PATTIE CAGLE

Lighting is all Pattie Cagle has ever known. Her father, Lyn Knowles, founded his own company in 1967 to “fix people’s lights” after learning his trade as an electrician in the U.S. Navy. Starting as a lighting maintenance company with a local Florida grocery chain, the business is thriving fifty-six years later as A&K Energy Conservation, with Pattie at the helm as President and CEO. The company is project-driven, doing lighting retrofits – interior, exterior, commercial, industrial. A&K Energy Conservation’s long success is built on the strength of their quality work and reputation.

Pattie’s seat at the helm of the company was not an obvious outcome, and there were no breaks along the path to learn the business. “My dad wanted sons, but he got three daughters – and I got the lighting gene,” Pattie joked. She started in reception, moved into accounting, worked through inventory control and purchasing, and remembers loading trucks while pregnant with her son! In 2007, Pattie pushed her then-skeptical father for a chance to take on the leadership of the company, getting him to agree to her suggestion of a 6-month trial to prove her suitability. “It was hard as a woman, a daughter, to be given a chance in the role” remembers Pattie. She worked closely with her father, and just two months in, he told Pattie they needed to talk. Her concern changed to delight when he said, “I don’t know what I was thinking – I should have done this a long time ago. Women are so much smarter!”

Over the past seventeen years, Pattie has guided the company through a constantly changing environment, including the loss of her spirited, entrepreneurial father in 2011 to cancer. “I wasn’t ready, and it was one of the toughest personal and professional things I’ve had to overcome.”

Pattie comments that along with managing inflationary pressures, finding people, especially for small- and mediumsized companies, is critical to being competitive. She references the company culture at A&K, explaining, “We are only as good as our employees.” Their company is always looking at opportunities for revenue diversification. The EV charging installation business is just one of A&K’s success stories. Six years ago, Pattie’s company had the opportunity to work with an EV manufacturer from an installation standpoint. Since then, A&K’s EV charging installation business has flourished, and as EV continues to evolve, it becomes a larger percentage of their business.

Reflecting on challenges in our lighting industry today, Pattie raises her concern that technology is outpacing the industry’s education. “We find we are constantly having to take a step back to get training for installers on a new technology. NALMCO is so important in providing training, as well as a platform to give feedback to the manufacturers. Another important factor in making the industry grow successfully is NALMCO’s synergy with IES.”

Pattie’s company had been part of NALMCO for many years –

2019 that Pattie herself went to a NALMCO conference in Minneapolis – and found out just how valuable the in-person experience could be. Soon involved in committee volunteer work, Pattie is now VP of the Program Committee and is in her first term on the NALMCO Board of Directors – “one of three women on the Board,” she adds happily.

Asked for her advice for young people coming up in our industry, Pattie notes this area – mentoring - is her favorite part of what she does. “Take advantage of every learning opportunity, whether it comes from on-the-job or a certification program. Listen to other people. Have a strong work ethic, motivation, as your compass – commit and follow through.”

When Pattie is not immersed in her work leading the A&K Energy Conservation business, you will find this mother of four (with two grandchildren) out riding on her motorcycle – an Indian Springfield Dark Horse. She and her husband and friends just completed a seven-day, two-thousand-mile trip. Motorcycles have been in Pattie’s family since she was a young girl, and she loves having her own bike now – the feeling of being in her own world, stress-free, relaxed and peaceful out on the road. “You have to be pretty tenacious to be able to push forward and prove yourself. I have a very strong work ethic. I believe in myself, what I do – I love the industry, all the change!” Pattie’s passion comes through loud and clear – for her team and the A&K business, for lighting, for NALMCO, and for the joys found outside of work. ■