Haberberger Welcomes Three New Employees

Rich Lackey joined Haberberger on September 14, 2020 as Vice President of Sheet Metal Operations, to apply his experience and knowledge in assisting with developing standards, guidelines, and principles to help the sheet metal division grow and eventually expand with a heavy metal shop. He has already had the opportunity to assist in setting up and purchasing the equipment for the new 16,000 square foot sheet metal shop.

Lackey started his career as an apprentice in Local 36. Since then, he has worked at various sheet metal shops in the St. Louis area as a journeyman, foreman, general foreman, shop and field superintendent, estimator, project manager, general manager, and owner. He’s experienced in the industrial and architectural sheet metal, and large commercial HVAC markets, and he’s also performed work for institutional, laboratory, clean room, industrial, hospital, and the manufacturing sectors of the sheet metal industry. He is adept in setting up shop standards and assisting in the design of HVAC and industrial duct.

For 10 years he and his wife, Gayle Lackey, owned and operated Lackey Sheet Metal, a 24-person sheet metal shop that specialized in industrial and architectural sheet metal. During that time, Lackey served on SMACNA St. Louis’ Chapter Board of Directors and was on the SMACNA National Task Force to update the “IAQ Guidelines for Occupied Buildings Under Construction” manual. After owning the business, he went to work at a mechanical firm in Illinois where he estimated large design build projects and was instrumental in getting their existing shop updated with a new coil line and a new 12,000 square foot 3/8” plate heavy metal shop.

Sam Haberberger recently joined Haberberger Mechanical as a project estimator and BIM automation/software engineer. He is the youngest son of former president, Neil Haberberger, and a member of the fourth generation at Haberberger. Prior to working at Haberberger, he obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in aerospace engineering within the field of spacecraft navigation/estimation at Missouri S&T. He subsequently spent five years in Huntsville, AL working as a simulation and automation software engineer within the Defense Industry. He is looking forward to the challenge of learning a new industry while applying his software/automation background to fit the needs of Haberberger.

Haberberger also welcomes Kyle Jones into their service department. Jones is a Mechanical Engineer with his Professional Engineering License issued from the state of Missouri and a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He has worked in the industry for seven years at a design engineering firm in St. Louis.

Jones is well-versed in load calculation, psychometrics, energy modeling, code review, and specification review, and has extensive experience sizing duct and pipe. He also has a strong building modeling background and is very familiar with Revit and AutoCAD as well as the production of coordinated drawings.

Jones says “I am really looking forward to working here at Haberberger and have had nothing but positive experiences from the entire team during my introduction to the company. I can readily see that I’m joining an excellent group of people and look forward to contributing to our ongoing success.”