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 Nature of business: Facility Services is a full service contract furniture dealership, representing many of the best manufacturers of panel systems, casegoods, seating, filing, conferencing – virtually everything for the office environment. It’s a one-man business. I tell my clients, “I’m not even a mom and pop, just a pop.”
Recent Accomplishments: Provided all of the public space and patient room furniture for the new Anne Arundel Medical Center Acute Care Pavilion and Sajak Pavilion in Annapolis. Travelled to Denver, Boston, and Atlanta to provide furniture for new offices for Fieldstone Mortgage Company. Worked with Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore to complete renovation of patient rooms and public areas throughout the hospital.
Business Philosophy: I don’t really have one. I just treat people with kindness and honesty and I work hard on my client’s behalf. Good things seem to come of that.
Future Plans: My business goal is to just keep on keeping on. I feel very fortunate to have been successful with Facility Services. I really enjoy what I do and my customers just seem to like working with me. My personal goals are to permanently shut down the “Bank of Dad", to finally finish “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon without falling asleep, and to shoot my age in golf. If I live to 95 I think I have a chance.
Like most about my job: I like the creative process of helping clients to design, spaceplan, and select furniture that best fits their requirements and their budget. But the thing I like best about my job is the commute – down a half-flight of steps to my home office. My company mission statement is “making money in my underwear!”
Personal: Married to Crystal Carpenter, we moved to the Annapolis area in 1978. We have two children. Daughter Cassie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she majored in Political Science. She now works for GMAC in customer service. Her husband Brian is an elementary school phys ed teacher. Son Cole graduated from Roanoke College, where he played intercollegiate lacrosse and majored in Philosophy. He received an MA in English Literature from Humbolt State University in California and currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Joni. I got started in the contract furniture industry with a small Baltimore company in 1986 and founded Facility Services in 1991. Previous to that, I was a retailer in Annapolis and before that, a professional potter in Washington, D.C.
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