ACA’s Chairman Sandy Berg Balances Service with Success
Accomplishing the goals of good stewardship, especially in a business environment, can be a challenging task. For many CEOs, the term “steward” can have implications related to the management of resources—human, material, and financial—as well as ecological. This can result in difficult and, at times, competing priorities between the often more immediate need for profitability and a long-term focus on the future of the company, its employees, and customers. Yet, the most successful business leaders have the ability to balance the two, and, as a result, create organizations that are better equipped to handle changing times and fortunes.
The philosophy of stewardship is also one that seems to be hardwired into the DNA of the current ACA chairman of the board—Sandra Berg. The President and CEO of Ellis Paint Company and Pacific Resource Recovery Services, board member on CARB, member of numerous philanthropic and business organizations, this successful businesswoman credits much her business ethic to her father, Robert O. Berg. As the head of Berg Family of Companies, Robert Berg’s distinguished career exemplified the benefits that can be realized when a CEO serves as a good neighbor to the community. Sandy notes, “This has been a mindset started by my father and passed on to me: we have a responsibility to our customers, employees, and local community. If we pay attention to these responsibilities, profits will follow.”
Like her father, Sandy is a true pioneer. She has broken ground, shattered barriers, and has done so while proving that the “good guys” can finish first. She was named president of Ellis Paint Company in 1992. In 2014, Sandy became the first woman in 126 years to head the American Coatings Association. Her history of service to the industry and the East Los Angeles community where Ellis Paint is located have long roots.
So, how did a female business leader running a small chemical company come to serve on CARB—an agency that represents regulation, and in one of the most stringent environments in the United States? And how do her companies continue to succeed when so many have abandoned the regulatory-heavy climate of California? Sandy’s story and the story of Ellis Paints is a compelling one.
“ . . . We have a responsibility to our customers, employees, and local community. If we pay attention to these responsibilities, profits will follow.”
The Berg Family of Companies
Ellis Paint Company, founded in 1887, was run by the Ellis family and descendants until its purchase by Robert Berg in 1969. Following Berg’s acquisition of Pacific Coast Lacquer (PCL), a solvent distribution company, Ellis and PCL were combined in 1976. In the early 1980s, Berg addressed the challenge of solvent waste generated by his customers with the inception of PCL System, a solution of delivering solvents and picking up solvent waste to recycle at the Ellis plant. In 1991, the waste-management activities of PCL System were spun off into a new company, Pacific Resource Recovery Services (PRRS). In addition to Ellis Paint developing compliant products, PRRS receives and recycles the paint-related waste stream generated from the use of paint and paint-related products. Today, Ellis Paint is solely focused on paint, serving the industrial, automotive refinish, and pool and deck coatings markets.
According to Sandy, their success “was a result of decades of corporate efforts to meet regulations head on, to be part of the solution, and to remain an industry leader to our customers.”
Exploring the Roots of Success
Sandy’s personal history with Ellis Paint began when her stepmother decided to step down from handling the company’s finances and urged Sandy to move into the role. Exhibiting impressive business acumen, Sandy worked her way up through the company, despite the concerns from some more “traditional-minded” business associates that she was too “nice” to succeed. Beginning early in her career, Sandy followed her father’s example in recognizing the importance of being a “good neighbor” to the community.
As part of her responsibilities, Sandy began to work closely with local community leaders, who had expressed fears about a company that handled toxic substances being located in their neighborhood. “Suspicion of business in general runs high here. Especially when toxic materials are involved, the community’s ability to mount grassroots campaigns is strong,” she explains. To address their apprehensions, Sandy set up quarterly meetings. “I talked about the risks we had, we talked about the concerns they had. I shared with them our emergency response plans . . . and I listened.” As a result of ongoing communication, the community and the company formed a strong bond. “Developing relationships from a common bond of the community they live in and I work in, and at a point in time when you don’t need anything is a huge benefit.”
She cites an example from the early 1990s, when the company did need recognition from the community. Ellis was seeking to acquire an EPA permit to continue the recycling business. “In applying for the permit, we chose to involve—rather than alienate—our activist East Los Angeles community and created an open dialog to discuss, understand, and resolve community concerns.”
Even after the company got the needed permits, Sandy continued to stay involved. About six months later, she received a letter from the community, inviting her to participate in a new community program, because, as the letter stated, “we know that you have a heart for the community.” According to Berg, “I believe that if you can understand where people are coming from and what are the true issues, we have the ability to make a difference and be a good neighbor. And a good neighbor does show up and does participate.”
