Patty Ennis
Patty Ennis once had a picture of Miss Piggy hanging in her office at Guy C. Lee Building Materials with a caption that read, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” She wasn’t sure she had made a smart career move when, in July 1987, she joined the Smithfield, N.C.–based pro dealer as its credit manager. The company’s entire office staff had just quit, and John Lampe, Guy C. Lee’s owner, whom Ennis knew through her ex-husband, “looked like he just got out of college,” she recalls with a laugh.
But Ennis, a certified public accountant who spent 10 years in the hotel/motel industry, was out of work after her previous employer, a local distributor called Smithfield Wholesale, ran into financial difficulties. And eventually her tenure at Guy C. Lee—where she’s been COO since 1998—actually far surpassed her expectations. “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she says. She spent eight years at the company’s Smithfield store and also worked at several store-level jobs—including purchasing agent and assistant manager—before moving into the headquarters office.
Ennis has put her stamp on the company in a number of ways, not the least being the composition of its workforce: Guy C. Lee has 400-plus associates, and there are at least two women at each of its eight locations. Most of the company’s credit managers are women as are some outside salespeople and coordinators. Still, Ennis feels that she has to prove her mettle on occasion. At 5 foot 5 inches and 110 pounds, “I’ve had to be loud and assertive,” she says. “When people come into the office, they often say that ‘I thought you were a big woman’ because of my mouth.”
As COO, Ennis says she spends much of her time on operational matters and setting up corporate purchasing deals. She also keeps her hand in employee training. Her relationship with Lampe, whom she calls “a wonderful person,” has grown very close. “I’ve been blessed to work for such a family-oriented company.” Consequently, she sees herself in the same job five years from now. Her affection for the company extends to her personal life: Five years ago she married a man who manages Guy C. Lee’s store in Apex, N.C. “My husband likes to say that from 8 to 4 I’m the boss, and after 4 I still think I’m the boss.”
