Photo by National Trench Safety
National Trench Safety Van Welch 2022 6286f50e70868

National Trench Safety Hires Chief Financial Officer, Van Welch

May 20, 2022
Recently, he held the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer at Mobile Mini, the largest rental provider of portable storage containers in the United States, from 2017 until its successful merger with Willscot Corp. in July 2020.

National Trench Safety has appointed Van Welch chief financial officer. Welch is responsible for finance, accounting, mergers, acquisitions, and compliance. As a senior member of the executive team, Van reports directly to CEO Phil Mason.

Welch brings more than 40 years of experience in operations and finance, including operational planning, corporate finance, treasury, tax, and financial planning and analysis. Recently, he held the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer at Mobile Mini, the largest rental provider of portable storage containers in the United States, from 2017 until its successful merger with Willscot Corp. in July 2020. Through his collaborative partnership with the board, senior leadership, and operations, Mobile Mini achieved double-digit revenue growth, EBITDA margin expansion, and substantial increase in free cash flow.

Prior to joining Mobile Mini, Welch was the executive vice president and chief financial officer and treasurer for Willbros Group, a specialty energy infrastructure contractor servicing the oil, gas, refinery, and power industries. In his role from August 2006 until August 2017, Welch developed operational and financial strategic plans to improve processes to enable sustainable growth, drive revenue improvement, and successfully lead multiple mergers. During his time at Willbros, the company grew from $600 million to $2 billion in revenue.

Prior to Mobile Mini and Willbros Group, Welch held multiple finance, project controls, and accounting leadership roles within Kellogg Brown and Root and its subsidiaries, spanning more than a 25- year tenure. He progressed through multiple corporate and business unit leadership roles in domestic and international environments from 1978 until 2006, including senior vice president of accounting and finance for KBR Group, senior vice president of shared services for KBR Group, vice president accounting and finance of the engineering and construction division, vice president accounting and finance of onshore operations, and controller of the Europe and Africa Division. Van also recently served as vice chairman of the board with Child Crisis Arizona, a non-profit organization, that provides emergency shelter, foster care, adoption, counseling, early education, and parenting support services to Arizona’s most vulnerable children.

Welch holds a BBA degree in accounting and management from Stephen F. Austin State University and is a recently retired Certified Public Accountant.

National Trench Safety, based in Houston, is a leading independent national provider of trench safety and traffic control solutions with a broad portfolio of road plates, trench boxes, hydraulic shoring, slide rails, manholes, beams, guide frames and sheeting. NTS serves approximately 8,000 customers from coast to coast, through a network of more than 60 branch locations across the United States and two U.K.-based branches