Position: Manager, Maintenance Projects
How long have you worked at McMaster? I have been in this position for all 4 years that I’ve worked at McMaster.
Tell us a little bit about yourself: I was born and raised in the Hamilton area and I am a McMaster Engineering graduate. I spent the first part of my career in Oil and Gas with various roles in project management, maintenance, and reliability. When I decided it was time for a change, the thought of coming back to McMaster as an employee was exciting since I had such great memories here. I have two awesome kids that keep me active outside of work. I enjoy playing baseball, golf, and creating spreadsheets for just about anything and everything!
In 3 sentences or less, describe your job and the best part of your job? I work with staff across campus who require small renovations to their space. The Maintenance Project team and I manage consultants, contractors, and our own trades staff to make people’s vision for their space renovation a reality. I’d say that is also the best part of my job; the ability to work with new people to repurpose their space or install their latest research equipment to continue to make McMaster one of the top-rated Universities.
What is your favourite thing to do when you’re not at work? My favourite thing to do outside work is raising my two young boys and watching how fast they develop and learn. I love sharing my interests with them and watch their reactions. I believe they are teaching me as much as I am teaching them sometimes.
Name something you’ve been involved in at McMaster that you are particularly proud of. One of my projects was helping a professor and his team install and service a clean room for them to assemble a satellite for detecting radiation in space, which I thought was pretty neat. Less than a year later they released an article that the satellite was launched into orbit on a SpaceX rocket to the international space station. The idea that I had some small involvement in helping that team accomplish their goal was rewarding.
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 these items are important, but Teamwork for us means a great deal. We work with many stakeholders – designers, engineers, users, contractors, and our own trade staff, to make these projects happen and do our part to help advance the University. The projects our team executes keep our classrooms up to the latest teaching styles, labs running the newest equipment to support their research, and offices operating as functional as possible.
What is a piece of advice you would give to someone embarking on their career at McMaster University? The University is a large place with many moving parts and user groups. I encourage people to get out and go see it all and get involved in cross functional teams to work with and learn about as many of the groups as possible. While doing so, look to understand how your part helps advance the overall University, because I promise you it does!