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Jack Nix Jr. was interviewing for a high-level marketing position when he met JR Dunn President and CEO Terry Dunn in October 2001.
But after Dunn spent some time talking with the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former NATO chief of staff, he said he thought Nix might be better suited for a spot on the company's executive team.
"He talked about his desire to be a significant leader of a company," Dunn recalled from his initial 45-minute conversation with Nix. I felt he was a strong candidate to do more than just marketing for the company."
After interviewing with J.E. Dunn Construction Co.'s board of directors, Nix came aboard as an executive vice president in December 2001. A year later, he was promoted to chief operations officer, overseeing more than 1,300 employees and about $1 billion in project work.
Nix, who retired from a 30-year military career in 2000, has adjusted to the private sector exceptionally well, Dunn said.
"We wanted him to go through the learning phase with no firm time frame on when the pieces would come together," he said. "We found Jack to be a very fast learner and that he was ready to take the next step (to COO)."
It wasn't Nix's Army background that first dazzled Dunn so much as the integrity and calm confidence that flowed as naturally as the man's polite Georgia drawl. Nix didn't need a uniform for people to respond to him as a business leader.
Nix similarly was impressed with J.E. Dunn's president. He liked the core company values-quality, integrity, economy, performance and safety-that were printed like the Ten Commandments on the back of Dunn's business card.
"I probably have talked to 50-plus CEOs of companies, and Terry Dunn is one of two presidents and CEOs who talked right away about the company's values and what was important to his company," Nix said. "The U.S. military is very strong on values. It's part...