Creating a Framework for Innovation
In 2004, Sandy was appointed to the California Air Resources Board by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Responsible for protecting public health by meeting federal clean air standards and reducing air pollution, the Air Resources Board has led policy, driving business in California to develop clean air solutions. Sandy believed she could bring her perspective as a small-business owner and passionate community volunteer to help inform the policies that were being debated. She remembers her surprise as she walked into her first CARB meeting, being flanked by reporters and flashing cameras as ARB was hearing the first Greenhouse Gas regulation for passenger vehicles. “What was I thinking?” she jokes. In her 11 years with CARB, though, Sandy brought her expertise in business, her passion for the environment, and leadership skills honed by those community meetings to craft regulations that had influence not only in California, but across the United States.
She states her views clearly. “There is a role for public policy. I strongly believe we have to be at the table understanding the issues and defining how industry is a productive part of the solution. If rules and regulations are inflexible and feel onerous, companies will resist. Business will fight to survive, which translates into a ‘them versus us’ atmosphere, and that is not a formula for success. There is a saying you are either at the table or on the menu. We need to be at the table.”
When asked which is the stronger driver, good policy or consumer support, she says, “It is a partnership; one can’t succeed without the other. In my role as a CARB board member, I have never met with an industry who doesn’t care about the environment. It is about how the policy is going to get us from where we are to where we need to go. Successful public policy depends on the innovation to develop new products with a lighter footprint on our environment.” For Sandy, a good, well-crafted policy is “an instrument that allows the innovators and early adopters leading to consumer support to take off, creating change that allows our economy to thrive and our environment to be healthy. ”
Despite the challenging regulatory environment in California, Ellis Paint has avoided the fate that so many small businesses in California fell prey to. “Over the last 30 years we’ve simply recognized a market need—that our customers have environmental challenges to solve—and concluded that we could help them do that. For example, in 1979 (well in advance of hazardous waste laws), we developed a system to recycle our customers’ paint-related waste. In the mid-1980s, we developed low-polluting products to keep our paint customers compliant with air quality rules and regulations. All along, we’ve been careful to respect our local community.”
“Successful public policy depends on the innovation to develop
new products with a lighter footprint on our environment.”
On the National Stage
Sandy’s commitment to the coatings industry is reflected in her long-standing service to the organizations that represent the industry’s interests. She served as president of the California Paint and Coatings Association and has been extremely active in local association initiatives.
It is this dedication and drive to help the industry that she brings to her current role as chairman of the board of the American Coatings Association. With characteristic humility, Sandy notes, “For me, I would not be able to stay on top of the national regulatory environment without ACA. Interestingly enough, as involved as I am in California with regulatory issues, ACA still brings an expertise that I would not have had without belonging to the association.” In addition to recognizing ACA as her “environmental and regulatory expert and partner,” Sandy points out the interactions with other paint companies as being a powerful benefit of participation with the association. “Having the ability to make that phone call, to ask people how they are handling various regulatory implementations or best practices, or getting a phone call and having people ask me questions . . . I am very willing to share information and, of course, remain good competitors. That is the nature of our market.”
Moving forward in her leadership position with ACA, Sandy is optimistic about the association’s influence on key reform issues, such as TSCA. (At press time, Congressional approval of reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act is considered to be imminent.) She also feel strongly about the ACA’s mission of “telling the important story of the value of coatings” and cites the success of PaintCare®—the industry’s product stewardship program developed by ACA—as an essential component of that story.
Most notably, Sandy believes that her tenure as chairman allows the industry’s smaller and mid-sized companies to better understand that ACA is “an inclusive organization. ACA has provided broad industry insight and key business issues which makes ACA a great resource for a small company like Ellis Paint. And certainly having a small company representative serve as the chairman of the board shows that ACA values all of our member companies . . . large and small. Like my fellow chairmen, it has been an honor serving our industry. The dedication of the ACA staff, led by our own Andy Doyle is second to none in talent, leadership, and commitment to excellence. Working with the ACA board of dedicated executives that make this industry thrive is inspiring. My biggest take away leading our organization the last two years is confirmation of what I already knew—our industry is strong, innovative, and making a positive impact in multiple ways. I see that impact first hand as I interact with member companies, their communities where we work and live, and in the policy world as we strive to be a leader of solutions.”
Achieving Recognition
Over the course of her career, Sandy has been recognized for her achievements.
Beyond all of the international accolades and accomplishments, it seems likely that one of Sandy’s latest honors most closely signals her compassion and love for her community. In 2015, she was named the recipient of the LAPD Hollenbeck Police Athletic League PAL of the Year Award for her “generous contributions of time, expertise, energy, heart and treasure, to the community of Hollenbeck and Boyle Heights.”