Champion Fiberglass Team Spotlight: David Szyszka

He’s pitched on a major league mound, bowled a perfect 300 and serves as Inside Sales & Marketing Analyst for Champion Fiberglass. Get to know David Szyszka.

Tell us about your role at Champion Fiberglass.

I serve as Inside Sales & Marketing Analyst for Champion Fiberglass. My day to day operations include quoting, order entry, processing of returns and maintaining our CRM database. I research future opportunities to get our outside sales team in front of the engineers and/or designers who are heading up those projects.

Tell us about your background.

Prior to joining Champion Fiberglass, I worked at a linear motion company in Illinois for seven years beginning as the inventory manager and then transitioning to an inside sales role. Earlier in my career, I gained invaluable experience from roles such as accounting for the Chicago Bears, working in collections/repossessions for an auto lender, and managing the Catastrophe Center of Allstate Insurance. The skills that I learned from each position have helped me to become the employee I am today.

Please comment on the electrical conduit market and the role of Champion Fiberglass in it.

Customers are now seeing the benefits of our products in a broader range of markets and are becoming more open to the possibility of using Champion Fiberglass conduit on their projects. Seeing the number of new and existing customers requesting information has been truly exciting and a strong indication as to the impact Champion Fiberglass is having on the electrical market.

What do you enjoy about working at Champion Fiberglass? Can you say something about the company mission, values and culture?

Champion Fiberglass is a wonderful company to work for. The atmosphere is very close-knit and family-oriented. We all know that if we work together to do our part that Champion Fiberglass will continue to grow to new heights.

After making the decision to relocate to the Houston area from Chicago, it was a godsend to work with a company like Champion Fiberglass. Not only did they help make the transition easy for my family and me, but I feel that I boarded this ship right before it really took off, and it’s been a truly amazing and humbling experience.

How do you spend your time when not working?

My wife, Ceila, and I and our boys Julian (18), Aydan (8) and Derek (2) enjoy biking, playing in our yard, and sitting by the fire watching movies. I am also enjoying learning what I can when I can about home improvements and repair. I love the beaches of the Gulf Coast and hope to have the opportunity to travel more in the coming years.

Tell us something people might not know about you.

In my late teens and early twenties, I was invited to a handful of Major League Baseball tryouts as a pitcher. The most memorable one was being at Miller Park in Milwaukee, home of the Brewers. Getting to throw off a Major League mound was quite a rush. My first tryout, ironically, was for the Houston Astros back in 2000. Who would have thought that 14 years later I’d be a resident of Houston?

Also, in 2006 I bowled a 300 game. I have the commemorative trophy pin in the windowsill of my office.