Meet Gord de Pass- Sr. IT Manager – UTS

Position: Sr. IT Manager – UTS

How long have you worked at McMaster? I have worked at McMaster for almost 21 years now.
I have always been with UTS (Was CIS when I joined). I became an IT manager in 2015 and then a Sr. IT Manager in 2017.

Tell us a little bit about yourself: I’m a very social person who genuinely likes people and conversations. I’m an extrovert and love to have fun with my friends and family. I truly enjoy my job and would love to continue working my way towards a director’s position to leverage the skills I have earned and learned over my 21 years at McMaster.

In 3 sentences or less, describe your job and the best part of your job? I lead a team of very technical people who maintain the platforms which MOSAIC resides on. The best part of my job is having such a skilled and professional team that guarantee the smooth running of systems and technology. Really, the best part of my job is the many relationships I’ve built and developed over the years.

What is your favourite quote and why? “There are 3 sides to every story; Yours, Mine and the truth somewhere in the middle”. We all deal with conflict and conflict resolution on a daily basis. However, if we come into any discussion remembering the above quote, we quickly realised there is no blame, let’s just figure out where the truth is and resolve the issue.

Name something you’ve been involved in at McMaster that you are particularly proud of. The total team involvement with MOSAIC from its design, creation and introduction in 2015 to ensuring it continues to run and perform for the university as it does today. I was a major part of the Campus Solutions design team as well as Finance & research and now the overall platforms which it runs on.

The Division of Operations and Finance has identified the core values that run through all of our work: curiosity, accountability, quality, empathy, teamwork, inclusiveness, and integrity. Please tell us which value means the most to you and why, and any work you are doing that embodies or speaks to the value. All of the values provide tremendous value to a high performing team. However, for me two of the values speak to me, Teamwork and integrity. Teamwork should be a given, without all team members working together, we would not be able to get the amount of work done we do daily. However, we have to always think of the best interest to the university and its values and mission. We must do all of our work with integrity.

What is a piece of advice you would give to someone embarking on their career at McMaster University? It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.