[2008 Leadership Profiles] Kevin Kordek

Lives are shaped by defining moments. There are the expected milestones — high school graduation, wedding day, and birth of children. Then there are the unexpect-ed events or the dreams that may or may not come true. For Kevin Kordek, Monday, Jan. 2, 1995, was a day of dreams.

On that day, he arrived early at A-Active Termite & Pest Control in Virginia Beach, Va., the new owner of an existing business. A 32-year-old married father of three, Kordek had spent all of his professional life in the pest control industry, but this was his first turn as the boss. As the clock ticked past 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., and then 8:30 a.m., and no employees joined him, he placed a call to the former owner. Only then did he find out everyone had been given the day off.

An even bigger surprise awaited him the following day. One by one, each employee met with Kordek and echoed the same phrase: “I was promised a raise after the first of the year.” His dream, it seems, was turning into a nightmare. “Maybe,” he thought, “I should have worked for someone else instead of buying a business.”

More setbacks greeted him during the first termite season. “We were running 30 to 40 callbacks a day and dealing with damage claims. I lost all but one employee in the first six months,” he recalls. But Kordek persevered, computerizing the office, and focusing on providing excellent pest control service.

LESSONS LEARNED. Kordek’s persistence can be traced back to his childhood. His father served in the Navy, and at one point, the family moved nine times in eight years. Kordek and his brother and two sisters formed a strong foundation, knowing that they could rely on each other. His older brother was an athlete, and “looking back, he was the best big brother a guy could have.” Kordek followed his brother’s example, playing football in high school. In 1969, the family settled in Chantilly, Va., when Kordek’s father began working in Washington, D.C. “It was a new experience in my life,” says Kordek. “I wasn’t used to having dad home.”

At the age of 11, Kordek decided he wanted a shotgun and approached his father. Instead of buying the gun for Kevin, his father told him to earn the money. By splitting wood for $20 a day, he earned the money to buy the gun. “My dad is my hero. He’s the most remarkable human being. He taught his children why instead of just giving us answers,” Kordek says.

Additionally, he saw the strength and wisdom in his mother during a health crisis with his younger sister. When doctors could not figure out the cause of the illness, which turned out to be lactose intolerance, Kordek’s mother started a food regimen, only giving her daughter certain foods at a time to see the reaction. “That’s when I first saw science in action,” he says.

EARLY CAREER CHOICE. “I always wanted to be a pediatrician,” Kordek said. “They seemed to have the best job — there were pretty moms and broken bones.” Majoring in pre-med at Frostburg State University, Kordek continued his football career, but soon found out he needed to be bigger and stronger to compete, after suffering a few injuries.

“Education (concentrating heavily in biology) became my focus,” he said. Transferring to James Madison University, Kordek met his future wife Mary Beth on his second day on the new campus. “I do have to say that love at first sight exists,” he says, and he proposed six months after they began dating.

Meanwhile, another one of those defining moments in Kordek’s life occurred: “I decided I couldn’t be a pediatrician because I found out that children die. I could never tell a parent that.” Armed with this knowledge, he decided he was going to drop out of college. Kordek’s core circle, his mother, father and Mary Beth, talked to him and told him to reconsider. One of his professors suggested that since he was so close to a degree in biology, he could switch his major to that, with a concentration in entomology. Once he started collecting insects, he was hooked.

INDUSTRY CAREER. After graduation, Kordek planned to obtain his master’s degree in entomology and work for the USDA biological survey. He would work that summer and make some money, then go back to school. But again, his career path deviated from his plans.

He began his pest control career working for Paramount Pest Control. Once he started running his commercial night-time route at hospitals, nursing homes and restaurants, he knew the pest control industry was for him. Kordek was invited to speak at the fall career day at James Madison University. As he related his duties and experience, proud of his accomplishment, one of the students remarked that he was an exterminator with a four-year degree.

After telling his mother about the incident, she reminded him that he had wanted to be a doctor to help people, and that he had just found another way to do that. Moving to a position as technical director was a natural progression for Kordek. “I solved problems that other people couldn’t,” he says.

