But with the sudden death of her husband, James Cashman III, who collapsed while jogging in February 1995 at age 45, MaryKaye Cashman was thrust into the position of chief executive of Cashman Equipment Co., one of the oldest Caterpillar dealers in the country.

The 55-year-old Cashman isn't intimidated by heading one of the largest woman-owned businesses in Nevada in a male-dominated industry.

This former nurse and mother of three is smart and savvy. She led the company through tumultuous times with the downturn in the mining industry in the late 1990s and has guided it through fast-paced growth this decade.

The company founded in 1931 by James "Big Jim" Cashman in 1931 has been a family affair. It was managed by his son and grandson in addition to his granddaughter-in-law.

Cashman Equipment provides new and used equipment for sale and rental, as well as parts and service to construction, paving, mining, logging, truck engine and power system industries throughout Nevada.

In addition to its corporate headquarters in North Las Vegas, it has operations in Carson City, Elko, Henderson, Sparks, Round Mountain, Winnemucca and a California presence in Mammoth Lakes.

Question: What is the history of the company?

Answer: The company was started by my late husband's grandfather (in 1931). He was an entrepreneur in many senses of the word. A friend of his involved in building Hoover Dam suggested to him that they would need tractors for the construction of the dam and that he should take himself over to California where the dealership Holt of California was the holder of the patent for that equipment. (His friend) said he should give himself a dealership, and he did and placed the largest order they had to date, for six Model 60 tractors. That was the start of Cashman Equipment.

What involvement did you have with Cashman Equipment prior to your husband's death?

I had zero participation prior to my husband's death in 1995. I had attended principal meetings and knew the people involved. Prior to stepping in during February 1995, my career had been that of wife, mother and RN.

What did you do when your husband was running the company?

I was a nurse from 1982 to 1995. We each had our separate areas of expertise. This was his show and he ran it, and I occasionally expressed an opinion to be a socially responsible employer. I suggested he should have on-site day care, and it didn't take too long being in his shoes that it's a huge undertaking from both a liability and expense standpoint. We don't have on-site day care.

Why did you take over after his death?

In a cruel twist of fate in 1993 prior to my husband's death, he and his younger brother divided up the company. His brother no longer had any ownership in Cashman Equipment. I had 81 percent and my two sisters-in-law had 9.5 percent. It was kind of a natural thing I take it over. Clearly, there were many doubters and clearly we lived through years of rumors that I was about the sell the company. But I felt it was important that the work my husband had given his heart and soul, and literally his heart, be protected. I wanted to continue to provide secure jobs to our employees and the product support he promised customers when they bought Caterpillar equipment.

How did you like it?

I discovered, much to my surprise, that I actually liked the business. I tapped into Tom Peter's principle of doing things to the highest level possible. That made it exciting for me. To build an organization and grow it and make it more respected and diversify its capabilities is something that excited me.

What was it like to start?

I give a lot of credit to benign ignorance. If I had known what I didn't know at that time it probably would have sounded pretty daunting. Fifty percent of success is showing up. Because of my background in nursing, many of the employees knew me as the nursing mother figure.

MaryKaye Cashman, CEO of Cashman Equipment, responds to a question during an interview. Photo by Steve Marcus

What have you learned about the business?

This a pretty complex business and it grows ever more so. Technology increases. There are the manufacturing dealership relations and that requires nurturing, and the stakes in the game have changed. The size of the game has more than doubled during the 12 years I have been here. What I am enjoying most is the people aspect. I enjoy reaching out into the community to do philanthropic things and impact change.

What are those?

Chief among those is the Boys & Girls Club. I think the mission they provide to at-risk youth in this community is essential and I heard testimony from the kids who felt the Boys & Girls Club was their salvation, their rock, the only stability in their lives.

What was the reaction in the industry to a woman heading up the business?

Well, there certainly was a lot of skepticism. This is a male-dominated industry and at the time there were no other female Caterpillar dealers. My husband died in February, and I informed them in June that it was my intention to continue on in the company in the role of the dealer principal. In September, they approved me.

What was that like?

This isn't a franchise but a sales and service agreement.

I had a lot of people pulling for me and some other dealer principals who let them know they were watching how Caterpillar treated me. They can cancel any dealership with 90 days notice. In June (1995), they were asking me questions in retrospect that seemed kind of silly. They asked if I had the ability to fire people if the situation warranted it. I think there are some mothering survival instincts that cross from my previous life to this business - that I am going to do what it takes to make this company survive.

What are the examples of that?

When the gold mining industry took a significant plummet in the 1997-1998 timeframe, we had around 840 people. The volume at that time was about $240 to $300 million a year. We had a significant number of people that we added that weren't truly contributing, and with that decline there was a beneficial self-selection process. People who knew their contributions were questionable selected to move to higher ground.

Eventually, we got down to 500 people after that. You have to remember that mining was 60 percent of my dollar volume at that juncture. We had huge administrative overhead, and suddenly dramatic portions had evaporated.

What was Caterpillar's reaction to you?

It was clear to me I had some proving to do and that was fair. With no business background, it was huge stakes. At the time my husband died, we had 64 percent market share. That means a lot to them.

Has anyone in the industry said anything to you about the appropriateness of a woman in the equipment business?

If they said it, that they didn't say it to my face. I don't worry a great deal about what other people say.

What's your market share like today?

