Getting to Know Robert Velasquez: An Interview with Cimco-GC Systems Incoming CEO
In 2009, sixteen-year-old Robert Velasquez started his first job in the Cimco Warehouse. Now, he’s preparing to take on a very different role. Beginning January 1, Robert will serve as CEO of Cimco-GC Systems, taking on day-to-day leadership of the company alongside Beau Swet, who will serve as COO.
Robert’s path from the warehouse to company leadership wasn’t exactly a straight line. After studying business and marketing in college, he began a career in another industry, and eventually returned in 2018 after his parents, Raeann and Rick Velasquez, purchased the company.
When he returned, Robert started in outside sales, visiting engineers and waterworks and irrigation distributors across the region. As Cimco expanded into specification sales for more technical product lines, his work increasingly focused on control valves, technical sales, and engineering support. Today he works closely with water system engineers to understand their applications and ensure the right valves and pilot systems are selected and designed to perform as intended.
Along the way, Robert has worked in nearly every part of Cimco-GC Systems, including the warehouse, inside and outside sales, quoting, valve service, marketing, and business management.
As he prepares to step into his new role, we sat down with Robert to talk about how he got here, the people and experiences that have shaped him, what he enjoys most about the work, and what he sees ahead for Cimco-GC Systems.
Interview with Robert Velasquez
How did you end up in this industry?
Robert: My first job ever was a summer job in the Cimco warehouse when I was 16. Then I came back and worked in the warehouse while I was in community college, and I did an internship with Steve Causseaux and the Cimco team while I was in business school at the University of Washington.
After college, I was working in marketing in another industry. Raeann was taking on more with Cimco and looking at buying the company, and she asked if I’d be interested in coming back, with the idea that eventually I would take over. That really hadn’t been on my radar, but I decided to make the shift into sales and small business management.
That’s when I really started learning about the industry, the products, and the customers. I found that learning about valves and hydraulic systems really captured my imagination. It was cool and interesting, but also very logical, and the knowledge came pretty naturally to me. It started to feel like an industry I could really get into.
What did you think you were going to do when you were younger?
Robert: For a while there, I wanted to be the next Alex Rodriguez—at least until he went to the Yankees. After the baseball dream faded, I thought maybe I’d follow in my dad’s footsteps and become a pilot.
Any memorable lessons from your very first job?
Robert: Working in the Cimco warehouse at age 16 is where I learned how to do a job well. I learned to make the most of downtime and look for what needed to be done, whether that was restocking or getting ahead on inventory.
Another formative job was bussing tables at Mama Sortini’s, a local Italian restaurant. It taught me a lot about being proactive, being part of a team, and serving others. It was a really fast-paced environment, and I learned to notice needs before people asked—whether that meant helping the servers, anticipating what a customer might need, or doing whatever I could to make someone’s experience the best it could be.
Who are the people who have had the biggest impact on you in your career?
Robert: I’ve been fortunate to learn from a lot of people throughout my career. My first boss, Nolan Hout, showed me early on how a good leader and manager can create a positive work environment, support their people, and inspire a team to get things done.
Over the last 20 years, the team at Cimco has had a huge impact on me. Mike Jeffrey and Scott Koeponen showed me the value of knowing people across the industry and shared a wealth of industry history and market knowledge. Steve Causseaux showed me the hands-on side of business while I was still in business school—things like sales, customer service, and people skills. Mike Rains, my first boss at Cimco, taught me “the four Ps” of business.
I also learned a lot from Carol Wells, one of the founders of G.C. Systems. She had a passion for precision and incredibly deep product knowledge. Working closely with her taught me the value of strong business principles and sticking to your convictions about what’s important.
And of course, my mom, Raeann. Between working together on projects outside of work and then working with her at Cimco-GC Systems for the last 10 years, I’ve learned a lot from her about business and leadership.
What’s changed since you decided to enter the industry?
Robert: It’s not so much what’s changed in the industry, but how much my understanding of its importance has grown. I had no idea when I started just how critical water is to public safety and the wellbeing of our communities.
Most people don’t think about the water coming out of the tap—it’s just there. But having clean water at the right pressure is a luxury, and there’s an entire system behind making that happen. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate the scope of that system and how important every piece that supports it is to our communities.
What aspect of your work are you especially proud of.
Robert: I take a lot of joy in working with engineers on design plans and being able to provide helpful input on things like valves, layouts, and operating modes. There’s a lot of trust and teamwork in that. The engineers understand the whole picture, and we bring our expertise on valves. Our understanding of the hydraulics and dynamics that are relevant to the products they’re working with helps us ask critical situational questions, propose ideas, and work with the engineer to refine the design. There’s a lot of responsibility in that, and it’s really rewarding.
I also really enjoy troubleshooting calls. It can take a long time to walk someone through a problem and figure out what’s wrong, but it’s like solving a puzzle. When you finally get there and then, boom, it works—that’s really rewarding.
What part of your job requires the most judgment or instinct?
Robert: I think my sort of sweet spot is being able to understand the big-picture hydraulics of a system pretty quickly, then help think through whether everything that’s been planned or designed for a particular application will work.
