Trim-Tex welcomed a new teammate recently. “JB” James Barlow comes to us after a 20 year career at Ames Taping Tools. Starting as a city manager in its Chicago retail location, JB worked his way up to become Regional Vice President in charge of Northeast, Midwest, and Canada.
His focus over the past two decades has been to save drywall finishers time: he understands that the more productive they are, the more financially successful they will be. While at Ames, he showed many drywall finishers that adopting automated taping and finishing tools could triple or even quadruple their productivity, and he is on the same mission at Trim-Tex.
“I helped show contractors how to save time and make more money at Ames,” says JB, “and I think the same opportunity exists here at Trim-Tex. I’m on a mission!”
James is teaming up with two industry veterans: Vice President of Business Development Rich Hitchens and “you’ll never retire me!” John Calderaro to build 
business with contractors in underserved areas and in non-traditional sectors. They will be calling on modular and prefabricated customers, for example, because their unique challenges are a good fit with our products.
“Moving prefabricated panels or even wholes homes puts stresses on drywall seams that our products can handle,” says Barlow. “I can’t wait to start calling on them!”
JB and his wife Carol have called Riverside, IL, home for the past 15 years, where they’ve raised their three daughters, Kate, Leigh, and Anne (pictured above). When he’s not converting drywall finishers into Trim-Tex superheroes, JB likes to fish. A Michigan State grad, he’s a huge Spartans/Big Ten fan.
Please welcome him to the team when you see him — he’s already making a difference!