I have been appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Roofing Apprenticeship Program (NRAP). NRAP exists to do something the trade has needed for a long time: build a structured, credentialed, dignified pathway into roofing as a career. The appointment is for 2026 and sits alongside my recent Forbes Business Council membership and my appointment to the RT3 Roofing Technology Think Tank Board.

This piece is the longer version of why I said yes, what I think the work in front of NRAP actually is, and what I plan to bring to the board table.

Why workforce is the question

Every roofing operator I know has the same conversation in private. The work is there. The customers are there. The technology is finally there. What is not there at scale is the trained, retained, advancing workforce that turns that opportunity into delivered jobs and lasting companies.

The trade has spent decades treating roofing as a job people fall into instead of a career people enter on purpose. That model was already breaking when I started. AI, automation, and the rising complexity of multifamily and commercial work have accelerated the break. The contractors who win the next decade will be the ones who treat workforce development as a first-class operating priority, not a hiring afterthought.

NRAP is the industry's answer to that. A formalized apprenticeship program with defined competencies, structured mentorship, transferable credentials, and a real career ladder. It is the kind of infrastructure the trade has needed for thirty years.

Why I said yes

Three reasons.

First, Capital City Roofing has invested heavily in internal training, mentorship, and career development. Our crew leads, sales reps, and operations staff are developed deliberately, not hired and hoped about. The lessons from running that internally are exactly the lessons NRAP needs in the boardroom to inform what works at industry scale.

Second, the Capital City Roofing Licensing Platform onboards licensees who need to build their own workforce from day one. A national apprenticeship credential gives those licensees a recognized pathway to recruit, develop, and retain talent under a real career framework. NRAP and the licensing platform reinforce each other directly.

Third, this is the kind of industry service that matches my broader posture. The Feeding the Future Project operates on the same principle: businesses should fund and serve the communities they belong to. NRAP gives me a seat at the table where that principle gets applied to the roofing workforce itself, which is mostly working families across America.

What I plan to bring to the board table

An operator's perspective on what the apprenticeship has to actually deliver to be worth the credential.

  1. Real career paths, not just entry training. The strongest apprenticeship programs in other trades work because the credentialed path leads somewhere meaningful. NRAP has to deliver that across residential, multifamily, and commercial work.
  1. Integration with the technology shift. This connects directly to my parallel seat on the RT3 Roofing Technology Think Tank Board. Future roofers will work alongside AI, voice systems, and standardized data pipelines. The apprenticeship has to prepare them for that, not for a 1995 jobsite.
  1. Operator-adoptable standards. The program only matters if real contractors run it. I plan to push for the kind of practical, well-documented, easy-to-adopt standards that a Capital City Roofing branch or a CCR licensee can implement without rebuilding their entire HR function.
  1. Dignity in the trade. Roofing is honest, skilled work that builds careers, supports families, and earns the respect it has rarely been given. The apprenticeship credential should change that. I will advocate for the program to be positioned, marketed, and structured in a way that reflects the real value of the work.

How this fits the broader arc

I have written before about scaling with integrity, the mental model shift from operator to architect, and why I am headed to Roofing Day 2026 in Washington. Board service for the workforce program is the next chapter of that. You cannot advocate for the industry, scale a licensing platform, and lead an AI-first contractor without also showing up to the workforce question.

That is what I intend the NRAP appointment to be. Service to the trade, with the operator's perspective in the room, on the question that determines what kind of industry roofing actually becomes.

If you operate a roofing company and want to talk about workforce development, training pathways, or what the licensing platform looks like for an operator who wants to build a credentialed team, the contact page is the place to start.