Meet your 2007 article of the year award winner: Lloyd Eichorn, CCE.(member PROFILE)(Interview)

The reason Lloyd Eichorn, CCE says he writes is for the enjoyment. He believes in communicating to others, from a business standpoint, the ideas he has learned over his career. When he wrote "Credit Chameleon," the article that won him the 2007 Best Article Award, he wanted "to help companies and peers realize the growing importance of our credit profession in making our employers profitable." However, this wasn't Lloyd's first written piece. Being recognized for his writing talents happened in the seventh grade. "My teacher, Mrs. Carruth, introduced us to a form of poetry called cinquains," he said. "It had a unique meter, and they just started flowing out of me." Complimenting him for his talent, Mrs. Carruth had him read some of his pieces in front of the class. Proving that a small token of praise can inspire for years to come, Lloyd grew up to obtain a BA in journalism from NC State University in Raleigh in 1975. (Go Wolfpack!)

Raw Material

In 1979, a college friend persuaded Lloyd to move to Charlotte, NC where he was assured a job with the local power company using his degree. But all did not fare well. "I laid around the pool for six months waiting for the phone to ring and woke up one day nearly broke," he said. "I found out the power company was not hiring, so I pulled out the want ads and got an interview for what I thought was a sales job."

It turned out to be a collection agency. "George Goodyear decided to give me a chance. He was an excellent teacher, and cultivated some of my natural talent into a successful collection manager," Lloyd said. He then went on to work for Equifax for several years as a collection manager. "But thought I could do more than just collect money," he said and answered another blind add in sales for a concrete company in Wilmington, NC that was also looking for a credit manager. The lights went on; "I thought, 'Sales plus collections equals credit manager!'" Lloyd remarked. Since this first credit management position, he has worked for other building supply manufacturing and distribution companies.

Made to Last

Lloyd has now been in the credit and collections field for 29 years. He is currently the U.S. director of credit for Aggregate Industries, located in Rockville, MD. How appropriate. "That's right, we sell rocks," he quipped, "and I could not make this up, my boss is MD. Stone!" Some things are meant to be. Aggregate Industries is owned by Holcim, a Swiss cement manufacturer. "If you see those trucks going down the highway with the barrel spinning, that is a ready-mixed concrete truck, not a cement truck. Concrete is made from cement, water, sand, gravel and chemicals," he specified. "Our product lines are concrete, asphalt, stone, building materials, and we are also in the construction paving business. We manufacture our own asphalt and then bid on government and private contracts to actually lay and pave roads with asphalt."

One of the items in contracting about which Lloyd has had to learn is retainage. He said, "By contract, our customer and their customer are allowed to hold, or 'retain,' a percentage of the money owed until either they get paid or the entire job is finished." He is not fond of this practice and is working to get this practice modified. It is an area that is being modified more frequently in state law.