Spotlight – Rick Barker

Sales Consultant Spotlight on Rick Barker

Rick Barker is a Sales Consultant with Sauder Courtroom Furniture and has been representing Sauder for 18 years. Rick has positively impacted our sales team, the Sauder company, and his community by his dedication, willingness to serve and enthusiastic personality. His territory spans Southern California, Arizona, Las Vegas, NV vicinity, and Hawaii. In his early years, Rick served as a ministry leader at his church, was then introduced to Sauder through his lead Pastor. We interviewed Rick to learn more about him as a person and as a sales consultant. Learn more about Rick and see what he has to share below.

Tell us a little about yourself

My wife Monica and I celebrated 38 years of marriage this year, and together we have two children, Eric and Carlyn. I look forward to baseball season and have had the privilege of coaching baseball for 20 years; from little league to high school, to travel softball with my daughter. I love watching the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox play. I have been fortunate to see the Dodgers play at Fenway Park over three consecutive days, which was an incredible experience. On another note, music has always been integral to my life. In the 80s, I toured with a Christian Rock group where we recorded and produced worship music. Today, I continue to play professionally and for my church.

How did you get started in the furniture industry?

My introduction to the furniture industry started while working at Thermador and Price Pfister which are home furnishing manufacturers. Years later, I was an operations consultant for office furniture designs, where my pastor introduced me to Sauder. I became a Sales Consultant for Sauder in 2004. 18 years later, I am still blessed to be a part of this team representing Sauder Courtroom Furniture.

What do you enjoy most about your job as a sales consultant?

I love the challenge of bringing together the right solution to a project or design that fits the courtroom. We are privileged to work with many court leaders and judges from the municipal, county and state levels, to justice centers and military applications. It brings me joy to be part of these projects that include architects, contractors, and designers. I’m honored to build those relationships, into long-term friendships and professional connections, where we all help serve our customers.

Which Sauder Courtroom Furniture product is your favorite and why?

My favorite products we offer for Courtrooms and judicial centers is our Platform Furniture. Our platform furniture for courtrooms consists of our judge’s benches, clerk desks, witness stands, attorney tables, and judge’s boxes. These furniture pieces are instrumental to my career and have been a standard for many of my supporting courtroom projects. Platform pieces can be built with compressed ballistic material to stop a fired bullet.

A memorable project.

One of my more memorable courtroom projects was Morongo Tribal Court, located in Banning, CA. Tribal courts differ from regular US Courts because they’re empowered to resolve conflicts from within a tribe’s jurisdiction. Therefore, this courtroom’s design differs from most US federal or state courtrooms. For this project, I was able to recommend a variety of courtroom platform options for the tribal council members. We had installed four benches, two attorney tables, a clerk desk, and a custom-built judge box. As a result, the installation went over very well, and everyone involved was pleased with the final product and installation.