Rod Bryant of Gregory Electric receives the inaugural Northern Colorado Torch Award for Ethical Leadership

The tagline for Gregory Electric, “Integrity/Values/Outstanding Service” include just some of the ethical principles that helped its owner, Rod Bryant, earn the distinction of being recognized with the inaugural Northern Colorado Torch Award for Ethical Leadership.

“It’s exactly the ideals I’ve run this company by for 35 years,” said Bryant, owner and president of the Loveland-based electrical contractor. “It’s nice to get recognized for having the right values and running your business the correct way.”

Bryant received the award April 27 during the 25th annual Torch Awards for Ethics celebration, a luncheon event where the BBB Foundation Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming recognizes businesses and nonprofits for embodying the ethics and standards it promotes. 

“With this award, it’s about integrity and honesty and always doing the right thing,” Bryant said. “We treat people the right way. We do business the right way.”

The Torch Award for Ethical Leadership is a collaboration between the BBB Foundation Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming and the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiatives at the Colorado State University College of Business and the University of Northern Colorado Monfort College of Business. The award criteria were based on the Daniels Fund Ethics initiative principles of integrity, trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law and viability. Nominations were judged by an independent panel of BBB board members and faculty and students from CSU and UNC.

Community leader Michael Pierce nominated Bryant for “the highly ethical and moral way he operates.” “It really isn’t possible for me to express in this questionnaire Rod’s complete dedication to ethical leadership. He doesn’t seem to understand how exceptional he is, believing every business owner should be doing what he is doing,” Pierce said in the nomination. “I have worked with hundreds of businesses through the years. Most were located in Northern Colorado. While a number of the company leaders share some of Rod’s attributes, Rod alone is number one on the list.”

Integrity is the first Daniels Fund principle, which Bryant said means being fair and treating customers, vendors, suppliers and staff the right way, while the principle of value refers to doing quality work for a fair price, he said.

“Outstanding service is being the best there is,” Bryant said. “The customer is always number one. We do everything possible to keep the customers satisfied.” 

Bryant, a licensed electrician, founded Gregory Electric in 1988 after working for other electrical contractors in Colorado for 15 years.

“At the time we did, everybody we worked for was going bankrupt, so we decided to try to go on our own under our own values,” said Bryant, who operates the company with his wife, Suzette, CFO and office manager. “We just wanted to try to do business the way we thought it should be done.”

Gregory Electric provides complete electrical services to building owners, developers and general contractors along the Front Range, handling 50 to 60 projects a year. The services are for residential, commercial and industrial construction and service work. On the construction side, projects can include multifamily units, medical and office buildings, and retirement centers, while the industrial work focuses on manufacturing plants.

The company, which has been in two locations in Loveland, grew from a staff of four or five to 92 or 93, helped by its reputation and great word of mouth. 

“Our employees believe in me and trust me because I’ve always done the right thing and treated them honestly and fairly. I’ve always taken care of them,” Bryant said. “It’s important as business leaders to have trust and belief from your employees, which we do.”

Bryant hasn’t cut or reduced benefits either, even during economic hard times, and made sure salaries are competitive, plus helps his employees financially any time they need it, he said.

Bryant’s award is “well deserved,” Suzette said.

“He’s run Gregory with a lot of respect for his employees and his customers. He’s done a lot for the community,” Suzette said.

Bryant supports the local Boy Scouts, Habitat for Humanity and Realities for Children, and he’s sponsored the Hearts & Horses Therapeutic Riding Center in Loveland. 

“We get repeat customers, general contractors in the area, who love to work with us because we’re true to our word,” Suzette said. “We don’t try to cheat anybody. If there’s a problem, we will try to fix it.”