An interview with NAB Automation's Justin Albright

Name: Justin Albright

Age: 28

Position: Vice president/co-owner of NAB Automation, overseeing business operations

Originally from: St. Louis

Family: Wife, Athena

Education: He has a bachelor's degree from St. Louis University.

Learn more: www.nabautomation.com

Justin Albright says he's always been interested in running a business. So he went to college, got a degree in criminal justice and became a police officer.

"I guess I just needed to get that out of my system," he says. And he did, for the most part (he's still a reserve officer with the Cape Girardeau Police Department). "I'm a business nerd of sorts," says Albright. "I always wanted to go into business, I just never knew where it was going to take me."

Where it took him is to Cape Girardeau and to NAB Automation, an electrical engineering company that has made huge strides in the national grain industry since its establishment two years ago and has plans for even bigger leaps into a wider market in the near future.

NAB Automation's predecessor was NAB Electric, a small electrical contractor sole proprietorship operated by Albright's father-in-law, Mike Jordan, in Southern Illinois. In 2008, the company incorporated and moved to Cape Girardeau, working first through Southeast Missouri State University's Innovations Center and then relocating to the current facility at 126 Airport Road in August 2008.

After college, Albright worked as a police officer in St. Louis County, where he was born and raised. His parents are originally from the Cape Girardeau area, and his grandparents still reside there. When his new father-in-law. Jordan, began planning an expansion for NAB, Albright says he jumped at the opportunity to be involved. For four months, he balanced his job as a police officer with helping establish the business side of the new company. He moved to Cape Girardeau in August 2008, with his wife, Athena (she's the "A" in NAB. The "N" and "B" represent Mike Jordan's other children.) Albright now serves as co-owner and vice president of NAB Automation, overseeing the business side of the operation.

Jordan, who serves as president and co-owner, resides in Owen, Ill., and oversees engineering operations. He began NAB Electric in 1993 and ran the business with two employees for 15 years in Southern Illinois before his decision to break into the national market with the expanded NAB Automation.

To do so, says Albright, moving to a more business-responsive area was key. "Someplace we could recruit talent from outside the area," he says. "A pro-business environment, with a very good chamber of commerce." Transportation infrastructure -- such as an airport -- was also critical. "Our people are going all over the country," says Albright.

Their people -- currently 10 employees -- mainly consist of electrical engineers. "It's very hard to find those outside of large cities; people go where the jobs are. We knew we were going to have to have a place that could recruit talent. What people are looking for is schools, hospitals, infrastructure."

They found all of that -- and the central location the company needed -- in Cape Girardeau. NAB Automation began in 2008 as part of the Business Incubator at Southeast Missouri State University's Innovations Center.

Their project load stretches as far west as western Texas, and as far east as Indiana right now, though Albright says business is growing, especially toward the north. In August 2008, NAB set up shop in a 9,000-square-foot facility near the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. The building, says Albright, is perfectly located, not least of all because he is a pilot himself and can see the runway from his office window.

NAB Automation is an engineering service company, says Albright, working with the world's largest grain companies. So while they're mainly a service company, they've also designed their own hazard monitoring system, which recently went through a rigorous UL listing certification process. That certification, says Albright, allows the system to be much more marketable on a national level. The certification process took about a year but was well worth it, he says. "Our HMS has been rated for use in hazardous locations, and it's very stringent rating. It means we're certified to put our systems in explosive areas," Albright explains. "That was a huge step for us, it gave our system legitimacy to operate on a national level."

This type of technology, says Albright, has made leaps and bounds even in the two years since NAB Automation was established. "Adding new talent has been a huge deal for us," he says. "When you bring in new, talented people, they're bringing stuff to the table you never even dreamed was possible. We've been very fortunate there. We're going from a regional company to truly a national company. Our systems are going farther than we had anticipated in 2008."

Albright said in anticipation of future growth, NAB will be hiring additional personnel in the near future. "We're going to be making a more concerted effort to promote our products to grain companies nationally. We've never done that before," he says. The company is also looking to expand beyond the grain industry; the technology used can also be applied to lime, ethanol and other industries.