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ON THE MOVE BURNS & MCDONNELL STRENGTHENS AVIATION CAPABILITIES WITH EXPERIENCED HIRES Burns & McDonnell added five experienced project managers to its aviation team, extending the firm’s established capabilities to deliver integrated and design-build project services. “With airports, airlines, and their owners rising to meet customer demands and address growth needs, the ability to deliver comprehensive projects – and to do so efficiently and effectively – is more important than ever,” says Bret Pilney, vice president of the firm’s Aviation Group. “That’s what we do, and that’s why we’re adding to our team. These professionals are well-known in the industry for delivering successful projects, and doing it by bringing teams together. They’re a perfect fit.” The new project managers include: ❚ ❚ Mark Deaton, who works to deliver integrated design-build services for clients focused on quality, value, efficiency, and empowerment during renovations and new construction projects. He has more than a

quarter century of experience, including the past decade leading a 40-member federal project team and its $500 million project portfolio. ❚ ❚ Brenda Enos, who leads efforts to plan, design and execute environmental projects for airports. Her more than quarter century of experience includes the past seven as assistant director for capital programs and environmental management at the Massachusetts Port Authority. The authority, known as Massport, owns and operates three airports – Boston Logan International Airport, L.G. Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport – along with the Port of Boston’s containerized cargo, cruise, and autoport terminals. ❚ ❚ Jill Geboy, who delivers quality, efficiency, and value to aviation projects in Southern California and beyond. Based in the firm’s office in Brea, California, she has six years of experience consulting on and administering projects at San Diego International Airport and for Los Angeles World Airports.

❚ ❚ Armando Hernandez, who oversees and executes airport projects in the Southeast and across the United States. Based in Miami, Florida, Hernandez has more than three decades of experience in planning, design, and construction for dozens of major projects, from aviation facilities to water systems. He’s leading Burns & McDonnell’s work to design and implement upgrades for baggage security at Miami International Airport, a $160 million project expected to be finished next year. ❚ ❚ Gary Pare, who focuses on fueling projects at airports, government installations, and other logistics centers. He has 13 years of experience engineering and executing construction and maintenance projects for major downstream owners, including Chevron, Tesoro, BP, Phillips 66, and ExxonMobil. Based in the Brea office, he’s currently working on fueling projects at the Port of Los Angeles and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

WILL SCHNIER, from page 9

talent, those A players that we all want, then that firm has to provide the opportunity for rapid advancement based on results. This doesn’t mean an annual promotion with a 5 percent raise. That means move them up in rank and pay as soon as they’re proven. Four or five projects should be enough. Don’t wait for 20 or 30 because they’ll be on the BIG RED DOG team well before that! Finally, every once in awhile, if we’re lucky, each of us will have a moment of clarity that will help us really understand what is important at the office. For me, that moment came the morning of August 28. On this morning, I watched on television as one of our team members in Houston, complete with his bright red BIG RED DOG shirt, was there with his brother pulling his neighbors to safety through the flooded streets in a boat that had run out of gas, many of them kids and women. I wish I could show you the photo that is burned into my mind’s eye. In that moment, each of the “very important” work issues that we were dealing with was put into perspective. Our people do not live to work; they work to live. And when something exceptional like a natural disaster takes away every material possession that one has, it’s a great time for a company to step up and do something exceptional for their people. So that’s exactly what we did. No committees, no meetings, just action. We don’t provide the perfect work environment for our people. And, truth be told, no firm ever will. That is a moving unicorn of a target. But every day we strive to get a bit closer to that goal because our team members deserve the best we can give them, and in return, we will get more of their best. WILL SCHNIER is CEO of BIG RED DOG Engineering & Consulting. He can be reached at will.schnier@bigreddog.com.

conclusion of each accounting period, we provide an open- book management report to every person in the company. This report shows our revenue, our profit, our sales, our proposal volume, and metrics related to our marketing and recruiting. Everybody in the firm needs to know these things! Why? Because we have a plan, remember? And if we expect a large group of people to execute that plan together, they need to know what the goals state and how we’re tracking against our goals on a regular basis. “Our people do not live to work; they work to live. And when something exceptional like a natural disaster takes away every material possession that one has, it’s a great time for a company to step up and do something exceptional for their people. So that’s exactly what we did. No committees, no meetings, just action.” Increasingly, constant feedback streams are becoming table stakes for a solid team-building atmosphere. Our team members deserve to know how they’re doing against the expectations we set for them. And we let them know in a formal review process twice a year. In between, informal reviews reinforce the strengths of each team member and remind him or her that we all have weaknesses that could use some love. Many firms operate like a university where tenure means something related to pay and job security. That’s a whole lot of BS. If a firm hopes to attract and retain the best

THE ZWEIG LETTER November 13, 2017, ISSUE 1224

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