NEWBURYPORT, MA, USA – DECEMBER 21, 2018 – Zampell Refractories, Inc. promoted Sean Case to Chief Operating Officer of all USA operations, effective October 1, 2018. As a part of this, the Zampell Family chose to honor him on December 21, 2018 with a special Tom Zampell Award for Craftsmanship.

Sean Case marked 25 years with Zampell Refractories this year, starting with the company right out of Clemson University. Through his time at the company, he often reflects that he has had just about every job at the company, from laborer right up to Chief Operating Officer (COO). He first took over the management of the Massachusetts Division in 1996 as a young engineer with the business. Massachusetts has long been a division that held a special place in everyone’s heart in the company given that it was the first division, dating back to Tom Zampell. After growing this operation, Sean would later take over all of New England, the West Coast, and Florida before taking over all operations as COO.
In each Zampell division, an annual, year-end lunch is held to talk about the year, say thank you to everyone, recognize employees for years of service, and give the Tom Zampell Award for Craftsmanship. The event today was for all the New England employees, and had over a hundred employees and office staff in attendance.
The Tom Zampell Award for Craftsmanship is designed to recognize employees who, each year, represent themselves in such a way that is a tribute to the legacy of Tom Zampell. Given Tom Zampell’s dedication to the employees, it is typically given to a field employee in each division. For special occasions, the Zampell Family chooses to honor certain individuals for demonstrating the values of Tom Zampell in how they lead the company.
When speaking of the purpose of the award, Brian Zampell remarked, “Tom Zampell dedicated to doing things the right way. He had a simple philosophy in business, and that was if you take care of the people, the people take care of the customers, and the customers take care of the company.”
When speaking specifically about Sean’s recognition, Brian went on to say, “In life, we often encounter people who lead, unfortunately, in order to fulfill a personal ambition. True leaders awaken idealism in people to achieve something greater than themselves. To be a part of something special. I believe that Tom Zampell had this quality. Jim Zampell has this quality. Ray Flynn, who many of you knew, had this quality. Sean Case, our Chief Operating Officer, has this quality. It is my honor to present Sean with the Tom Zampell Award.”
Sean is already fully immersed in the role of COO and is primarily focused on teaching each operation the systems which have made his other divisions successful. These systems are directly related to how an operation organizes jobs, conducts safety on job sites and in training, and approaches sales and scheduling. By having a core, teachable system, the ultimate goal is to have all divisions operating the same way so that no matter where employees may travel to assist in jobs, they ultimately will feel completely unified as one company throughout Zampell.
In regards to these systems and processes, Sean commented, “By having one way of doing things, this gives us the opportunity to make improvements as a company and have these improvements quickly help Zampell across the board. If everyone is doing things the same way, it establishes a baseline for performance, then allows us to measure and improve from there.”
Zampell is a family business that is chiefly involved with the engineering and construction of refractories, insulation, and scaffolding within the industrial and commercial sectors, and facilities management in all sectors. It was established in 1966 by Tom Zampell and continues to grow due to its core value of quality craftsmanship. Zampell is headquartered in Massachusetts and has branch offices in Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Oregon, California, and Louisiana. Zampell also has a subsidiary, Zampell A/S, with locations in Jutland and Sjælland in Denmark, and subsidiaries Zampell Ltd., and Vulcan Refractories, Ltd. in England. It also operates a janitorial products company, Custodial Partners, in Massachusetts, ZAR-Tech, a refractories distribution company with locations in Massachusetts and New York, and Western Industrial Ceramics, a refractories distribution and fabrication company in Oregon and California. For more information on the Zampell family of companies, please visit their website at www.zampell.com.