President & CEO
Eagle Manufacturing Company
Photo by Tracy Toler.
By Jean Hardiman
Growing up on a large cattle farm in Friendly, WV, Joe Eddy learned the value of a great work ethic from his father, an engineer at Union Carbide, and the importance of having strong compassion for life from his mother. He admired his father’s hands-on abilities, and while working summers at his grandfather’s farm, he was fascinated by the wells where they pumped their own oil. This interest led to a degree in petroleum engineering from Marietta College in 1983.
Though Eddy’s path would bend in time, his interest in the industry and its skilled jobs that lift up the state’s economy would only grow. After working successfully in the energy field for more than a decade in Texas, California, Ohio and Wyoming, Eddy returned to West Virginia in 1996, where he became the marketing and business development manager for Eagle Manufacturing Company in Wellsburg.
Today, Eddy serves as the president and CEO of Eagle, a quality-focused, community-minded company that manufactures industrial safety products that meet the company’s mission of protecting people, property and the planet. He also commits time to producing optimism among West Virginia manufacturers, skills among young people who will seize the jobs of the future and hope for the state.
Under his direction, Eagle has significantly expanded its product lines and market channel and created many new jobs. He has also helped make community involvement a part of the fabric at Eagle. His employees serve as volunteer firemen, coach local teams and serve as pacesetters in the local United Way campaign. The company also offers summer internships for employees’ college-age students and more than 500 students, and community members tour the factory each year.
Over the years, Eddy has become a leading voice for manufacturing and energy, both statewide and nationally. He currently serves on the boards of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association (WVMA) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), as well as the boards for the West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC) Foundation, Marietta College’s McDonough Leadership School and West Virginia University’s global supply chain management advisory council. He also serves on the Regional Economic Development Partnership board, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Charleston Industry Roundtable, West Virginia Economic Development Authority board and advisory board for the National Institute of Standards & Technology-MEP Program.
In an effort to help prepare the next generation of manufacturers, he founded the Joseph and Debra Eddy Foundation and the Joseph Eddy Technology Scholarship Fund at WVNCC. He is a founder and chairman of the board of the WVMA Educational Fund and its Explore the New Manufacturing middle school campaign, which promotes career track education, leading to skilled trades in advanced manufacturing.
“West Virginia is at the epicenter of the natural gas boom,” he says. “We have already developed the upstream and midstream energy industries, and with further development of downstream chemical and manufacturing, we will see unprecedented creation of jobs and technologies that will give our young people the opportunity to have rewarding careers that pay excellent wages in West Virginia. We are creating hope and a future that will help West Virginians shine for many years into the future.”
At the end of the day, his mission is to empower West Virginians: to teach them to fish for life, so to speak, instead of giving them fish for a day. “I believe in the general principle of alleviating poverty by facilitating self-sufficiency—by teaching a man a trade or by putting him into a business—so he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the alternative of holding up his hand for charity. I believe the opportunity for prosperity for all West Virginians is at our doorstep.”
1983 Graduated from Marietta College
1983 Hired as director of operations at Spectrum Resources
1986 Named executive vice president at Spectrum Resources
1990 Hired as president of Tazwell Corporation
1995 Founded Enhanced Technologies LLC
1996 Hired as the marketing and business development manager at Eagle Manufacturing Company
2009 Named president and CEO of Eagle Manufacturing Company
2010 Founded the Joseph and Debra Eddy Foundation
2014 Established the Joseph Eddy Technology Scholarship Fund at WVNCC
2014 Founded the WVMA Educational Fund Inc. and was named chairman of the board
2017 Testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce
2017 Named to the advisory board of the National Institute of Standards & Technology-MEP Program
3 Comments
Proud to be from the same community and as a young gun to follow in your leadership and example you have set before us.
Friendly WV is very proud of you and so is SHS. I always knew something great would come out of that farm. Your mom and dad did a great job of raising you along with your siblings. Keep up the great work!
Congratulations Joe. You make WV proud. Nice article.