Two Michaels, a Big Loss
We’re saddened with the passing of two industry lions we got to know in our travels, Mike Ulinski on August 7th, and Mike Vesey, on August 28th.
Two Mikes, both 50 years young. They both fought the fight against cancer. They both will be missed by those who were inspired by their hard work, their tireless natures, their devotion to others, their passion.
Here’s what Jeff Orleans, chairman of Orleans Homebuilders–where Mike Vesey served as president and chief operating officer of the Bensalem, Pa.-based public home building company–had to say this morning:
Michael Vesey, far right
“What do you say about such a special kid, who was brighter than the rest of us, but never let on? He was a big, strong, Irish kid, who led by example with hard work and who was never ‘easy,’ but very, very fair.
“I worked with Mike’s father many years ago, and when Mike got through at Penn, and got his CPA, he called me up to say that he was interviewing me to determine whether he should come and work for me. He was like that, confident, but it wasn’t arrogant and it came down to him believing that he wanted to learn everything there was to know about construction in the field before he came into the headquarters office.
“Most of all, he was a great and inspiring family man, husband and father to his four wonderful children. That’s why we’re going to feel such a loss.”
Jeff Orleans calls Mike Vesey the “son I would have chosen if I could have chosen.” Orleans and his company have had three-and-a-half years to try to come to grips with their loss, but until the past few months, Jeff says, Mike never gave up the fight.
Ulinski, had been vice president of marketing and sales for Masco Contractor Services, and had been part of a team that built the unit into a $3.5 billion national juggernaut, serving scores of high volume home builders with a portfolio of installation, products, and consultative services.
Ulinski, during his time at Masco, also obtained his MBA from Eastern Michigan University.
Mike’s energy had no limits during the middle part of the decade. He spoke with Big Builder senior editor Teresa Burney in June 2006, amid Masco’s roll-out of a synergistic solution for home builders that married Masco’s product and service portfolio in a way that makes sense for production enterprises.
Mike Ulinsky, far right.
“It’s a work in progress,” says Ulinski. The company’s is betting heavily on a solution called BuildLogix, described by Ulinski as a process that organizes its service providers in a way that offers money and time-saving synergies for builders.
The purpose of the program is to bundle home building services that are scheduled to occur sequentially in construction. For instance, Masco might offer to install cabinets, countertops, and hardware for the doors and drawers, taking the burden of scheduling several contractors, and the inherent downtime in the process off the backs of builders.
“Once we are doing multiple products in a house, if you can get them to become sequential, with one thing right after another, then there are savings,” Ulinski says. “There is no hand-off downtime [from one contractor to another] or errors.”
Karen Mendelsohn, Masco Corporation’s vice president of sales and marketing, says that Mike Ulinski was the “consummate professional, with a huge passion for everything he did in his life, whether it was work, family, community, or hobbies. He had a zest, a zeal, an adventurous spirit that was contagious. He was perhaps the most optimistic person I have ever met.”
Mendelsohn recalls a quintessential Ulinski moment when she first started with Masco in early 2000, moving over from PPD (Peerless and Delta Faucets).
“My husband Rich and I were attending our first Builder 100 event at Lake Las Vegas, and I was brand new at Masco then,” Mendelsohn recalls. “Mike and his wife Mary made it their business to introduce me to all the builders at the event, and I realized the deep respect these folks had for him. He was officially working for me, but he took me under his wing at that first night reception, and from that moment I had credibility because I was there with him. I loved Mike.”
Two great guys whose ability to inspire knew no bounds. Two guys who have gone too soon. We’ll miss seeing them around.
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