Miriam Mata-Vinalet has held several roles over the years at Gulfeagle Supply, most recently earning the title ‘director of operations and training.’ But for Mata-Vinalet, it’s not so much about the job title as it is about doing what’s right.

“The perception that some have of ‘This is not my job?’ You know, if you want this to be a long-term career, it's a learning experience for you and a training experience for you,” she said. “For me, that's still the same today. I don't go by a job description. I really don't. I look at what is the right thing to do for the company, and how can I help?”

She is living proof of this mindset. Having worked her way through the ranks at Gulfeagle Supply since 2001, she is using that deep pool of knowledge and know-how to help her fellow employees around the country maximize their potential.

Slow and Steady

After graduating from a Miami-area high school in 1988, Mata-Vinalet sought out a part-time job to help fund her way through college. She worked for her uncle, who helped show off model homes, but that eventually fell through. The roofing contractor who worked on the homes' roofs mentioned needing a receptionist and hired Mata-Vinalet.

“That just led to my vendors letting me know about job opportunities, so I went to work for my first distributor back in 1992,” she said.

That distributor was East Coast Supply, which Bradco Supply purchased before ABC Supply Co. Inc. eventually acquired. However, Mata-Vinalet wouldn’t experience those transitions. Instead, she headed to Prudential Building Materials in 1992, where she remained for eight years to become an accounts receivable supervisor.

While she may not have experienced those previous acquisitions, she did experience the acquisition of Prudential. She recalls Gulfside Supply, AKA Gulfeagle, purchased the building where Prudential operated. Not letting an opportunity pass by, Mata-Vinalet took the initiative.

“It was very close to my home, and I still remembered a little bit about roofing, so I contacted the branch manager and was acquired for inside sales,” she said.

That was back in 2001. She worked at the Deerfield, Fla. location for two years, becoming an operations manager and assistant manager. In 2006, the company provided the opportunity to return to Miami and work as a branch manager.

Mata-Vinalet remained there for 17 years, helping the branch endure the Great Recession, a global pandemic and, more recently, an economy strained by inflation. Although job titles aren’t what defines her work, she continued accumulating them, including branch training specialist in 2023, and her most recent one was announced last September. She now works out of South Carolina.

“It took me a long time, but I’m grateful to that because I was able to learn so many different aspects of what is now helping me in this position,” she said. “That’s one of Gulfeagle’s values, we try to hire from within.”

Industry Expertise

Thanks to her career-spanning experience, the 55-year-old industry veteran became a perfect choice for Gulfeagle when it needed to support its branch operations.

Mata-Vinalet’s department is fairly new to the company, having formed about a year and a half ago, and is known as the ops team. The team began with three former managers, all with varying tenures, to provide support for operations and management.

The initiative was an immediate success. The team's more recent restructuring is indicative of that, with her director position supported by a manager and auditors who can travel to branches as needed to provide on-site assistance.

“We started with procedural processes and training and now we’re venturing out to OSHA and DoT compliances, so it’s evolving and it’s going to continue to evolve,” she said.

Mata-Vinalet said her role encompasses everything from training and education to troubleshooting problems. Her background, both in and out of Gulfeagle, helped prepare her for the role, giving her first-hand experience with the problems hindering branches, whether they’re accounting, sales or management.

In addition to supporting longtime employees, the team is essential for educating newer members of the distribution industry on bookkeeping or basic operations.

“I’m able to drill into reports that come easy to me and may not be so easy for some and I’m able to help their bottom-line profitability, find new processes, help them with procedural questions,” she said.

One might think there would be regional challenges involved with overseeing national operations, but Mata-Vinalet says branches across the country experience similar if not identical, issues.

“All locations are suffering the same woes. The tenured managers, they just know how to handle it a little better … but as far as the same struggles,  markets are saturated with distributors.

“If they’re lucky they’re in markets where they’ll have weather situations so they might not feel it as bad, but when storm business is gone, they start to have those same issues.”

One of the greatest aspects of her job is knowing she has helped someone who is dealing with those issues. It makes her day when they take a moment to thank her.

“The fuzzy feeling I feel when someone just sends me a thank you – I know it sounds crazy, but it really does matter, it makes me feel good, that’s why I do it,” she said.

Thankfully, this happens often — she credits Gulfeagle’s culture as one of the main reasons, starting from the top down with its president, Brad Resch.

“Brad's out there, you know … and he's hands-on,” she said. "The Resch family have built such a great organization that I feel privileged to be a part of."

Distribution Representation

Her expertise will come in handy as Gulfeagle further expands its footprint by acquiring Elite Roofing Supply and bringing on 140 branches. This is her first conversion as a director. So far, she says it’s going swimmingly, especially since she respected the company and its women-led leadership before the acquisition.

“They’ve been a very respected competitor,” she said. “I work close with them now on the pre-day of conversion and getting them exposed to Gulfeagle and processes, and I’ll be hands-on with the training bringing them on relatively soon.

“I’ve always got along with most competitors, we’re friendly competitors, that’s just a Latin thing in Miami,” she added, chuckling. “I just continue being a friendly competitor and I don’t see any negative part of that.”

In one fell swoop, Mata-Vinalet touched upon two important segments in the roofing industry that are making their mark. She represents not only women in the industry but also the Latino community. Latinos continue to be one of the largest populations in the workforce and, more recently, have been receiving support from distributors and manufacturers alike to become business owners.

For Gulfeagle, Mata-Vinalet’s bilingual abilities have been a boon when helping customers and employees alike.

“Having a bilingual person in this position has only helped many branches because they’re able to pass a phone to me or pass the number to a customer that might have a situation that they need help with, and they're able to speak in a comfortable language that they they're familiar with,” she said.

As she rightly points out, over the past decade, women in roofing are “now taking hold of the respect that they always should have had” in the industry and are making an impact.

“It’s exciting because back in 1992, I only knew one [woman]” in a leadership position in roofing distribution, she said. “Now it’s amazing to be a part of and still be in the industry and watch it happen.”

For others looking to Mata-Vinalet’s success for inspiration, her advice is the same philosophy she lives by, ‘persevere and take every opportunity to learn.’

“What helped me is that I never had the mentality of ‘this isn’t my job,’” she said. “That has given me so many tools in my chest to help what I’m doing now.”