Brian Eason’s road to the executive suite had some twists and turns. A faithful decision in his late teens got him on track, setting him up for success.
While he’s an executive, Eason is also a first-time novelist and a well-regarded voice on leadership development in his field.
The Newport News native enrolled in Virginia Peninsula Community College straight out of Menchville High School while still trying to figure out his life. That was in 1992, before the College’s name was changed.
Three decades after his start at VPCC, Eason serves as a group vice president for a wholesale building materials company based in North Carolina. He oversees operations across North Carolina and Virginia. His career experiences inspired him to write a book, “Foundations of a Giant: A Branch Boss’s Blueprint for Wholesale Distribution,” released Nov. 17, 2025.
“About five years ago, I started thinking about all those stories and how they impacted me throughout my career. And I just started making notes,” he said. “I would write down three to five words that would remind me of the story that went with it. And I just kept them on a bulletin board. The next thing you know, I had 73 of these things. Finally, three years ago, I said, ‘Maybe I should start writing the stories that go with the actual subtitles.’
“I turned 50 a year and a half ago, and I had an epiphany. I said, ‘I’m going to finish this. And, if it resonates with people, fantastic. If it doesn’t, that’s OK.’ But my goal is to help other leaders who are new in the role or who need a different perspective on what leadership could look like, if done correctly,” he added.
Eason jumped into a career in an industry he vowed he’d never consider. He said growing up, he watched his father work long hours and travel frequently over decades with Ferguson Enterprises, the largest wholesale plumbing distributor in North America.
‘I remember thinking, ‘That looks overwhelming. It seems like a lot of hard work.’ It’s not that I was scared of hard work. It just didn’t seem like something I would be passionate about,” said Eason.
A brief stint selling timeshares in Williamsburg changed his mind. Ferguson hired him in the late 1990s, and he never looked back. It became a 29-year career in wholesale building materials. He spent 23 years at Ferguson before moving to another company and that experience led to his current role.
Now overseeing roughly $150 million in annual business across multiple branches, Eason practices servant leadership. It’s an approach rooted in his start in the industry.
“My number one goal is to take the biggest obstacles out of their way and allow them to give 100% … to take care of them as employees and people and allow them to really lean into their people,” he explained.
“I always start with my people. Lead by example. This servant leadership idea is what I was trained under, luckily. Not everyone is that lucky,” he said.
Eason likens his job to a three-legged stool. It involves sales, human resources and operations. In addition, he said, safety, communication and people development are constant priorities.
Starting on the warehouse level gave Eason the blueprint for navigating his role. Even now, when he visits branches, he always stops at the warehouse floor first.
“There’s a section in my book called ‘Don’t Forget Where You Came From,’” he said. “I told myself early on I would never forget that this is where I started.”
He said that’s the real foundation of his book. It highlights lessons he learned serving as Ferguson’s first district manager of training and career development. Eason coached 62 managers in the role.
“The book exists because I kept seeing good people struggle in their first leadership roles,” he said. “We will put people in a role and give them no training. We give them the keys to a building. We give them direct reports. We don’t coach them on how to have difficult conversations, though, how to write performance reviews, or how to really dig into what they’re doing. I was seeing, ‘Here’s the key to the building. Well, good luck.’”
Eason initially framed his book as a general leadership publication, and his manuscript was rejected by several traditional publishing companies. One company’s vice president of publishing offered blunt but great advice. The feedback proved valuable.
“He said, ‘Brian, we don’t need another leadership book. We have them all,’” Eason recalled, adding the VP continued, ‘Just stay in your lane … write to managers in your industry, and you’ve got something.’”
He took the advice and found his audience by strictly focusing on his industry.
“I still talk to the guy today. I’m super thankful for his advice,” Eason beamed.
The book reached No. 1 on Amazon in the distribution and warehouse management category. It also earned endorsements from industry professionals and a professor at North Carolina State University who teaches supply chain management. That professor is one of many cold outreaches Eason made along the way.
“For every 20 no(s), you get one big yes,” he said. “That’s a lesson in life and in sales. Don’t give up. You have to keep pushing.”
Eason doesn’t take his wins lightly, nor is he taking all the credit. He attributes his accomplishments to the people and institutions who shaped him, especially VPCC. He discovered the College after originally applying to Radford University.
He admits his priorities didn’t include academics in the 1990s. He was a three-sport athlete in high school and was largely unmotivated in the classroom. That attitude carried over early on at VPCC.
“I felt like I was smart enough. But I never really applied myself and didn’t care what my grades looked like,” he recalled, noting the support and encouragement he received at the College changed his perspective and kept him focused.
His student experience at VPCC gave him something new. He found faculty members and advisers who “leaned in.” They gave him the space he needed to set life’s goals. He went from indecision to realizing he had potential.
“It changed the trajectory of my life,” said Eason, who earned an associate degree in liberal arts and transferred to the University of Virginia in 1994. “The accessibility, the support, the confidence and really the momentum launched me into UVA.”
At UVA, he considered a pre-med track before a professor helped him realize that wasn’t his passion. He switched to psychology and sociology. The fields best suited his interests in how people think, behave and lead. Eason graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1996.
An Apex, N.C. resident, he remains a vocal advocate for community colleges.
“I preach community college to everybody,” he said. “I could not imagine having gone to a four-year school without it. The education is on par with anything else you’ll experience.”
He’s entered a reflective phase of life at the half-century mark. The focus now is more on gratitude and impact than personal accolades for Eason. Family, church, working full-time and periodic speaking engagements keep him occupied. He also penned articles for two industry publications, including Supply House Times.
If the future holds a COO or CEO role, he hasn’t ruled out either and he might even consider another book. For Eason, though, one thing is certain. His early years at VPCC gave him flight. “I feel like
