|
|
|
Director of
Facilities
- Royal Roads University |
|
Director of Facilities
As Royal Roads
University’s Director of Facilities I was responsible for the
development and maintenance of the university’s facilities,
environmental stewardship of the university’s 640 acre campus,
campus security and risk management. In addition I was responsible
for three (3) profit centers, the University Bookstore, the Student
Residence and University Food Services.
Upon arrival I found a very demoralized staff that had been somewhat
abused by the former Director. They had little autonomy and no
incentive to improve. To address this I established regular
meetings and encouraged staff to raise issues. I ordered business cards
for all service staff interfacing with students and other staff and
encouraged a customer-focused approach for all maintenance and
support staff. As a result morale skyrocketed in just a few
weeks. For example I observed one engineer in particular who
had a reputation for being non-productive voluntarily staying beyond
normal working hours to complete a task and not claiming overtime.
It's amazing how you can stimulate productivity simply by treating
people with respect and giving them the autonomy to do their job.
Having recently completed my MBA I was thrilled to have been given
the opportunity to oversee three profit centers in the Bookstore,
Residence, and Food Services. My focus was two-fold; improve
customer service and increase profits. Once again I found that
achieving these goals involve unleashing the managers and treating
them with respect. They all came forward with great ideas on
how we could achieve these goals in our regular meetings and just
needed a little encouragement to put their plans into action.
|
|
|
Greenhouse
Before |
|
|
|
Greenhouse
After |
|
During my time at
RRU I had one major construction project to undertake which was the
restoration of an 95 year old greenhouse. The greenhouse was build
by James Dunsmuir in 1908 and had been poorly maintained over the
past 50 years. This work was extensive and required all glass to be
replaced and the steel frame to be restored. I documented the
requirements and facilitated a consensus among the stakeholders. I
then wrote the Request for Proposals (RPF) and distributed it
throughout Canada and the USA since contractors with experience
restoring greenhouses are rare. After the International search
I found that the highest rated contractor, Vintage Woodworks Inc,
was right in our back yard in Victoria. After being awarded the
project Vintage Woodworks completed in the very reasonable time of
18 months.
After a couple of years in this position I felt I needed to look for a position with a larger business component to apply my MBA knowledge.
Fortunately after applying to only a couple of positions I was offered a position with Seneca College in Toronto as their Director of College Services and
Ancillary Business Development.
 |
;)
;)
;)