In my work quoting and helping engineers think through different applications, I have to get up to speed very quickly and come up with the right gut-check questions to test the ideas: “What about this?” “Have we considered that?”
I think I have an instinctual ability to understand big-picture conceptual ideas and ask the questions that help make sure everything works together.
What part of the business do you naturally gravitate toward?
Robert: I really enjoy team building—having core values, casting vision, and sharing that with the team. I love the feeling of being part of a well-functioning team. It’s similar to being on a sports team: you’re working as a unit, accomplishing a goal together, and there’s that camaraderie of everyone playing their specific role.
I also feel a strong desire to help equip people to be successful. I enjoy being able to train people, give direction, give a nudge, give them the opportunity to do it, and then see them succeed.
What tends to guide you when you have a difficult decision to make?
Robert: I try to make decisions that I can stand behind and that are consistent with my values.
Difficult decisions come with ambiguity. I think about the outcome I’m trying to achieve and the different ways my decisions or actions can help bring that about.
I also value fairness and care for others. I want to do the right, truthful, honorable thing while looking for the best outcome for everyone involved. To me, it’s about maintaining integrity while still caring for the people affected by the decision.
What are the top 1 or 2 most important lessons you’ve learned from Raeann?
Robert: One of the big ones is being flexible and keeping an open mind about new opportunities. When I first heard about the opportunity to merge Cimco and G.C. Systems and represent Cla-Val, I honestly thought it would never work. They were our competition. But Raeann led us through it, and I very quickly realized that my assumptions were wrong.
She’s also taught me the importance of having a long-term vision and taking small steps toward it. Before we merged with G.C. Systems, she had a saying for our team: “All roads lead through Singer.” Essentially, she had a vision for Cimco to become a specifications rep and build our technical expertise in the water industry.
It ended up not being through Singer, but through Cla-Val. And I got to see how all the steps we had been taking along the way put us in a position to be ready when that opportunity came.
Robert and Raeann
What do you hope customers would say about working with our team?
Robert: I hope they’d say they love working with our team because they know they’ll be taken care of. I want them to believe that we really care about them and about the service and products we provide. Even if things go wrong or aren’t quite right, I want them to know and believe that we’ll work with them and help fix things.
What are you most proud of about the company we’ve built?
Robert: I’m proud of how much our team has grown. Not just in number, but in expertise, in coordination, and how well people work together to get the job done. So it’s kind of a combination of growing bigger in capabilities to be able to serve customers, and also people growing into their roles which allows us to build things out to meet the needs in the market.
What's something about Cimco-GC Systems that people on the outside may not always see?
Robert: I don’t think people always see how much work our team does behind the scenes to make sure inventory and orders are entered, tracked, and processed correctly. There’s a lot happening inside both offices to keep the details straight, move projects through, and make sure people get what they need at the right time. It takes a lot of work and attention to detail through every phase of an order.
What excites you most about where the company is headed?
Robert: There’s just a continual list of exciting projects we’ve been able to work on with water systems across the Pacific Northwest. As systems and populations grow, things get more complex and technology continues to change. We get to help utilities keep up, modernize, and meet new demands and challenges.
Over the last couple of years, our team has really built out, and people have grown and developed in their roles. There’s a consistency and a strong foundation there that puts us in a really good position to take on new opportunities as they come up. There are some good things on the horizon. I’m not sure exactly what they are yet, but I’m excited that we’re going to be ready for them.
What’s one thing you hope never changes about Cimco-GC?
Robert: Precision. Focusing on having the details correct and getting things right.
What was "Young Rob" like? What part of who you are today has been there since you were a kid?
Robert: I’ve always had this hunger to understand things, to conceptualize them and make sense of the bigger picture.
As a kid, I remember struggling to memorize these little Bible verses. At some point, I had this aha moment where I realized that when I really thought about what the passage was trying to say and understood the meaning behind the words, I could memorize them, no problem.
Another funny example was when my kindergarten teacher asked everyone to sign some kind of classroom rules or student contract. I refused because I didn’t know what was in it. I guess I wouldn’t put my name on it until I knew what I was agreeing to. My mom actually had to come to the school and explain the contract to me before I would sign it.
What is an experience outside of work that has shaped who you are today?
Robert: My family and being a father. Raising children has really changed who I am, especially in terms of teaching and guiding them—trying to understand them, correct them with care, point them in the right direction, and encourage them. It’s shaped a lot of how I understand relationships.
And my wife, Michel-Ann. She’s my constant supporter and sounding board. She tells me what she thinks, challenges me when I’m not on the right track, and is willing to call me out when I’m not doing things the best way.
If you suddenly had an entire day with nothing on your calendar, how would you spend it?
Robert: Hang out with my kids. Probably go to a park, the zoo, or the beach.
If your team were roasting you, what might they say?
Robert: They’d accuse me of being a water nerd.
They’d make fun of me for explaining things too much.
Our Sales Manager might introduce himself as my “younger and more handsome brother” at every training and lunch-and-learn.
And they’d probably make fun of my gorgeous locks.
What’s something you’re good at that has absolutely nothing to do with your job?
Robert: Dad jokes. I didn’t realize my potential before, but once I had kids it became apparent.