Luke Bastin

“I love winning. I want to go out every day and service our customers and be the best we can be.”

Ferguson is Luke’s second career. His first was the military. Luke joined the Army as a high school junior, signing up to be a combat engineer. He was deployed in 2002 and spent a year in Iraq. Shortly after returning he finished out his time and decided not to reenlist. That’s when he saw a Ferguson job in the newspaper. He started with Ferguson in the warehouse in 2005. After a few months he told his manager he wanted to do something different to make more money. That talk opened doors for him. Luke was invited to talk about an opportunity for inside sales. Now 17 years later he’s a Senior Sales Team Manager and uniquely has spent his entire career 100 percent focused on industrial.

In the military Luke developed valuable skills that were and still are directly transferable to Ferguson, including leadership, accountability, working with a team, understanding the chain of command, recognizing that everyone has a specific job that needs to be done, and understanding the value of working toward a common goal. According to Luke, great associates have all of these skills in addition to work ethic, dedication, and reliability. Most importantly, he believes you don’t have to have a leadership title to be a leader.

Luke’s advice to someone starting out in the industrial PVF distribution business is to be a learner. “No one starts out as an expert,” he says. “Anyone can become one, but you need to be patient and learn your craft and trade.” He also says it’s important to ask questions, have a positive attitude, and work hard — because hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. In fact, hard work is central to Luke’s successes at Ferguson and is the foundation for the success of his team. “I love showing up here every day and putting the work in alongside my team, and I want them to understand we are in this together,” he says. “We have the best people in the industry and I love working with them every day.”