In Memoriam of Brett Mainer

Let me start off with how Brett came to work at Drill Tech and share about Brett’s life he had in the Drill Tech work family.

Drill Tech had been in business just shy of 4 years when Brett was introduced to us by Steve Sanders with Sanders & Associates/SAGE. Our first engineering company hired to draw designs. Brett was assigned to our account where his skills and confidence stood out immediately. We were a very small company, working out of our front room and garage at our residence in Oakley. 15 employees, including my 3 partners and myself. It was a time Drill Tech was barely making payroll for most weeks and stretched thin to pay for our job expenses. We had a project in Visalia, where we encountered our first different site conditions of running sands. We realized we needed a full-time engineer with project management skills onboard.

Upon moving the business into our first office space in Antioch, Drill Tech was given the opportunity in March 2000 to hire Brett. He wanted to learn how to merge engineering and project management, a challenge that Brett wanted to take on from the ground up. Brett had an intellectual quality mixed with confidence and a never give up personality that stood out when he took on the Visalia project. He was young and still fresh out of college and the industry knew this. Brett challenged and battled with seasoned residence engineers, as well as with the general contractors. He was a driven, tenacious and a quick minded confident man who won Drill Tech’s first claim and made an impact in the industry.

From there, Brett wanted to know everything that Drill Tech was doing from equipment building, estimating, finances and advancing the company with specialty projects. Brett was the guy like many of us in Drill Tech that would put on his boots and go shoulder to shoulder with our men in the field to do what it took to get the job done. he had an appetite to learn, grow and help build this company to be noticed in the industry. Brett was involved with projects from the beginning through to the financial side. If things didn’t make sense to Brett, he would challenge it until it made sense.

Brett had a humble side too; he would pull a chair up to set along side of each accounting person to understand how he could help address issues to get us paid quicker.

Anything I decided to bid; Brett would tackle the engineering challenges. He would take his hand designs and figure out how he could pair the job needs with my business partner, Dave, who build the equipment. He took the time to understand each one of my partners and employees and to figure out where we would merge or add improvements. His thirst for knowledge expanded into our legal department, learning about how he could incorporate laws into his correspondence. Brett’s writing skills were beyond remarkable. Some of his letters composed were noted to be the best letters tactfully reducing the other teams to a level of defenselessness. He had a way of either lighting the bomb or being the bomb that got the problem addressed. To this day we have saved these letters to give us a laugh when we are feeling this void and missing him.

Inside this businessman, we all know Brett was a man who held himself to high standards, and was competitive. Often, he encouraged and expected others to be of this caliber and do the same. The attitude was universal in the Drill Tech families…. “Find a way to get it done” and Brett did just that. Brett was a very compassionate man for family and made that known. At the end of the day, he and I would sit in his office and spend hours talking about work, my family, and his family. He gave credit to Trish because she did an outstanding job raising the kids so he could focus on his job that allowed him to provide. He bragged about all 3 of his children’s academics, talents and shared his opinions of what he thought as a father was the beset direction for them. In the breakroom with his handmade coffee mug from his kids in hand you would see him sharing videos about his family or Rossi (the dog) with many. As a father, I know we don’t always let our family know this enough, so Trish, Zane, Zachary and MacKenzie I wanted to share this part of him.

Brett touched more people than anyone really realized….We carry Brett within each of us.

Drill Tech is forever touched by all the things Brett has accomplished and helped us accomplish. He can never be replaced, and we will deeply miss Brett. We vow to press forward as I could hear him say “We just need to get it done; it won’t get done any other way if we don’t.” Keep on keeping on, that is what Brett would expect us to do.