As an employee-owned company, Delta Pipeline takes to heart the recognition that our most valuable assets, our team members, deserve. Your effort, commitment, and loyalty demonstrate your affinity for our core values—and we hope to show you how much we appreciate that. That’s why we added the Golden Shovel Award program to our employee recognition program in 2019.

Since this award is an essential initiative, we decided to honor two honorees yearly—one from our business management office and one from our field operations team. Past winners included Aaron Danley in 2019 and Massi Ghaziyar in 2020. Golden Shovel Award recipients are chosen by secret ballot based on their commitment to displaying our pillars: People, Principle, and Purpose. 

Our 2021 award recipients are Peter Phou from our business management office and Damon Danley from field operations. Thank you for consistently representing our core value pillars. To the runners up: know how much your efforts and dedication are appreciated.

Get to Know Peter

“Seeing the talent that comes into the company and being able to offer a life-changing experience is what I enjoy most about my job.”

Peter joined Delta in March 2019 as a recruiter before a promotion as our Recruiting and Development Manager in October 2020. He applied his formidable background in these areas to build out our highly successful programs for recruiting and retaining top talent while supporting our field operations team in their career advancement goals. 

While there are challenges to the vital role he plays, such as making sure best-fit candidates are selected to join the team during the current era of talent shortage, he finds his role inspiring and gratifying. “Seeing the talent that comes into the company and being able to offer a life-changing experience is what I like most about my job.” He adds, “Seeing and being a part of someone’s career growth is exciting and never gets old.”

Peter doesn’t “play small” when it comes to his own goals, either. “A top goal of mine is to reach our objective of having 12 crews in field operations by the end of this quarter, which will require an extensive amount of hiring and development.” His five-year plan is even more ambitious. “I want to get us close to our goal of 300 shareholders within the company.”

Being named a 2021 award recipient means a great deal to Peter. “I’m honored to be chosen for this award. There are so many people who are really deserving and work hard each day to make sure Delta Pipeline is successful—I’m very fortunate. I have a great support system and a great team and wouldn’t have been able to be recognized if it weren’t for them,” he says.

Although he’s had many mentors throughout his career and has been around many great leaders, he credits his dad, a small business owner, as his foremost mentor.  Outside of work, his primary interests are watching sports—favoring the Lakers, Dodgers, and Raiders—playing basketball, hiking, and working out at the gym.

Get to Know Damon

“Providing team members with a career and teaching them new skills that enable their personal and professional growth is truly gratifying.”

In addition to being a 2021 Golden Shovel Award recipient, Damon is a recognized team member who crossed the 30-year employment mark with Delta Pipeline. As General Superintendent for Delta Pipeline, Damon oversees the day-to-day management of all field projects, including safety, scheduling, production, and quality control. He also assists with hiring field operations staff, oversees their professional development, and is a Delta Pipeline University instructor.

The satisfaction of building infrastructure for sewer, water, and storm drain services for communities is one of Damon’s most satisfying aspects in his role. He also finds it gratifying to provide team members with a career. “Making a difference in team members’ lives, the lives of their families, and helping them succeed is one of the things I most enjoy about my work.”

Damon’s foremost mission for the upcoming year is enhancing his leadership skills to enable his team to produce their best work, with or without his onsite presence. He’s also focused on creating a cohesive, unified team spirit and camaraderie between the company’s field operations and project management office teams.

Being named a 2021 Golden Shovel Award recipient means a great deal to Damon. “The Golden Shovel award is the highest form of recognition that is awarded by Delta Pipeline. It’s an honor to earn this award, and I display the plaque I received proudly in my home office. To me, the ultimate meaning of the award is that I do what I need to do when it needs to be done.”

When citing mentors in his life, Damon tips his hat to his older brother Craig. “He hired me straight out of high school and taught me all about the pipeline business.” In his time away from work, Damon looks forward to visits with his two grandchildren, relaxing at home, watching sports, and playing rounds of golf where he’s always learning something new about the game.

Two out of many

Our 2021 Golden Shovel recipients are only two of the many Delta Pipeline team members that we love working with each day!

You can learn more about us by following our LinkedIn page, or reading more on the news & insights portion of our website.