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CULTURE CARRIER, from page 7
WN: “WJE culture carrier.” I came to the role of CEO almost 23 years ago. At the time, I had already worked at WJE for 22 years, several of those directly alongside our founders. That background helped me gain an understanding of the culture bequeathed on us. Since day one, I’ve tried to do everything I can as CEO to enhance our culture and help promote an understanding of its elements and value throughout our company. I believe that more than anything else maintaining our special culture will ensure our success for generations to come. TZL: WJE is committed to helping clients solve, repair, and avoid problems in the built world. Is there a specific project that really stands out for you? Can you provide some of the details of what the problem was and how it was solved? WN: One project that really stands out was the reconstruction of TWA Flight 800. In the summer of 1996, Flight 800, a Boeing 747 aircraft, was on its way from New York to Paris, and exploded about 12 minutes after take-off. All 245 passengers and crew were lost. The National Transportation Safety Board immediately began an investigation to determine the cause of the disaster. Working with the U.S. Navy, they soon recovered close to 100 percent of the wreckage and placed it in an abandoned aircraft hangar on Long Island. WJE was subsequently retained by the NTSB to reconstruct a 100-foot section of the aircraft’s fuselage, including the passenger cabin, fuel tanks, luggage compartments, and wing stubs in that section. No aircraft reconstruction of that scale had ever been done before, and it was hoped that successfully doing so would provide investigators some key clues needed to determine the cause of the crash. Against a tight deadline, three WJE technicians and five WJE structural engineers, including myself, devised a plan for the reconstruction. We then spent eight non-stop weeks on Long Island physically performing the work ourselves. The completed reconstruction helped the NTSB conclusively determine that the explosion had originated in the plane’s central fuel tank likely ignited by a spark from frayed electrical wiring. Afterwards, WJE was retained to move the reconstructed aircraft to NTSB’s facility near Dulles Airport where it has been used for years to train new generations of accident investigators. For WJE, and for all of us who participated, the project was unique, challenging, and extremely rewarding. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around? WN: We’re committed to creating the most fulfilling work environment in our business: one that is based on trust and personal responsibility; one that encourages open communication, continued learning, innovative thinking, and teamwork; and one that provides each individual, regardless of position, a combined opportunity for personal, professional, and financial growth that is unequaled in our business. I believe the main reason staff “stick around” at WJE is that they enjoy the high expectations as well as the substantial rewards that our environment provides.
sown the seeds of a very special culture. It was founded on values, based on trust, centered on people, and focused on excellence. It’s a culture that across time has helped set us apart as a great place to work, a sought-after professional services provider and a leader in our business. TZL: Does your firm work closely with any higher education institutions to gain access to the latest technology, experience, and innovation and/or recruiting to find qualified resources? WN: WJE has always had partners in higher education, and we’ve continuously nurtured and grown those partnerships. This has allowed us to consistently find a diverse group of talented new employees who are passionate about problem solving, want to contribute to our unique culture, and are ready to make a real difference in their professions. The foundation of these partnerships is our “campus champions” program. It builds on our employee alumni relationships with professors and other university staff to help connect us with students who have the character, commitment, expertise, and enthusiasm we seek in all our staff. Besides maintaining these important relationships, we support the respective universities’ engineering and architecture departments by attending career fairs, presenting guest-lectures, hosting student groups in our offices, and providing tours of our Janney Technical Center laboratories. In addition, we often collaborate with various universities on significant research projects. One of our company’s core tenets is to contribute to the betterment of our professions. Our partnerships with leading universities reinforce a shared commitment to expanding our industry’s knowledge. TZL: They say failure is a great teacher. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve had to learn the hard way? WN: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to be humble. I’ve made my share of mistakes, some more consequential than others, but thankfully none so serious they couldn’t be remedied. These failures and many other experiences have helped teach me humility. Working with so many intelligent colleagues has shown me how much I’ve yet to learn. And working with so many supportive people has made me realize how my success is as much due to their help as it is to my own efforts. TZL: In one word or phrase, what do you describe as your number one job responsibility as CEO? “Since day one, I’ve tried to do everything I can as CEO to enhance our culture and help promote an understanding of its elements and value throughout our company. I believe maintaining our special culture will ensure our success for generations to come.”
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THE ZWEIG LETTER DECEMBER 14, 2020, ISSUE 1371
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