What is your position within your company?
I am chief executive officer of J.D. Miles & Sons Inc., Chesapeake, Va.
What is the most unusual roofing project you've performed?
Working on a metal roof in the shape of an airfoil. Many of the metal panels and other trim members had to be installed on compound radii.
Why did you become a part of the roofing industry?
My grandfather started the family business in 1910. I initially received my pre-med degree from college and married a nurse. But after we had our second child, teaching and coaching did not adequately provide for my family.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A physician
What was your first roofing experience?
Pulling gravel up to the roof on built-up roof jobs (before the days of conveyors)
What is your roofing industry involvement?
I am an NRCA past president, past president of the National Roofing Legal Resource Center and currently serve on NRCA's Associated Specialty Contractors Committee.
What is the most high-tech thing in your house?
A Blackberry®
What quality do you most like in a person?
Integrity
What are the most challenging aspects of your job?
Handling the vicissitudes of the economy and treating employees like the family they have become while working for my company.
What three condiments always are in your fridge?
Ketchup, mustard, salsa
If you could invite any three people (dead or alive) to dinner, whom would you invite and why?
I would invite Jesus; my mom; and the most eminent scientist in England, Stephen Hawking, who has a strong opinion that there is no heaven or hell. I would like for Jesus and my mom (who died in 2007) to give him the truth so he might be saved.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would go to Ireland to enjoy its golf, food and wonderful people.
People would be surprised to know…
That I have more than 2,000 hours of piloting experience in command of light aircraft, have recently been commissioned as a Stephen Minister and am a recent cancer survivor after enduring three months of radiation treatments.
