As CEO of C.W. Brown Inc., an Armonk-based construction company, Renée M. Brown signs the paychecks for everyone, including her husband, Charles W. Brown Jr., the company”™s president. But don”™t expect her to go all “Devil Wears Prada” on anyone.
“Heavens no,” she says with a laugh. “I don”™t take myself that seriously. There are a lot of people here who are more talented than I am. Everyone works together, as a team.”
Brown has the kind of manner that facilitates teamwork. Whether she”™s meeting you for the first time at a Westchester County press conference for the second phase of the Westchester Green Business Challenge or touring you around the company”™s plant ”“ whose interior recently underwent a $2-million green makeover ”“ she is friendly, helpful, warm and down-to-earth, the ideal boss as team player.
No doubt it”™s due to good genes. But maybe it has something to do with humble beginnings. Brown started in the basement ”“ literally. It was there at home in 1984 that the Browns, who hail from Mount Pleasant, founded their business. She had been a facilities coordinator at Northern Telecom. He was a general contractor in White Plains.
“We set it up as a woman-owned business,” she says. “We thought it would be good to have a woman-owned business. But back then, people wanted to talk to a man.”
Nevertheless, the Browns persevered, building their business relationship by relationship.
Today, C.W. Brown, with a staff of 70, does 70 percent of the corporate work in Westchester as well as quite a bit of the biotech and lab space that has been cropping up as one of the county”™s targeted industries.
After what she calls “a tough year,” Brown is also looking forward to more green industry in the county as a way to increase business and help the environment.
C.W. Brown has been a pioneer in this regard. The company is awaiting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum Certification ”“ the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council ”“ which will make it the first commercial interior space so designated. Walking around the sleek, handsome offices ”“ with their green, blond and botanical décor ”“ it”™s hard to imagine that some of the countertops were made out of milk cartons, while some of the floors are recycled tires.
Recently, there was standing-room only amid those countertops and floors as the Browns hosted the first educational seminar in the second phase of the Westchester Green Business Challenge. With three daughters mostly grown, the couple is happy to play educators and mentors to architects, interns, high school students ”“ whoever happens to come through.
“I love connecting people,” Renée Brown says.
When she isn”™t doing that, there are two dogs and a cat back at the family”™s South Salem home to care for and outdoor activities to enjoy.
Or as she puts it with a laugh: “I don”™t knit.”
