Proserv was only founded in 1988, and was originally set up to offer service – until customers started to ask for new cranes, but has grown large on orders from a buoyant oil and gas industry in the Houston, Texas area.
47-year old Wilson worked for all of the local competition. He started in the business in 1969, and jumped to rival Landel five years later when a promotion came up. He rose in the company to the post of vice president, sales, when it was taken over by KCI Konecranes in 1987. He left to start up on his own a year later.
“I’m not a person that likes to work for huge companies,” Wilson told Hoist in 2004. “In my early career I worked at Brown & Root [the construction and engineering contractor] for a year, and I was just a number. I didn’t want to be a number again.”