It is probably in the mid 40s. ¦ That was a freakish number (back then). We have higher market share (today) than the majority of Cat dealers in the United States. We are in the top 10 of every product group.

What does your business encompass?

We do outright sales and lease-purchase options. We do daily rentals and weekly and monthly rentals and we have a diverse set of products. We don't just have Caterpillar. We have brought on a few auxiliary lines. We also do power generation and standby power, and truck engines and the mining equipment.

What is the breakdown of sales and leases?

That is a blurred line because of bonding rate with construction companies. In many cases, they do rent-purchase agreements. When it goes out on a rental basis, you know it's never coming back.

Has the business changed over the years?

Yes. It is faster-paced and one of the things we do to make sure the employees are on board with that, we have screensavers that change every week. We just want to communicate with them that this is dynamic and ongoing. There is a lot more competition. We have a hot marketplace. It has drawn every competitor in the book into the region.

What's it been like to be in the business given the area's tremendous growth?

It's been a fortunate run the last six years. Once we got over the stagnation of 9/11 - which was brutally ugly when no one did anything for about 18 months because they didn't know how Vegas would fare after that - it has been almost exponential growth. It has been hard to keep up. It has been difficult to find enough quality service technicians to provide the after-market support for the equipment. We are up to 800 employees again, and our volume of business is double from where it was when we had 800 employees back in 1998. Clearly, we have more qualified people doing more work.

Where do you see the market heading?

We keep looking for the market to turn down. There will be a given month where we think it has softened like in February, and it will come roaring back. I am very optimistic by nature. There is no objective data to suggest to me that I should be battening down the hatches.

Who are your competitors?

There is Case, Deere, Komatsu, Volvo and Kawasaki.

Not all of those manufacturers participate across the line. Caterpillar is the only soup-to-nuts and cradle-to-grave supplier of equipment.

How do you win over the competition?

None of the other vendors' representatives have the infrastructure in place to service products after sales that we have. We have $29 million worth of parts. We can fill your parts order in 24 hours, 99 percent of the time. We have more technicians than anyone else in the state. There are some entry-level customers that feel they need to go lowest cost of entry, but I think over time they come to recognize the product support after sales and the fact the resale on their equipment when they move up to other equipment is higher with the Caterpillar brand.

What are your prices?

Caterpillar is premium price. That is their desire and market strategy. The price depends on the particular product. It can be anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent higher.

Why are you planning to move your corporate headquarters from North Las Vegas to Henderson?

We own 23 acres here (in North Las Vegas). This property my husband bought in anticipation of the MX Missile project that was going to be out in the desert, which never materialized. We have been here since 1980 on these 23 acres, and as you can tell from business, land (prices have) dramatically increased as the city of North Las Vegas and NDOT (Nevada Department of Transportation) came to us to say they were going use eminent domain to take 5.5 acres (to expand the Craig Road interchange at Interstate 15). That presents an unworkable situation for us. I can't get by with 25 percent less of my land.

We started looking for a large tract of land when it became final it was Cashman Equipment's land that was going to be taken. We were looking for locations that were large enough and a suitable situation close to freeway access to meet our customer needs and allow a good flow of movement from our facility.

What would that have meant for you if you stayed in North Las Vegas?

"We would have to find a satellite location and we didn't want to lose the synergy of movement between the various departments. It is very costly and ineffective to have multiple things spread out.

What will you do with the North Las Vegas site?

We don't know. We have had expressions of interest from customers and others that because of its location by the freeway, plus it has shop space already built, that it could be useful to them. In the 5 1/2 years this topic has been under consideration, the price has gone from $7 a foot to $25 a foot, which is a little difficult for an industrial application.

What about serving North Las Vegas?

I know even after we move, we will maintain some type of presence in the north to maintain service time to our customers. You and I know the traffic in Las Vegas isn't destined to get better anytime in the near future. To be located only in the south of the valley would be a deterrent to those response times. Whether it is this or five acres somewhere in the vicinity, we will need to maintain some kind of presence up north.

What is your timetable for your corporate headquarters?

We plan to start moving dirt this summer. We have an aggressive build schedule of the fourth quarter of 2008 to move in.

Didn't Henderson make the move possible by selling you 53 acres for $28.6 million?

The city of Henderson under the leadership of Mayor Jim Gibson saw the economic value of the having such a long-standing company as Cashman and the high quality of jobs we provide in pay and a full line of benefits and that we could be good neighbors from our community involvement and tax revenue our company produces.

Now that you have been the boss for 12 years, how are you different from when you started?

I am far more knowledgeable and significantly more comfortable. I learned in the early days the mistakes I made were when I didn't trust my gut and I can think of three significant errors I made. My gut had told me something and I ignored it because I didn't have the confidence or experience to insist. But this isn't rocket science. This is really more about treating people with dignity and respect and development of relations, whether it is internally with employees or externally with customers. The relations with the community have always been a strong tenet of Cashman that we give back to the community that has allowed us to be so successful.

What feedback have you gotten from the family?

Prior to his death a year-and-a-half ago, my father-in-law told me how proud he was of me and the job that I have done.

Who will take over for you when you retire?

I have two nephews who have worked for Cashman Equipment and expressed an interest in continuing on. I envision another 10 years for myself and see how that shakes out. I will start to make plans or preparations in five years. I am not in a big hurry (to retire).

What is driving you to continue on?

I'm not tired of it. I like that it gives me a purpose and allows me to continue the legacy my husband developed.