Getting Smarter Together

This past spring two of my daughters had milestone graduation ceremonies; one from eighth grade and the other from high school. They had separate ceremonies on different nights, it was the same school official who spoke on both nights. There was one phrase this school official repeated at both events. He said “The room is smarter than the individual”. I thought this was cheating, recycling content for both ceremonies despite the significant difference between a middle school and high school graduation. Was it? Later, I changed my mind. This powerful statement warranted repetition, it deserved more thought.  

It got me thinking about the room I have been developing as the practice leader of WSP’s Building Technology Systems group in New York City and how powerful the effect of collaborative thinking is. Every Monday morning my team gathers for a stand-up to discuss each project we are working on. In that meeting we review projects and resources, challenges and strategies. We give feedback on our ideas, it’s become an open and creative setting. And, it’s in this setting where the power of my room is most prominent and our thinking combines in new and unexpected ways.

As I started at WSP three years ago I was given the directive to transform the New York Building Technology Systems (BTS) group into a team of experts that could benefit from our rich ecosystem of adjacent services within WSP and leverage our connected disciplines to surpass the service offerings provided by the boutique technology consulting firms. Since then, we’ve grown our team into what it is today by selecting teammates that bring passion, technical excellence and client focused expertise to our practice. We’ve just added a new employee to the team whose presence truly elevates our abilities as a consulting practice. His addition inspired me to introduce the people in our group to those who may know the results of our collective labors, but do not know the individuals behind the work. So, here’s our “room” for all to see. The team is as follows:

Colin O’Gallagher: Colin’s core competency is with IT Infrastructure systems and Smart building technology. However, he’s an expansive member of the team and can speak to all Building System Technologies and is growing in knowledge with regards to WSP’s complete portfolio of service offerings. Colin has designed and managed a wide variety of projects throughout his career in nearly every major vertical, from large campuses to tenant fit outs. He’s an adept communicator and his ability to take a complex idea and express it a way anyone in his audience can easily understand is highly prized by clients and design team members alike. He has a strong acumen for business development and client relations and focuses a portion of his efforts to these tasks. His 15 years of consulting experience on large-scale, challenging projects make him a valued thinking partner.

Manisha Wadekar: While Manisha’s design of IT Infrastructure, network, and audiovisual systems is impressive she truly shines as the New York team’s security expert. Her foundation in security is built from an extensive career on the integration side of the business which enabled a smooth and successful transition to being a consultant. I often use the word tenacious when describing her approach to design and project management as well as the way she protects the interests of our clients. Her security design for every project is specifically engineered to the unique requirements of the project through regular dialogue with the Ownership team.

Pavel Foenko: Pavel is the newest addition to my team. Pavel and I had worked together for several years before I joined WSP. His core competency is the design of IT infrastructure systems but is also proficient in the design audiovisual and security systems. Having studied architecture, Pavel has an amazing talent for representing complex data and systems in visual formats. I expect in a short time he will elevate the quality and level of detail in the documents we issue for our project, this includes project drawings, specifications, and reports. We have seen improvements to our documents here in New York and we anticipate these improvements to spread throughout our department on a national level.

Lucas Polet: Lucas Joined WSP in 2017 after having previously worked together at boutique technology consulting firm in Manhattan. Lucas is a rising star. His core competency is IT infrastructure, but is also capable of assisting with the design of security, audiovisual, and DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems). While his primary role at WSP is consulting and design, he is a brilliant Revit technician who is capable of producing his projects in addition to design. He’s developed Revit procedures and the Revit templates BTS uses nationally. Lucas also has a natural talent for teaching others and he has helped cultivate Revit talents in many of our personnel, both in New York as well as nationally.

Nadine Kordon: The best way to describe Nadine might be as the glue that holds the group together. She’s been with WSP for 13 years and her career at WSP started as a CAD operator/draftsperson. In the intervening years she’s grown to become a telecom and security designer while continuing to perform CAD production services and has become a highly proficient Revit operator. She is one of my most reliable employees and routinely put’s our client’s interests first to meet expectations on large project deliverables. She takes deep pride in her work and enables the NY-BTS team to deliver results.

Yuhui Zheng: Yuhui is another one of my rising stars. Yuhui recently transferred from the Washington DC office to NY. Yuhui’s strongest skills are with the design of wireless systems; both DAS and Wi-Fi. He is trained and certified in the use of iBwave modeling software, which is the de facto standard for cellular radio frequency propagation modeling. In addition to wireless he assists with the design of security systems and technology infrastructure systems. He is rapidly developing in to a capable and talented consultant.

Tim Lehotsky is the Building Technology practice leader for WSP in New York City. His 27-year career spans several the top technology consulting firms in the city. Tim is an expert at assessing client needs and developing scope. His project experience includes many Fortune 100 Companies.