To raise money for his four teenage sons’ education, Ed Sloan launched Sloan Forest Construction in Boise in 1991, intending to support the timber industry. The firm shifted to fencing remote wildlife properties as the forestry industry faltered in the mid-1990s, then expanded into highway fencing before eventually becoming a full-service perimeter security system contractor.
Company CEO Brice Sloan says the firm’s trajectory can be summed up as follows, “very small, basically a couple of guys in a pickup, that’s evolved into a top three specialty security contractor.” He adds that the firm got its start “doing the work that no one else wanted to do out in the woods.” That experience included working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which helped the company gain exposure in the federal contracting market.