East-Harding Inc. of Little Rock on Friday named Van Tilbury president and CEO, effective Saturday.
Tilbury, who joined the company in 2004 as vice president of business development, has been president since 2006.
The company said founders Bob East and Tom Harding will remain "active in the management" of the construction firm, with East working as chairman of its board of directors and Harding as vice chairman.
"Tom Harding and I are very excited to recognize Van Tilbury's significant role in our company by naming him chief executive officer," Bob East said in a news release. "Van is a tremendous asset to our company and has managed East-Harding day-to-day for the last six years. He understands our corporate culture and our clientele and he shares our business ethics."
East-Harding was founded in 1974 by the merger of Robert East Company and Thomas Harding Construction. For most of those years, East was CEO and Harding was president. In 2006, when Tilbury became president, Harding became COO.
In 2010, Tilbury became a stockholder and partner.
"Van managed the recession effectively and East-Harding has grown every year since 2008," East said. "Tom and I are confident that Van can continue this level of performance while still delivering 'client focused construction' to every client we have the opportunity to serve."
East-Harding ranked No. 12 on Arkansas Business recent listof the state's largest commercial contractors, with $36.5 million in 2011 revenue. In May, Tilbury told Arkansas Business that the company was on track for a good year.
"Our business has been growing, and we are actually in a hiring mode," Tilbury said. "I've been very pleased with the market, and that's in large part to our company getting involved in public-sector projects in 2007."
