Nexus PMG Behind the Scenes: Founder Origins & Keys to Our Success

Our CEO Ben Hubbard, COO Roshan Vani, and CFO Paul Hammond reflect on the origins of Nexus PMG and how having a history helped with the path to company success.

The Origins of Nexus PMG

This transcript has been lightly edited.

Ben Hubbard  00:40

Basically, me and Paul agreed to get the heck out of Saudi Arabia. And the only way to be successful doing it was to take Roshan with us. I was starting my sales practices before we even started Nexus PMG we were trying to sell Roshan on the vision of the business. And that effort coupled with a little bit of corporate insanity that occurred around the same exact time, I think was what eventually pushed the envelope to get it going.

Roshan Vani  01:11

I got investigated. But, I was found innocent of all charges.

History Matters for Long-Term Success

Ben Hubbard  01:26

It sounds corny, but I truly believe that we were colleagues for years before but we were also friends. Paul and I traveled the world together, Roshan and his wife and Paul and I were on the compound together. We’d have dinners together. Some crazy stories in places like Dubai and Bahrain, and we had a lot of fun. And I think any good partnership is built on the foundation of history. 

Roshan Vani  01:52

I think it was Jigar Shah that said I don’t think enough people put enough focus on the founding teams background, and how many people will say, “Hey, I got a great idea. Let’s go form a company together.” And they’ve known each other for like three months.

Paul Hammond  02:21

Our backgrounds are similar, but different as well. Yes. Professionally, personally. So we’ve got similar kind of execution backgrounds, but at the same time enough differences personally kind of extroverted sales focus, kind of a mixture between extrovert, introvert, be more introverted, more internal focus. And I think that was what really kind of gave us the opinion that we could succeed as a group.

Different Personality Types Create a Team Dynamic

Ben Hubbard  02:48

I remember we did a personality test type them off-site when we were still in Saudi. And I was literally off the charts. Somewhere on the extrovert side. Paul was an extreme introvert, and Roshan was kind of in the middle.

Paul Hammond  03:18

And we did a Book Club episode, right with the red, green. The way our personalities differ, but they also form a good team. I think the team dynamic between us as the personalities really originally brought us together, kept us together, and they kind of helped us succeed as a group.

Ben Hubbard  03:46

It’s a foundation of respect, too. I respect their skill set. I respect if they’re very, very strong on an opinion that may be opposing me, but it’s one that they want to die on. There’s a reason for it. I respect that, you know, and I think it goes all the different ways.

Paul Hammond  04:02

We haven’t had any disputes, really.

Roshan Vani  04:05

Not to any degree that couldn’t be resolved in 48 hours. There’s a couple of sales, I think, where we kind of dipped into one. That’s definitely an inside joke on Ben blowing up on me on not having a sales brain, but I think that one was a prime example of how we got through it on I think we listened to each other quite well. And the proposal that went out was, fortunately the project didn’t go through.  I think that the idea of how we all complement each other and how we’re not the same is probably our biggest strength.

Respect & Play Into Strengths and Weaknesses

Paul Hammond  04:55

I think we know our weaknesses as well. We booked Steven, we brought Chris in. We know technical is a gap for us, but Chris fills that and with his knowledge and the team he’s built. Steve fills a number of gaps in terms of industry knowledge, subject matter expertise and operations and turnaround efforts. And we brought him in, and he’s running his own business line now. So seeing not necessarily gaps all the time, seeing opportunities in other people’s skill sets to build a business around to be flexible enough to say, hey, we can do something here, I think has has really been a big factor of growing this company. 

Roshan Vani  05:30

Up until Chris joining the company, I mean, I’m an average, maybe good engineer. And that was affecting in my role as I was taking all the execution and the engineering and we really took a look at it. And we always bolster with subject matter experts under our 1099 umbrella of folks that I think we’ve done a really good job building a network of folks that could come in, if we didn’t know where I was, I think humble enough, is probably the right word to say, humble, to bring in the right folks that can really help guide us for the betterment of our client. I think most of our clients see that, but when we really think about going and building an engineering group and the skill sets that requires someone like Chris is a much better engineer than I am, quite frankly.

Then Steve on the operation side, right. I mean, as we were recognizing a lot of these plants, and these, these facilities in this sector have struggles in terms of getting up to nameplate, and you know, that, that that operational lens, if you will is, we build projects, and we walk away in mechanical complete. We needed that skill set internally, I think we were again, I’ll use the same word, humble enough to recognize that we needed a partner that could really round that out. And so when you when you look at  how we’ve grown the team and how we’ve thought about bringing folks in, it’s really thinking through being humble looking at where, where we felt like we knew we needed help and then finding folks that fit within our culture.

Key Takeaways for Company Success

  • A history of working well together goes a long way.
  • Different personality types are a good thing for the team dynamic.
  • Respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses (and play into them).
Ben Hubbard
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