You have served in leadership for Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International. Why is this organization so important to you?

BOMA, International is an amazing organization that connects and advocates for real estate of all types around the world. My involvement started 20+ years ago with a "polite nudge" from a mentor to get involved and over the years one thing led to another getting me more involved in the leadership track. I have had the good fortune to have served at the local, regional and internal levels in different positions. The capstone for me was to serve as the CEO and Chairman for BOMA International's 17,000 members in 2019-2020. Of course, you might recall COVID-19 broke out across the country during the spring of 2020. It was such a challenging time for so many different reasons, and I was humbled to provide leadership that connected members where they could share best practices around the latest city approaches and how to approach the evolving pandemic in those early days. I'm excited to continue to support BOMA as a Fellow and continue to lean in on sustainability and similar topics to help advance the industry.

People would be surprised to know that…

I grew up in New Orleans. There is so much to love about that city. Obviously, it has some amazing food… so often, you'll find me cooking traditional recipes for the family. My favorite thing to do is to go fishing. If I took off my shoes, my toes might be webbed from all the time I spent on the water growing up.

If you aren't working, what would we be most likely to find you doing?

Most of my friends and colleagues know that I love to play golf, but they might not know that I love being handy or fixing things. Maybe it is the mechanical engineer in me, but I really enjoy figuring out how things work and then repairing them. It can be anything really from a home improvement project, car repair or something mechanical to get back to work. The bigger the better… though because it is not my day job, please don't put me on a deadline.

What's something that you would like to become more proficient in and why?

I suppose right now, I'm most interested in the merger of technology and our engineering craft. I'm curious how we could utilize some of these exciting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to enhance what our team is already doing. Certainly, it could lead to some exciting solutions and perhaps even faster results for some of the main tasks that our operations teams face.

On my California team, we sponsor innovation grants where our team gets to explore a "bright idea" they have on company time. It has created some exciting concepts that we are working on developing that involve vegetation management to prevent forest fires or to create clean hydrogen production that can accompany the sewage treatment plant processes.

What advice would you give to young professionals?

The young professionals that are coming into the industry are well-prepared in so many ways. They are impressive. The piece of advice that I would give would be to just say "yes" when presented with an intimidating role or challenge to tackle. My most exciting growth came after saying yes to roles that really took me out of my comfort zone. No doubt it comes with hard work, and you might not think you are ready, but the growth could just put your career in the right direction.

What do you enjoy most about being part of #OurJacobs?

I've enjoyed being part of Jacobs for my entire career - that is unique these days. The talent in this company is just amazing. I honestly believe we can access an expert in anything you could imagine in a simple chat or two. I've been afforded to see that firsthand traveling the world in support of clients. I also like to believe that we set the standard for creating an inclusive culture. The positive vibe of our California team projects is proof that our staff brings their whole selves to work/

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Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. published this content on 11 April 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 April 2023 13:07:04 UTC.