MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY; CELEBRATING TREANA PITTS

At Royal American, we are fortunate enough to have employees with tenure extending 20 years and beyond. Their knowledge and expertise are pivotal in the success and growth of our company all the while staying tied to the deep roots it was founded on. It is our honor to interview these amazing employees and hear their stories. We are excited to share with you.

 This week’s milestone anniversary interview to share with you is with Treana Pitts; RAM Commercial Regional Manager

What position did you start out in at Royal American?

File Clerk for RAM

Would you tell us a little bit about your career journey with Royal American?

I started off as a file clerk and assistant to the Vice President’s Executive Assistant.  I worked in that position for about three months.  I filed all the paperwork for all of the Administrative Assistants (A.A.’s) everyday, completed tasks for my direct Supervisor and when needed help the other A.A.’s.  Then, Frank Johnston had just been promoted to Vice President and was reassigning the properties to the Regionals when he decided to hire another Regional Manager and A.A.  I asked him about the A.A. position and he hired me on the spot.  I became the A.A. for Frank Adkinson in the RD division.  While working with Frank Adkinson, Royal American Management had just started building tax credit properties and Frank was put in charge of overseeing the reporting requirements.  He wrote a program on the computer that would allow me to enter the information in for each property rather than typing them out on the typewriter each month.  While working with Frank Atkinson, I also worked with another Regional Manager, Don Currenton, which oversaw some of the RD and HUD properties as well as Bill Beaver, Vice President over Maintenance.  Then about a year after moving into One Stanford Centre I went to work with Scott Clemo in the Commercial Division as the Commercial Specialist.  In 1998 I obtained my Real Estate License for the purpose of leasing commercial spaces and sales of any of the commercial properties we had at that time.  In 2000, when a sister company of Royal American purchased the airplane, I was asked to assist the pilot for the plane in all scheduling of the flights.  This grew into booking hotels, rental cars and taking care of other arrangements for all passengers for the plane.  I worked with the several pilots through the years until 2010.  In 2005, I became the Regional Manager for the Commercial Division.  At that time we had three Class “A” office buildings here in Panama City that we owned and managed as well as other office, retail and beach “seasonal” properties.  While working in the Commercial Division, I have been fortunate to have been trusted to make selections for the interiors of the buildings and spaces when we remodeled them.  This is something that I really enjoy doing.  In 2000, when we were doing a lot of remodeling of the commercial spaces we were using an Architect to modify the floor plans for us and this was expensive.   I decided to learn the CADD software so we could make the changes to floor plans.  So, I self-taught myself to use the software. Over the years my experience with the software went from making minor adjustments on floor plans to drawing full sets of plans for permitting purposes.

Can you share a favorite memory from your time with Royal American?

I interviewed with Royal American Management on the day of my wedding rehearsal.  It was one of the longest interviews that I have ever done, it lasted three and a half hours.  Back then when you applied with the company you had a personality test, math test, English test, and a typing test if you were applying for a clerical position.  After I took all of the tests, I interviewed with the Vice President’s Executive Assistant, Debbie Richardson and then with the Vice President, Mac Carpenter.  During the interview with Mac Carpenter, I remembered looking down at my watch and noticed it was 5:30 pm and started to panic. I waited a few more minutes and then said, ” I am sorry, but I need to leave. I am getting married tomorrow, and the wedding rehearsal starts at 6:00 pm this evening.”  Mac started laughing and said, “You should have said something sooner, I completely understand.”  I was so nervous and just knew I had blown my interview.  About two weeks later when I returned from my honeymoon, Mac called and congratulated me on getting married and said, “you have the job if you still want it.”  I started with Royal American on Monday, May 30th of 1988.  Hard to believe this May I celebrate 36 years.

What are a few of your interests and hobbies outside of Royal American?

My hobbies have always revolved around our daughter when she was growing up and now my grandchildren.  Me and my husband, Steve, have two grandchildren, Harper Kay is 7 years old and Luke is 4 years old.  In September we will welcome our third grandchild into the world.  When I am not spending time with them, I love to draw and paint.  I have within the last year turned a room in our house into my studio for painting.

What advice would you give to someone just getting started?

The best advice I could give someone is to learn as much as you can and be a problem solver.  These will take you a long way in your career.

We commend Treana Pitts; RAM Commercial Regional Manager, on her amazing career with RA and invite you to help us celebrate her 35 years in the comments! Thank you for sharing with us Treana.