My role at Gibraltar now involves looking to the future as I begin to ponder a transition towards a lesser role and eventual retirement. I am busy leading our succession planning and developing the future leaders of organization. My greatest wish is for Gibraltar Laboratories to continue in the future without me and still be known as the excellent company it is even while it increases its market share and diversifies its offerings. I invite you to view a short video that is a rare example of three generations of a scientific contract testing laboratory, all being featured at the same time about their feelings on the company.
Even as I look forward I also remember my beginnings at Gibraltar. As a family operated business I was fortunate to gain employment and work under my father, Dr. Herbert Prince. He and my mother, Leah Prince, BA, established our company at great risk and his superior knowledge of bacteriology, virology, chemistry and toxicology provided a strong foundation and wide breadth of services to offer to pharmaceutical, medical devices and cosmetic companies. I was trained by my father and I learned a lot on my own working many hours for many, many years — even today. When my dad decided to retire he consulted with a professional firm to guide him about selecting his successor. At that time my two younger brothers were also working at Gibraltar. Fortunately, after about a 1½ years process, I was selected to be the president.
Now my son Derek Prince, MS, is completing a Ph.D. to prepare him with the same strong scientific heritage of my father and myself. I need to assure that he is properly prepared. I am so proud to work beside him and see his vision of the company through his enthusiastic eyes.
Working at Gibraltar for almost 40 years I can honestly say it has been a privilege to work with my parents and many other family members including Derek. The video I mentioned is very special because it lets you, our customers, employees, colleagues have a glimpse of our family’s story — The Gibraltar Labs Journey through three generations. A story involving three generations of management all holding scientific Ph.D.’s. I hope that this video will inform our customers and employees about the history of our company and the journey we have taken to become the highly respected organization that we are today. Please leave a comment about the video or something about Gibraltar that you can share.
