PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2012
21
F
ollowing his first day on the job for Aubrey
Silvey Enterprises, Inc., Tommy Muse wasn’t
100 percent sold on the construction industry.
“When I joined the company in July 1972 after
returning home from the U.S. Army, there were
a total of seven employees and one quit before lunch on the
first day,” he recalled. “I did not know exactly what I was
getting myself into, but I thought I would hold out for the
first week and evaluate the program after that. I look back
and have no regrets.”
Now 40 years later, Tommy Muse is the president and chief
executive officer of Aubrey Silvey Enterprises, a corporation
with sales in excess of $100 million, hundreds of employees,
and more than 2,000 substation projects completed. And
earlier this year, Tommy was sworn in as the president of the
Power & Communication Contractors Association.
Aubrey Silvey Enterprises was incorporated in January
1971 for the purpose of constructing electrical substations
for utilities, municipalities, and electric cooperatives in the
Southeastern United States. In those early days, Tommy was
a field supervisor, and his crew’s work was about half substa-
tion related and half airport lighting, plus some underground
work for the railroad and the telephone company. The airport
work consisted of building approach lighting systems and
down range radar tracking systems.
“Our biggest challenge in the early years was financing,”
Tommy said. “We had a line of credit at the bank which we
were able to support, but they held a tight rein on us as well
as the bonding company. I remember one incident when we
asked for an extension of our line of credit for an additional
$1 million. After a short conversation with one of the banks
lower echelons, we were given an initial ‘I don’t really see a
problem.’ After one week, the bank summoned us to Atlanta
for a meeting and told us we would not be given the extra
million-dollar line of credit and we had 60 days to find us
another bank. That was my first lesson in finding out how
most banks are fair-weather friends. Thank God we were able
to find an asset-based lending institution, and we made it
through the dark valley.”
Focusing on Substation Work
Tommy said he knew he was in the business for good in 1980
when the company evaluated the business and elected to
get out of the FAA business and concentrate on the substa-
tion market. “We were struggling with both markets and
PCCA President Tommy Muse:
Small-Town Values, Big-Time Success
Continued on page 22
Aubrey Silvey & Tommy Muse
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