Eight months into his role as lead executive of the world’s largest producer of construction and mining equipment, Doug Oberhelman was meeting with an ENR Top 400 Contractor when an ENR reporter arrived for an interview. Oberhelman said to McCandless, “Have you ever seen one of these [media interviews] before?” McCandless replied that he hadn’t. “Well then, why don’t you stickaround and watch?”
Before long, Steve McCandless, senior vice president of Garney Construction, Kansas City, Mo., and a Caterpillar machinery buyer, became an impromptu part of ENR’s Feb. 10 interview at Caterpillar headquarters, located in Peoria, Ill. He had just finished talking shop with Oberhelman when our video camera started rolling.