Marcelo Escobar

Congratulations to Foreman, Marcelo Escobar for almost 20 years of employment with W.B. Hopke

Every company dreams of hiring an employee like Marcelo Escobar. What makes Marcelo so valuable to a company like W.B. Hopke is his work ethic, experience, loyalty and commitment. It’s something born within. It’s for this reason we have dedicated this article to Marcelo and his almost 20 years of employment with W.B. Hopke.

Marcelo Escobar joined W.B. Hopke on May 7, 2007. “I was working as a foreman for another wet utilities company, and they were struggling financially, and they finally went out of business. I was the foreman doing sewer and water and wet utilities work, and someone pointed me to W.B. Hopke, and I have been here ever since,” said Marcelo.

Because of Marcelo’s previous work experience as foreman with sewer, water and drainage, he was a perfect fit for Hopke and was hired by Tommy Smith starting immediately in the role of foreman. As foreman he has numerous responsibilities including identifying new potential employees for his crews, preparing the timesheets, ensuring they get to work on time each day, laying out their job responsibilities and above all safety. Marcelo stated, “Our job with all the heavy equipment is very dangerous work and I have to make sure that my men keep safe and are prepared to avoid accidents.”

Things have changed a lot since he started with Hopke. The jobs are larger, the pace is faster and the deadlines are more time sensitive. When asked what has kept him with Hopke all of these years, Marcelo said, “Every day is a new day with new challenges. It is the people, primarily the owners as they are very supportive of our needs. They encourage advancement for the employees, treat us well, pay us well, and always have work to do for me and my crews. We are always busy with plenty of work, and that shows the company is doing well.” Thoughout the years with Hopke, Marcelo has been offered positions with other companies for a few dollars more, but he has remained loyal to Hopke because the company is stable and thriving and the owners have always been loyal to him.

Marcelo is now 66 years old and still loves to come to work every day. He even brought his son Marcelo to Hopke 9 years ago. Marcelo likes working with his son. He offers his son and crew simple and sound advice saying, “Work hard, come to work on time, learn everything you can and there’ll be plenty of room for advancement.” Marcelo credits Jimbo Cloniger, Billy Green and Brian Starnes with his continued success at Hopke.

In his spare time, Marcelo enjoys a simple life with his wife Brenda, now together for 18 years. He and Brenda have two daughters, and he has four children from a previous relationship. He enjoys going to the beach and the park with his family, and on occasion he enjoys fishing. He also enjoys watching the boys play soccer and baseball.

Thank you Marcelo for all you do from all of us at W.B. Hopke. Keep up the good work!

W.B. Hopke is a fourth generation, family-run construction business focused on building high quality utility infrastructure and lifelong careers. Hopke is located in Alexandria, VA and works throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. With almost 70 years of experience, Hopke prides itself on repeat customers across all kinds of market segments – schools, churches, data centers, distribution facilities, multi-family, mixed use, residential subdivisions, senior living, self storage, heavy highway, retail, commercial office, automotive, stream restoration, and parks.

Contact W.B. Hopke about a career in utility installation and site work at 703-971-0404 or info@wbhopke.com.