Each chapter of Mary Andrews Carlisle’s 18-year tenure at Vulcan Materials Company has helped her to step into the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
“Each and every role I had in the past, and each and every manager I had in the past, prepared me for the role I have today. I was always open to taking on new roles if I believed I was going to learn something new and enjoy the people I was working with; that was thankfully the case in every transition,” she says.
Vulcan Materials Company had always been on the Birmingham native’s radar. “I knew of it as one of the well-respected companies in town,” she recalls. So much so, she sought out and landed an internal audit summer internship there while in business school at The University of Alabama.
“I enjoyed spending the summer visiting locations across our footprint and seeing what the aggregates business was really all about, and turns out I never left,” says Carlisle.
A boots-on-the-ground beginning to her career at Vulcan is a key element to her strong foundation of leadership.
“Understanding our business at the local level and what the many men and women in the field do each day is a perspective that I believe makes me more effective in my role today on our senior leadership team, driving our company strategy and creating value for our shareholders,” she says.
Carlisle’s leadership principle is simple yet powerful: to lead by example. She began developing this crucial skill long before starting at Vulcan in 2006. She attended the University of Virginia, earning her bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish.
“As I looked at college opportunities, I was attracted to UVA for its reputation of strong academics, a rich history and traditions, the many offerings of a semi-large state school, and an out-of-state option to experience new things,” she says.
After graduation, she moved to Nicaragua and taught at a local school. “Later, my first full-time role with Vulcan relied heavily on speaking Spanish, so that choice paid off,” says Carlisle, who also learned crucial skills for understanding and working with others.
“I still reflect on my days teaching as a reminder that, one, not all people learn and process information the same way or the same way that you do and, two, not all people are motivated by the same things,” she says.
“As a leader, if you can understand and respect how different individuals learn and think and what motivates them, you can help them, and your team, be more successful.”
Carlisle has utilized that key interpersonal lesson throughout her roles in the accounting and finance departments, as well as several vice president positions at Vulcan. No matter the job title, however, her focus remains on supporting and motivating the people around her.
“The number one goal for our entire management team at Vulcan is, first and foremost, to keep our people safe. During my tenure, my focus is to help drive the next horizon of growth for our company and position us well for decades of future success, like the last 65-plus years as a growing publicly traded company,” she says.
Her leadership doesn’t end with Vulcan. Carlisle is also a board member of two Birmingham organizations close to her heart: Libby’s Friends, which aids children and families with disabilities, and HICA, which serves Latino and immigrant families in Alabama.
However, it’s being a mom to two elementary-age sons that offers Carlisle her most important job.
“I spend most of my free time at the soccer field watching them do what they love,” she says. When she’s not cheering from the sidelines, she enjoys traveling with her husband and sons and spending family time at the lake.
Carlisle is a champion of others, from Vulcan and beyond.
