IEC Celebrates Bob Pridgen’s career and retirement.
Friday marks Bob’s first day of retirement after over 40 years in the construction industry, with the last five with IEC.
Bob started his career at age 13, working at a cattle ranch for $0.80/hour, then moved on to a dairy farm during high school, before beginning his career in construction and Barksdale Air Force Base in 1980. Bob was part of the team that was awarded the first Simplified Acquisition Base Engineering Contract (SABER) contract at Barksdale AFB in 1990 and has been there working on SABER contracts ever since. Bob brought his extensive knowledge of construction, Barksdale AFB, and SABER contracts when he joined IEC as a Contract Manager in 2017 when IEC took over the SABER at Barksdale AFB. 2022 marks the end of the SABER contract at Barksdale AFB and punctuates the Bob's career at the beginning and end of this key contract vehicle that supports our warfighters, military assets, and Country.
Over the course of his career, Bob has excelled at navigating SABERs and dynamics of working with military counterparts unique to this style of construction. Spending his construction career at Barksdale AFB, Bob saw the changes brought to the base by 9/11: the renewed strategic importance of the Global Strike mission (headquarter at Barksdale AFB) and an increase in safety and security construction projects to protect military personnel and assets. While the latter part of Bob’s career saw a resurgence in safety and security projects and remodel/sustainment projects, Bob’s favorite projects remained ground up new construction.
As Bob moves into retirement, he looks forward to spending more time with his family and traveling with his wife Sheila as they work off her travel bucket list! As we wish Bob the best in his retirement, he offers one last bit of advice: “Do what makes you happy and don’t wait until you are too old to enjoy your life before you retire.” True words of wisdom!
Thank you, Bob, for your experience, professionalism, and commitment to excellence that you brought to IEC. We wish you and Sheila all the best in your retirement. You will be missed.
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