christ-like manner.

Excellence

The greatest challenge facing us today is a qualified work force. I believe there is a shortage of skilled labor in our industry presently and a lack of interest in joining the construction industry.

One of the things Bracken Paving is doing to cope with this challenge is to invest more time and money into employee training and development. We have weekly meetings where we discuss teamwork, leadership, and basic relationship principles that help our people perform and relate more effectively at work and at home. The emphasis on excellence and personal growth attracts and keeps the best and brightest people while the whiners eliminate themselves.

Our growth is directly related to, not only my personal leadership development, but also to the leadership development of our team leaders. In the first 10 years of business, our growth was attributed to hard work & long hours. I was basically on every job trying to do it all myself. However, within the past 7 years, I have learned that everything rises and falls on leadership. So when I began to grow as a leader, Bracken Paving also began to grow. As I have learned to be a better leader, our team leaders have been more effective (and they have grown and developed as leaders as well), so this requires me to be on very few jobs now. Leadership training and development has allowed us to have several crews that are providing an excellent customer experience, along with an exceptional product and service, while maintaining exemplary production and performance.

I believe what makes us successful today is the value we put on excellence for our customers and the investments we make in the lives of our employees. Satisfied customers keep us in business and our skilled work force maintains customer satisfaction. Another thing that I believe helps make us successful is our generosity. We are a company that loves to give and help others in the community. In the past year we have donated grading and paving for 3 Habitat for Humanity driveways, 2 basketball courts for non profit organizations that help young people, and a long driveway for a handicap 3yr old girl so an ambulance can get to her house once a week for treatments. We also help other organizations every year financially. We are very grateful that we get the opportunity and have the resources to add value to others. The community around us recognizes this and they come to us knowing that we are a caring and reputable business in whom they can trust.

Sincerely,

Alan Bracken