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ON THE MOVE JAMES CURRY NAMED PROJECT MANAGER AT ATWELL Consulting, engineering, and construction services firm Atwell, LLC announced Jim Curry has joined the firm as project manager, Land Solutions. He will manage projects and teams in the oil and gas, renewable energy, and electric transmission and distribution markets focused on land use, right of way, and land due diligence services. Curry has more than 28 years of power, oil and gas industry experience with extensive experience managing large-scale diverse projects in the oil and gas and electric transmission industries throughout the United States. He also has expertise negotiating surface use agreements, managing FERC projects, and resolving conflicts. Curry is an active member of the International Right of Way Association, the American Association of Petroleum Landmen, and the Project Management Institute. Over the last few years, he performed due diligence or managed the due diligence of more than 10,000 miles

joining ScanSource, Mathis was executive vice president and CFO for Force Protection Inc., based in South Carolina, where he led strategic and operational improvements of the global defense company. He was also the CFO for Fort Worth-based EFW, Inc. “Charlie has broad global experience in the defense, technology, and financial sectors,” Moraco said. “We are pleased to welcome Charlie to our executive leadership team and know that his experience in those sectors, as well as his focus on strategic growth, will be a great fit for SAIC. I also want to thank Maria for an exemplary job as interim CFO for the past four months.” After earning his B.S. from Wake Forest University, Mathis served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, finance and accounting, financial controls, and U.S. government contracting and compliance.

of right of way for pipeline, electric line and access, and almost 500 megawatts of wind energy facilities. “We are pleased that Jim has joined Atwell. He is a veteran project manager with large- scale project expertise,” said Atwell Vice President Matthew Bissett. “His national project management experience will serve us well as we continue to expand our Land Solutions services throughout the western United States.” SAIC APPOINTS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Science Applications International Corp. announced the appointment of Charles Mathis as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Interim CFO Maria Bishop will resume her duties as corporate controller. Mathis will report to CEO Tony Moraco. Mathis joins SAIC from ScanSource Inc., a global public company focused on technology services and products, where he was executive vice president and CFO since 2012. Prior to

1)Don’t express your anger in a way that you regret later. There will be other proposals and opportunities with that client, and you don’t want to burn bridges. 2)Try to get constructive feedback from the owner. Sometimes that is harder than it sounds, because either they don’t want to offend you, or they don’t want to admit some factor that played into their decision. Ask if there was something that distinguished the winning firm, and if there is anything your firm can do better next time. If they offer feedback, thank them for it. 3)Have some sort of post mortem with your team, even if it’s informal. Ask for honest opinions from your team, and then learn from the experience. Your next proposal or presentation should be better than the last. 4)Stay encouraged! Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. It can be a real emotional letdown when you don’t win. But don’t let it keep you down. Get ‘em next time! It’s no fun not winning the project, but after the letdown, there are lessons to be learned and improvements to be made in hopes of winning the next one. As a leader, commit your firm to learning from failure. MATT CRAFTON is president and CEO of Crafton Tull , an architecture, engineering, and surveying firm based in Rogers, Arkansas. He can be reached at matt.crafton@craftontull.com. “My sports experience also taught me that I really like to win (and I really hate losing). That competitive drive to win certainly continues to play out in our firm when we chase new projects.”

MATT CRAFTON, from page 9

If you’re going to stay in this industry, you better be able to take a punch and get back up to fight again! There are numerous resources available to help A/E firms market themselves and win more work, including those at Zweig Group. A recent visit to the Zweig website shows a calendar full of seminars and webcasts with such titles as AEC Business Development Training, or Real Marketing and Branding for AEC Firms, and Growing a Profitable and Entrepreneurial AEC Firm, not to mention books like the A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook . And that’s just a brief start. There are marketing consultants you can hire to help your firm draft a marketing plan and execute it. You can improve your staff’s personal business development skills by investing in training or joining associations designed to do that. Bottom line – if you want to improve your winning percentage, there are tons of resources available to help do that. “Sports will (or should), teach kids about hard work, hustle, teamwork, and picking yourself up when you’ve been knocked down. Learning those lessons can be a painful process but well worth it when those kids turn into responsible, productive adults.” But, what do you do when you don’t win? Once you get through the emotions of losing (akin to any grief or loss) – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – what comes next? Here are my suggestions, from personal experience:

THE ZWEIG LETTER January 2, 2017, ISSUE 1181

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