BUSINESS
A RACE WITH NO FINISH LINE
THE HAGEMANN BROTHERS AND BOARDMAN, INC. BY ROD WHITSON PHOTOS BY JORDAN MOBLEY
ROBBY (LEFT) AND SCOTT HAGEMANN
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obby Hagemann took the road less traveled to his current position as president and CEO of Boardman, Inc., an historic Oklahoma City-based metal fabrication business: He was a college soccer coach. After pursuing soccer as an athlete in his college days, Hagemann finished his degree at Oklahoma State University and wound up on the coaching staff. He was an assistant soccer coach there from 2001 through the end of 2006. After leaving for OSU, Hagemann worked for Baker Hughes, the oilfield equipment giant, selling drilling bits to energy exploration companies. Then he received a call from Roger Grommet, Boardman’s co-owner, about joining the business. Hagemann’s father, Jim Hagemann, is also a co-owner, but the elder Hagemann remained hands-off during the hiring process of his son. Robby came on board in the shipping and receiving department and spent the next three years working in the shop before moving into the office, working a variety of other jobs like purchasing and sales before joining the leadership team. “Then Roger approached me with the reason he hired me,” Robby Hagemann says. “It was his succession plan. So, I bought him out and took over the presidency in 2013.” Hagemann’s brother Scott came into the business in 2014, lured back to his hometown from Dallas, where he worked as an employee benefits consultant for health insurance company Unum. “When I lived in Dallas, we talked just about every morning during our drive to work,” Scott says. “Once Robby bought the majority of the business, the conversation turned to working together to build something special. I interviewed with Roger, the same process as Robby, and came aboard in June of ’14 and bought into the company in January of ’17. Since Dad was hands-off during the hiring process, our conversations were able to be between father and son, rather than business partners.” Today, Jim Hagemann is the company’s chief financial officer, and Scott Hagemann is vice president of sales. THE COMMON GOAL So, what did Robby Hagemann’s previous life as a college soccer coach do to prepare him to lead a company that has operated in Oklahoma City for 111 years? “Pretty much everything,” he says. “When you’re coaching a group, the biggest thing is you’ve got to identify the common goal. You set your mission and your vision in aligning your goals. You recruit to that. You coach to that. You motivate the kids. Everybody has the same goal. If you don’t have everybody working toward the same goal, you’re taking away from it.” All of which also translates to the business world. “There’s a whole lot of parallels between sports and business,” he says.
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