ARLINGTON — Betty Hanley is the general manager of a multimillion-dollar metal fabrication operation, but you wouldn’t know it on first introduction.
Hanley started working at American Boiler Works on the Everett waterfront in 1983 as a temporary office clerk to bring in some extra money for her family’s two young children. One thing did set her apart from the boilermakers working on the shop floor.
“Many years, I was the only female at ABW,” Hanley said. “But I was one of the boys, for lack of a better term. I never felt different from anyone else here.”
Hanley stayed and rose through the ranks of the male-dominated business and industry, serving as controller, then director of finance for nine years before rising to general manager 18 months ago.
American Boiler Works changed along with Hanley. A name change in 2001 to ABW Technologies Inc. came with the company’s move from Everett, its home since 1907, to Arlington. She said the move was her biggest challenge, which was made more difficult by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Hanley has watched the business shift into sophisticated aerospace, defense, nuclear and energy sectors. She said the move has helped ABW weather the current recession, since two of those sectors are driven by the economy and two are driven by Congress.
Current ABW jobs include a systems integration project for remediation work at the Savannah River, Ga., nuclear facility; tooling for Boeing; construction of environmental shelters for oil companies working on Alaska’s North Slope; and several projects tied to long-term cleanup work at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
Many of the defense projects ABW works on are classified, Hanley said. One such contract described a “diving board,” but by the time the engineers and fabricators were done, it didn’t look anything like a diving board, she said.
Hanley said she had no plan to become general manager when she started her career with American Boiler Works, “but after making things, this was something I felt I wanted to do.”
She says she likes seeing a load of raw steel come in one end of the ABW plant and go out the other side as a complete, high-quality, fabricated product.
“I can’t take credit for all of it,” Hanley said. “We have incredible people here. They’re dedicated, talented, knowledgeable. We’re blessed to have such a great group around here.”
Hanley also credits Aimee Dura and Kelsey Swenson of ABW’s marketing department for spreading the word on the company’s services.
“There’s not a man on the planet who knows more than they do,” Hanley said of Dura and Swenson.
Hanley’s big push now is ABW’s Quality Department. ABW is seeking accreditation from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers so it can place the ASME-certified stamp on pressure vessels it manufactures.
One aspect of that effort is to “embed quality at every level of the company, from the janitor to the president,” she said. That includes continuing training to make the Quality Department the most robust in the U.S.
ABW employs 150 in an average year, with annual payroll of $4 million to $5 million, Hanley said. Employment now stands at 130, a number she expects will grow soon as ABW looks at building facilities near the nuclear cleanup projects at Hanford and Savannah River.
Hanley isn’t quite ready for the ABW ride to end.
“My husband says I have an illness, but I like the challenge,” she said.
It’s a challenge Hanley is pretty sure will keep her busy until she’s ready for retirement, thanks to those around her.
“I can’t say enough about the people who work here,” she said. “It’s a ton of fun. But I envision this as my last job.”
Kurt Batdorf: 425-339-3102, kbatdorf@scbj.com.
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