Professional Profile: Brett van Beever

Family: Three daughters and a wife of 21 years

College: University of Rhode Island (Rhody, Rhody, Rhody!)

First job unrelated to your current field: United States Air Force

First job in current field: Milliken & Company – apparel fabrics

What your firm does now and its plans for the future?:  We are part of the milliCare family.  We are the leader in commercial floor care in the country and lead in market share here in the Boston market.  Our focus is delivering environmentally focused technologies to the occupied environment even before it was sexy. In our 20 years, we have grown to cleaning over 40 million s/f annually with a dedicated staff who have been with us for most of our 20 years.  We treat our staff with respect, provide them a living wage and educate them to be better citizens.  We have a very low turnover which has allowed us to grow and deliver quality service to our clients throughout the years. Our future plans are to continue to grow  and further develop our Solid Logic division with the same conscientious practices as our carpet/soft textiles division.  The growth in these flooring types have created a demand of delivering safe methods to maintain and clean these floors without the use of harsh chemistries.  Some of these surfaces are challenging with the demands on labor and time, such as polished concrete, Terrazzo and other stones, along with the growth of LVT, which unfortunately has been sold as a no maintenance flooring.  Our customers are having to find out the hard way that no such thing exists and we want to be their solution.

Hobbies:  Spending time with the family, skiing, sailing and anything outdoors.

Favorite author: Bryce Courtney, who has recently passed away. 

Keys to success:  Just Care – Family, employees, customers, earth 

Person(s) you most admire (outside of family): Nelson Mandela – having lived in South Africa while working for Milliken.

If you had to choose a different profession, what would it be?:  Ski bum in the winter; sailor in the summer.