CHANGING DIRECTION. Jan. 20, 1987, proved to be another defining moment for Kordek. He was teaching service technicians the proper method for log fumigation. However, frost and dew had formed on the logs, making them icy, and he slipped and shattered his patella. Kordek recuperated and still performed his technical director duties, and also acted as the liaison between 50 district managers, and interacted with the vice president of operations and the general manager.

A few years later, on his way to help with interviews in the Roanoke office, Kordek was involved in an automobile accident, breaking his leg, nose, back, neck and three ribs. After 10 days in the hospital, he was back at work two weeks later. That incident was another defining moment that prompted a decision to start his own business.

THE A-ACTIVE CULTURE. One of Kordek’s first hires was Jeff Johnson, a former co-worker, who quit his job to come to work at A-Active. Johnson now serves as vice president of operations. Another early hire was Chuck Roach, who started as a sales inspector and is now operations manager. “Kevin is not really a boss, he is a leader,” says Johnson. “What makes him a great leader is his vision and desire to grow our company by providing excellent customer service.”

Indeed, in the 13 years with Kordek at the helm, A-Active has grown to more than $4 million a year in sales with 40 employees and two offices. “We have ‘Share the Vision’ meetings with our associates twice a week,” Roach says, “and go over safety, quality control, training on various subjects, where we are as a business and what our vision is as their leaders.”

Others in the industry have recognized Kordek’s success. “He is very confident in his approach to leadership,” says Rodney Elmore, president of Commonwealth Exterminators Inc., Lawrenceville, Va. “He is not afraid to venture outside of the box in running his business. Our industry is fortunate to have someone of Kevin’s stature carrying our torch.”

Joe Lupini, chairman of Loyal Termite and Pest Control Co., Richmond, Va., has known Kordek almost since his entrance into the industry and knew from the beginning that Kordek was a natural-born leader. “When he takes on a project, he follows it all the way through to success.”

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS. Kordek joined the board of directors of the Virginia Pest Management Association (VPMA) in 1996, and followed that with membership in the NPMA, and is on track to serve as that association’s president in a few years. “NPMA membership is a total commitment of the leadership of this company,” he says. “There has to be total commitment by the others for me to be able to participate.”

As much as Kordek gives to the association, he relishes the exposure to others in the industry and his ability to learn from them.

PHILOSOPHY. Kordek’s path had some turns and bumps, but he’s content. He’s helping people, which is what he set out to do. “Our business is one of public health preservation. Most of what we do,” he says, “is improve the quality of people’s lives by doing our job well.”

But he knows he hasn’t done this all by himself. “Mary Beth is the one person who has been through this with me. She’s been a rock, and always been my inspiration,” he says. Kordek keeps a motivational quotation handy, to describe his role as father, husband and business owner: “My job is not to light the fire beneath you, it’s to light the fire within you.”

Kevin Kordek at a Glance

• Owner of A-Active Termite & Pest Control, 1995-present
• 2007 Virginia Pest Management Association (VPMA) Industry Stewardship Award Winner
• Active member of VPMA and the National Pest Management
   Association
• Worked his way through the pest control ranks, beginning his career as a route technician at Paramount Pest Control
• Graduated from James Madison University with a bachelor’s degree in biology
• Married to wife, Mary Beth; three children: Kevin Jr. (age 20), Elizabeth (18) and Brian (age 16)
• Enjoys fishing, boating, scuba diving and golfing

WDI Guru

The Virginia Pest Management Association (VPMA) became aware of legislation in 1997 that would grant oversight of WDI inspections to the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Licensure. The pest control industry in Virginia was already regulated by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. This dual-control situation would not benefit the industry. “Kevin quickly stepped up to chair an ad-hoc committee to address this issue,” states Andrea Coron, executive director of the VPMA.

The committee produced a manual and curriculum training for WDI inspectors. Additionally, standards were adopted: inspectors would attend a one-and-a-half day workshop and pass a written examination, leading to certification. Every two years, inspectors must attend a half-day recertification workshop.

In the nine years since this program’s inception, nearly 900 inspectors have been trained, with 500 current certified inspectors. This program has been adopted by other states and exemplifies a positive step for the industry.

“Kevin’s leadership and conceptual vision of this overall program provided the driving force behind the 18-month effort to create and implement this program,” Coron adds.