Up Close with Rob Wilson

By Shirley Coyle, LC

Hanging off the massive scoreboard at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena while having an unexpected conversation with infamous boxing promoter Don King has been Rob Wilson’s favorite electrician story for years. Back in the day when he was still wearing a toolbelt, Rob was doing repairs to the board in advance of an evening boxing match when King walked in and struck up a conversation! Today, Rob Wilson is President of Stones River Electric in Nashville, TN, and although there are times when he misses handling tools, it’s clear he enjoys his position now, leading a company that is having great success in doing full energy conservation projects with large, multi-site clients, including K-12 schools, warehouses, and national account retailers, along with energy and service work.

Rob’s career path as an electrician was set early on, growing up as the son of a small business owner. His mother, who retired a few years ago, had started an electrical contracting business. Rob’s late grandfather had been in the electrical business as well. Despite an early start as an electrician, Rob felt it was a must to go to college. He collected state electrical licences long before finishing college, and today, he has thirty-five state licences, with his company’s in-house technicians doing work from Florida to Iowa and Maryland to Texas.

Around 2000, Rob came in from the field to work as a project manager inside the family business. Very much influenced by his mother’s way of leading the business, he combines his own technical background with her focus on running the business and taking care of the company and employees. Asked for his thoughts on the roots of his success, Rob offers: “Say what you’re going to do, do what you say. Show up, and have good work ethic. I’m definitely all about leading by example.”

Speaking to current issues he sees facing the lighting industry, Rob notes that many of the large projects his company works on include higher-end lighting controls solutions that are becoming more of an IT function, with each luminaire a node with its own IP address – the projects are becoming very ITintegrated. It’s a different set of problems, standards and partners on the job, and often the IT team is not used to working with electrical contractors. Rob also cites his big pet peeve for 2023: in this era of promoting environmental stewardship, large customers that have committed to achieve net zero emissions by a certain timeline are now looking at a popular new shortcut: buying x amount of kW of wind in someplace like Iowa, and meeting the net zero status “on paper” without doing the actual conservation projects that should be done to fix their own usage (lighting, HVAC, water, etc.). “It’s like your tailor would tell you – you’ve got to lose the weight to buy the new suit!”

Reflecting on advice for young people coming up in our industry, Rob immediately speaks from his own experience on the value of NALMCO: “Join NALMCO, show up, join a committee. For a little while, trade shows weren’t as popular, but now people realize you can’t replicate gaining the relationships without in-person contact, and NALMCO’s a great way to do that. You can educate yourself, create your own brand – even while working for a company. I did that a long time ago – committee work with NALMCO on courses and certifications – and it was some of my favorite stuff that I’ve done! NALMCO’s got some great new ones – especially in controls certifications. It’s non-stop for sure. You’ve got to keep learning.”

And what does Rob Wilson do for fun when he isn’t working on the business? Rob is a long-time drummer, and living in Nashville, is at the center of all kinds of great music. He and his family have also discovered the joys of yachting, chartering a yacht from Florida to go to the Bahamas – a great adventure they are planning to repeat again soon!