Oldcastle President Black chairs Road Builders

Updated: September 20, 2013

Sources: American Road & Transportation Builders Association, Washington, D.C.; CP staff

In his first address as 2013-14 ARTBA chairman, Doug Black cited transportation funding, policy, worker safety and innovation as priority objectives for the year ahead.

“ARTBA will advocate for a significant boost in federal funding for transportation infrastructure, as part of the 2014 reauthorization of MAP-21, while also facilitating state and local transportation funding initiatives,” Black told members during their annual convention, held earlier this month in Milwaukee. As part of the MAP-21 implementation, he added, the association will push for improved policy reforms that affect the industry’s ability to efficiently build and maintain America’s infrastructure.

Black, whose recently left Atlanta-based Oldcastle Inc., tied experiences as an executive in road building and pavement materials—underscored by this year’s loss of three Oldcastle road building crew members in accidents involving third party motorists—to ARTBA’s worker safety awareness commitment. “Our industry expectation must be zero fatalities and ARTBA is currently and should continue to lead the charge in discovering and sharing work zone fatality elimination best practices,” he affirmed.

Consistent with a strategic plan ARTBA board members adopted in 2011, Black noted a focus on fostering innovation within the industry: “The world is rapidly changing in this digital age and we have to keep up. It is part of our charter at ARTBA to foster this innovation—in how we communicate, how we build, how we partner and finance, and how we ensure that the American people get the best return from every dollar spent on transportation infrastructure.”

His election as chairman follows a host of ARTBA leadership posts, including senior vice chair, first vice chair, vice chair at-large, Materials & Services Division president and Strategic Planning Committee co-chair. At Oldcastle Inc., Black served as president and chief operating officer, transitioning from six years at Oldcastle Materials, the first two as president, then chief executive officer.

Prior to his tenure in the Materials business—a top five player in U.S. ready mixed concrete, asphalt and aggregate shipments—Black held key Oldcastle Architectural, Precast and Distribution posts after joining the corporate staff in 1995 as vice president of Business Development. He holds an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. in mathematical science/civil engineering from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.