It was a high school visit from a Navy recruiter that steered Eben Asmah to the United States Naval Academy and five years of active duty in the Marines.

Now, in addition to serving as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve, Asmah, 30, is a Haskell assistant project manager assigned to the Frito-Lay expansion project in Dallas. It’s his first project since joining the company in 2019.

Asmah recalls the recruiter for the pushup contest he held – which Asmah won – and for planting the seed about military service. The fact that his brother was serving in the Navy helped the notion grow.

“I talked to my dad about joining the Navy, but he wanted me to go to college,” Asmah said. “When he found out about the Naval Academy, he got me to apply to it.”

After a year at the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) in Newport, Rhode Island, he moved on to Annapolis, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in General Engineering, and then on to active duty.

At the time of his discharge, he was a Company Executive Officer, which entailed managing about 200 Marines, overseeing all required training and handling administrative duties.

After years of long military deployments, he’s grateful for the stability Haskell provides. His current job site is a 40-minute drive from his home in McKinney, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Jenna, and their 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“I talked it over with my wife,” he said. “She didn’t want to move around a lot. Her family were all in the Marines. When she was young, she did not see her dad that much. I didn’t want to disrupt the kids.”

Asmah was introduced to Haskell by a fellow veteran who was a year ahead of him at Annapolis. With a year under his belt, Asmah is so confident in his career decision that he has spoken to another friend about joining the company.

He appreciates how strongly Haskell promotes the importance of the work-life balance.

“You have the ability to grow and learn on your own and take as much as you want,” he said. “Here, you keep going and trying to do more. There is no ceiling.”

He is currently working on the Frito-Lay Dallas Service Center ASRS project. The multi-crane automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) warehouse is specifically designed to store and retrieve full pallets of product and inventory on demand.

While Haskell and the Marines each stress the highest standards of job completion, Asmah said he had noticed one crucial difference between the two.

“Well, the food is a lot better.”

But seriously …

“Here, not only are we focusing on the people, but we are making sure costs don’t go over budgets,” he said. “You have to be more careful about that.”

Honoring Our Veterans

Haskell proudly employs veterans of the United States Armed Forces and currently has 68 team members who previously served our country. To commemorate Veterans Day, Haskell.com is spotlighting five of those team members. In addition, Haskell annually presents each veteran on our team with a special thank you gift.

As Haskell’s Workforce Development and Talent Acquisition teams continually evaluate and address the personnel needs, veterans play a greater role now than ever before.

“What we consistently find is that veterans are adaptable, dedicated professionals who understand that learning new skills is a part of every job,” said Dave Balz, who leads Workforce Development. “Whether someone has served on a submarine, as an on-the-ground war-fighter or supported through logistics and IT, they understand mission, structure, results and accountability. They also have a background of doing for the good of the team. These attributes fit hand in glove with our core values of Team, Excellence, Service and Trust.”