First earning a Bachelor of Arts in advertising at Texas Tech University in 1987, Monica Pankau Gould holds considerable expertise in sales and marketing and maintaining relationships with customers. Establishing herself as a corporate services manager for Texas Mutual Insurance Company in 1992, she went on to serve as the senior property manager for Insignia Property Management from 2000 to 2001. In 2002, she joined her husband’s commercial office furniture company, Modular Installation Services, Inc. when her husband’s partner left the business.
At the time, Ms. Gould’s expertise was primarily in the customer side of business with fairly limited knowledge about back end work. As she stepped into the roles of vice president and chief finance officer with Modular Installation Services, she did not let this deter her, however, and immediately set about liaising with their clients to ascertain their needs and wants. Building up her roles to fit those needs, today her responsibilities span human resources, finance, sales and marketing, bid proposals, project management and installations, and general client relations. Ms. Gould also maintains professional affiliation with the International Facilities Management Association in order to keep abreast of developments in her field.
Attributing much of her success to keeping her clients’ goals in mind, Ms. Gould is adept at handling difficult situation for her clients. She recalls one project in particular, for a new client, that kept running into delays. Through her careful planning, she was able to sort everything out on a new deadline and her efforts led to a long fruitful relationship with that client. Furthermore, she is incredibly proud of the work she has done to grow Modular Installation Services from a half-million dollar company to consistently earning over a million dollars a year for the past 20 years. Looking toward the future, Ms. Gould hopes to continue to see the company develop and grow as the premier furniture installation company in central Texas.
Throughout her career, Ms. Gould has been motivated by the fact that every day brings something different as well as by the many other outstanding professionals she has had an opportunity to work alongside. She has been particularly impacted and inspired by the other women in her profession, as the furniture business tends to be a heavily male dominated field. Standing out for her ability to put herself in her clients’ shoes, she has also ensured their company’s place in the market through offering a wide range of furniture, as opposed limiting themselves to a specific niche. Ms. Gould considers the most gratifying aspect of her career to be getting to see her clients happy with their finished products.