Leadership changes at Building Center

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November 18, 2009

By Patrick Anderson The Gloucester Daily Times Wed Nov 18, 2009, 05:50 AM EST

The Building Center is looking for a new chief executive again.

Less than a year after Ken Wilbanks was hired to run the venerable downtown home improvement and construction supply company, the Georgia native this month left the organization to return to the consulting business.

While the company searches for a new permanent chief, long time manager Philip Arsenault is running the operation, which includes the Harbor Loop store and a Western Avenue location in Essex, as interim CEO.

Arsenault ran the business between 1996 and 2000 and in the period between the removal of Joseph Parisi III and Wilbanks' arrival.

Arsenault yesterday said Wilbanks had left the business voluntarily and had not been forced out.

"He decided to go back into the consulting business," Arsenault said of Wilbanks' departure. "He is one of the best speakers around and a great operations guy."

Arsenault described Wilbanks' consulting talents as a combination of motivational address and strategic business advice for those in the lumber trade.

Wilbanks, whose family was in the lumber business down South, came to Gloucester from a building supplier in Maine.

Employing a distinctive brand of optimism, Wilbanks refused to acknowledge the recession or its affects on the Building Center, even as the economy dragged construction on many of Cape Ann's larger construction projects to a halt.

"We have not enrolled in the economic slowdown," Wilbanks told the Times last February.

Arsenault yesterday was a little more cautious, but said he already sensed increased activity in the economy.

The 106-year-old business will not rush to fill the position, Arsenault said, and does not expect to hire someone until early next year. It took the company around two months to hire Wilbanks after Parisi's departure.

Patrick Anderson may be contacted at 978-283-7000 x3455 or panderson@gloucestertimes.com