About Panel Specialists, Inc.
A few words from the President + CEO
At Panel Specialists, Inc. (PSI), our vision is to enrich lives through enhancing the environment in which people live, learn, heal, work and play. For over 32 years we have embraced this philosophy by taking care of the needs of our employees, our customers, our community, and our shareholders. We demonstrate a profound respect for our supplier partners, and maintain a vested interest in their success, no differently from the success of our own company. We believe in the importance of putting people first.
Elliot Germany, President + CEO, Panel Specialists, Inc.
We invest our time, talent, and our money in areas that matter.
Our Employees
We remain rich in accolades for the wonderful products delivered since 1990, but it is our people who truly make a difference. Our employees are the heart and soul of our company. Our care for them remains at the forefront of our minds because it’s the employees of PSI who recognize the needs of our customers and ensures their needs are met. PSI is a great place to work.
Our Customers
At PSI we have worked with a myriad of General Contractors, Architects & Designers, School Districts, Manufacturer’s Representatives and Dealers, all who have partnered with us and who have entrusted us with project values ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. We help our customers execute their vision by delivering quality products, on-time and within budget, all while providing excellent customer service along the way. Often, we provide design and value engineering services, estimating, storage, installation, and other services for a nominal fee.
Our Community
Giving back to our local communities has always played an important role in how we view our success. From partnering with our local school district to donate needed CNC equipment for their career and technical education program, to providing wall panels to our local youth club, mentoring aspiring young kids in the Wildcat Mentorship Program, adopting our local parks, and keeping them clean, PSI continually strives to be a good steward of our community.
Our Owners
We take great pride in being a Markel owned company, one with the mindset and an appreciation for the cumulative result that develops over time. This type of support allows us to do the right things and do them the right way. We stand behind our products and services and we can say, “If it’s not right, we will make it right”, because your ultimate satisfaction is what we aim to achieve, and our business reputation matters.
Our History
Located in Central Texas just north of the Capital of Texas, less than 70 miles sits the PSI manufacturing facilities, over 340,000 square feet (about the area of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool) of manufacturing, offices, and warehouse space. Aside from our teams that run the factories, assembly lines, and crews, we have Project Managers and PSI Representatives in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Texas, and Arizona, California, and Florida as well. In total, we are over 150 employees strong.
In 1990, PSI began as a panel fabricator shop for a single laminate company by three gentlemen, Hal Martin, Ray Schiller, and Jim Wallis. Hal and Ray both formally worked for Wilsonart and saw the need to open a company to meet the supply and demand of wall panels in the area and formed PSI. They sold to general contractors and mill workers for a square foot price for school systems throughout Texas. Jim was a silent partner but a necessary one because he helped buy the initial equipment from Wilsonart, gain customer lists and initial orders from the original Wilsonart organization. Many of our first PSI’s employees came aboard at that time from Wilsonart’s panel division and are a huge part of what makes us the panel specialist we are now.
In the start of the 90’s our offering consists of only laminate panels, but we engineered an entire interior wall cladding foundation to hold the panels in place. We still refer to these systems as profiles because each has its own characteristics and unique look. Introductions to other partner suppliers became inevitable and escalated to various finishes from veneer, glass and metals. In 1995, five years into production we were known for panels on land and by sea when we became the North American distributor of Therman/FiPro marine non- combustible products and started producing panels for offshore marine applications, which are needed to meet strict National Electrical Manufactures Associations and U.S. and Coast Guard regulations.
Today, we fabricate a wall panel system customized to specifications by the architect or interior designers. Our panels are made in diverse sizes, components and strengths. Our supply of panels is for interiors be it on land or off-shore marine application with fire-protection qualities. In-house, our creative teams design and build dormitory furniture that is sold through private entities. The demand for healthcare casework and millwork has explored over the several years and we cater to facilities like Baylor Scott & White in Temple, across Austin in various St. David’s hospitals, we built a temporary factory in the parking lot of Parkland Hospital in Dallas to improve production while construction was underway, and MD Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston among other many other healthcare facilities. Our Mission is to be the company of choice to the markets we serve, to the associates we employ and to the shareholders we represent, to the suppliers who support us and the community in which we live.
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