AZ Leadership: Jason Beck

Arizona is a top five state in the defense and aerospace industry thanks in part to giants like Raytheon, Boeing, and Honeywell. But in Peoria, Arizona, TYR Tactical and CEO Jason Beck are putting Arizona on the map.

TYR Tactical is a company focused on ballistic protections, military and law enforcement clothing, backpacks, and K-9 equipment for law enforcement and military units across the world. Clients include U.S. special operations, Canadian Army and special operations, the Danish military, New Zealand military and Australian special operations. What makes this company unique is their use of PV, a hybrid material that weighs at least 20 percent less than comparable products.

CEO Jason Beck strives to live a professional life of servant leadership, starting from the beginning of his career. Beck was a military trainer and then entered the defense industry. He started a similar company, Diamondback Tactical, and then sold it in 2008. In 2010, the buyers moved the company to North Carolina and laid off all of their Arizona employees. Beck knew he had to do something. “My non-compete [agreement] was up literally 2 months prior to them laying everybody off, so I rehired every single employee that they had,” he said. “So about 150 of the 250 employees that are here now were my previous employees all the way from the mid 2000s.”

Beck started TYR Tactical in May of 2010 and this past year built a new 78,000 square-foot building with his wife, who is also part of the business. He hopes to continue to grow. “We are in the middle of a million-dollar expansion on our hard armor division,” Beck said. “We are going to increase the size of our building in 2019/2020 by another 8,000 square feet because of the direction of defense and in our direction as far as complete innovation.”

He sees the excitement of expansion, but also wants to pay close attention to the detail he and all of his employees put into the manufacturing of their products. “If our end goal is to save a life, my goal should always be to do my best at what my last effort was,” he said. “What my job needs to be doing is thinking about how that is really going to affect my sons and their future events if they are wearing our products, and how some other father would look at that if I’m not doing my best. That’s how I look at my every day whenever I am designing a product.”

Another way Beck leads with a servant mentality is ensuring both his employees and customers are satisfied with their merchandise. “What it really is, is how am I as a steward of this company, as a steward of my employees, as a steward toward my customers; and that I focus on how I am putting those pieces together,” Beck says. “This is far more important than just how much revenue I am driving or how much profitability I am driving. Yes, I want to be profitable, but I want to be focused on how we are as a company overall.”