Q&A with John Noel
John Noel
Where to Find Them
Pella Windows & Doors of Wichita
Webb Industrial Park
4055 N. Toben
Wichita, KS 67226
316.686.6900
Our individual worlds can be shaped by many things, whether it is a conversation with friends, a country’s tragedy, or just that one beloved uncle who believes in us. John Noel’s career path is a truly remarkable journey.
Q. The Pella brand runs in your blood. Tell me about your history with the company.
A. Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, with five brothers and sisters, it became almost a rite of passage for my siblings and cousins to work for our uncle who owned a Pella distributorship in southeast Nebraska. I was a warehouse deliveryman and general laborer and worked on and off for my uncle, all the way from high school through college years, when he needed me, and sometimes when I needed him.
Q. What inspired you to join the Marine Corps after college to fly jets?
A. Two college fraternity brothers, ahead of me by one year in school, inspired my career choice to join the Marine Corps. They had joined and as I learned more from our conversations about the opportunities to fly, I immediately knew becoming a pilot is what I wanted to do. As luck would have it, all three of us ended up flying the same aircraft, the Harrier.
Q. How did 9/11 impact your career in aviation?
A. After becoming a student pilot and training others to fly the Harrier, I eventually separated from the Marine Corps to fly commercial jets and was hired by United Airlines in early 2000. I was living in Denver with my wife when the tragedy of 9/11 happened, and I continued to fly for United. Eight months later, I was furloughed, along with approximately 35 to 40 percent of United’s pilots. Immediately, the Marine Corps reactivated me and put me right back at Cherry Point as an instructor pilot again.
Q. Why did you choose Wichita for Pella’s Kansas headquarters?
A. Prior to my involvement with Pella, there was a north Pella operation out of Topeka and a south Kansas operation out of Hutchinson and Wichita. The north bought out the south, but they never merged physically. I believe there were three warehouses and nine showrooms when I bought the franchise. Within a year as the new CEO, I made a strategic decision to move Pella’s headquarters from Hutchinson to Wichita and consolidated the warehouses into one location. We knew if we were to do things right, we would be forced to move again. Just last year, our staff nearly doubled, growing from 45 to 70 employees across the state and we recently relocated our headquarters into our new 56,000 square foot building in east Wichita within the Webb Industrial Park. Our new facility provides 42,000-square-feet of warehouse space equipped with modern dock facilities and administrative offices, plus a new 2,000 square-foot showroom.
Q. What excites you about your new facility?
A.
Our formula for success is to hire great people, communicate to them the commander’s intent and let them do what they do. My strategy sounds like it came from a leadership book, but I was taught to identify the commander’s intent, brief your staff about the mission, and then let their ingenuity and motivation carry the day. Our success isn’t about the growth and new building; it’s about our staff having the space and resources to provide the value-added services equal to the great Pella brand.