Andrew Ferrari

The four public speaking courses I took from Dean McSloy — from beginning public speaking to after dinner speaking, humorous addresses, and radio and television broadcasting — provided an excellent foundation for my business career.1 Success in many business situations that I have encountered has depended on my ability to sell something. You typically get one chance to make your case whether you are pitching a product, gaining support for a new idea or convincing financial institutions to invest in your company.

Last year, before Trex Company went public, we made countless presentations to institutional investors across the country during an arduous process known as the “road show.” What helped me greatly was applying the principles Professor McSloy had taught me years earlier: grab your audience right away, speak to them in personal terms, and drive home one or two points that they will remember. These concepts were key in our company’s story getting noticed in a very competitive marketplace.

As spokesperson for Trex Company, I frequently get the opportunity to address the media. Exposure Trex has received on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, This Old House, HGTV, and the Discovery Channel has been instrumental in building our business. Because of my training in public speaking which began at Whitman, I feel confident in these situations and enjoy them.

Trex Company

Andrew Ferrari is co-founder of Trex Company, Inc., the nation’s leading manufacturer of wood-alternative decking and landscaping products. Headquartered in Winchester, Virginia, the company makes Trex Wood-Polymer lumber, a composite of waste wood fibers and reclaimed poly-ethylene.

Trex Company was ranked number one in the Forbes annual list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America in October 2000. It also was recognized as one of the Top 100 Hot Growth Companies by Business Week magazine and as one of the 25 Fastest Growing Manufacturing Com-panies in America by Industry Week.

Ferrari received his M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma scholastic honorary and named the Anhaeuser Busch Marketing Student of the Year.

In 1971 he went to work for Mobil Oil Corporation where he held various posts in marketing, sales, and planning. In 1992 he was named director of a new department charged with business development. Under his leadership, Mobil acquired the technology that became the foundation of a new composite products division. In 1996 Ferrari and three partners purchased the division and founded Trex, which went public in 1999. Trex trades as TWP on the New York Stock Exchange.