FM Engine - by Decisive Leap

Mike Glover is the Director of Facility Management and Security Operations for Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), a non-profit in Philadelphia, PA. He’s been in this role for 5 years and previously worked for Advantage Building & Facility Services for 10 years in various roles within facility operations. He has both a bachelors and a masters degree from West Chester University, and spent 4 years as President of both the Downingtown Chamber of Commerce as well as currently serving on the Advisory Board for the Downingtown Area School District.

On today’s show I’d like to welcome Matt Moberg, who is Director of Consulting at ISSA, the leading trade association for the cleaning industry worldwide, comprised of 10,500 members globally. Members include distributors, manufacturers, building service contractors, and service providers.   Matt Moberg has over 14 years of industry experience with in-house service providers, building service contractors, education, and consulting work with the Cleaning Management Institute.    Today we’re going to give an overview of ISSA, the industry, opportunities and challenges.

On today’s show I’m honored to have Quentin Hodgson on the show — Quentin is a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation. He came to RAND in 2017 from the MITRE Corporation, where he led projects supporting the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department on strategic planning, cybersecurity and capacity building. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at the Department of Defense in a variety of strategy and policy positions, including serving as the Director for Cyber Plans, Operations and Programs from 2011-2014. He was the principal author of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' National Defense Strategy. On this episode we’re discussing a wide variety of topics within Cybersecurity, how they affect Buildings & Facilities and how FM leaders can take action to stay prepared.

On today’s show I’m very happy to welcome Jim Zirbel, Chairman of FM Pipeline, a group of professionals, educators and industry representatives dedicated to engage our next generation of facility managers via a competitive event called The Facilithon organized by SkillsUSA, a career and technical student organization serving 440,000 high school, college and middle school students and professional members enrolled in training programs in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.  With FM Pipeline and through the Facilithon event organized together with SkillsUSA, Jim’s vision is to anchor the FM career path as a career of choice for high school students, leading to scholarship programs and direct industry-placement around the United States and abroad. 

On today’s episode I’d like to welcome Michel Theriault to the show. Michel is a thought leader in Facility Management with over 26 years experience in delivering Facility services and over 9 years providing consulting and training services to help facilities departments solve problems, improve services and implement best practices. Michel has been named a fellow of IFMA, the International Facility Management Association, serves currently as the Academic Coordinator for Ryerson University’s Facility Management Certificate Program in Toronto, Canada, and has been recognized for his contribution to FM with a Distinguished Author award from IFMA for his book “Managing Facilities & Real Estate”. 

On today’s show I’d like to welcome Sara Peterson, a professional civil engineer currently working for Amtech Solutions, an Architectural and Engineering firm that specializes in building envelope and roof consulting. Amtech has been providing solutions to clients nationwide for over 40 years. Clients range from K-12 education, higher education, municipalities, to state and government entities, and private clients.

On today’s episode I’d like to welcome Londy Bracale. Londy is the Business Development Manager at METech Recycling, which, for over 54 years, has been providing secure and environmentally responsible recycling and asset recovery services. for Data Center, IT, Facilities and Public Sector companies.  In today’s episode we dive into how to structure a conversation with a potential client and turning that into a sale. It’s very interesting how there is a method to the madness and how it all comes down to a) being yourself, b) having a curious mindset so you ask the right questions and c) leave a pleasant impression because, even though now might not be the right time to buy, people will always remember how you made them feel… and they will call you back.

Today’s guest is Kathleen Lausman, President of the FM Consultants Council which is part of IFMA, the International Facility Management Association. Kathleen is a Building Industry professional providing expertise in capital planning, lifecycle asset management, and Project Management using technology and lean methodologies.  In today’s episode we will discuss three main topics: 1) how FM leaders are making decisions around sustainability, 2) the challenges around technology adoption and 3) principles and methodologies for teams to collaborate more effectively in passing down knowledge from the retiring workforce to the younger generation. 

Today’s guest is Josh Lowe, Co Founder & Chief Solutions Officer of Akitabox, a Software and Services business for proactive building management, whether it’s automating maintenance, planning and inspections. Clients range from building owners and operators in healthcare, to higher-education and property management. In today’s episode we discuss the importance of collecting data on your building assets to identify significant cost savings (such as freeing up 20-30% of your capital budget by reducing the number of emergencies). We also discuss how AI will make it easier for us to collect and structure the data as well as generate unique insights about our Buildings to save even more money and make even better decisions on how we operate.  

I’d like to welcome Erik Malmstrom, CEO of SafeTraces, to today’s show. Safetraces is an indoor air quality verification company that actively measures pathogen risk. Through Safetrace’s platform, Facility Managers receive actionable field data across real estate & facility portfolios to keep indoor spaces healthy, profitable, and sustainable. We discuss how the Indoor Air Quality industry is changing, what the implications for FM leaders are, and what the biggest roadblocks are for driving change.

In today’s episode we’re honored to have Dean Stanberry joining us, who is the Chairman - Global Board of Directors of IFMA, international facility management association. Dean has had two careers, with the first being 22 years in IT before taking a right turn into real estate and facilities management. He considers himself an operations guy, but has experience in design & construction as well as working in corporate facilities and in outsourced facilities services.  In this episode Dean provides advice and concrete examples on how FM leaders can alleviate challenges within the following operational areas: Growth, Hiring, Technology, Compliance, and Sustainability.

On today’s episode I’m excited to welcome David Trask. David is the National Director of Facilities and Emergency Solutions at ARC Facilities, which provides facilities management software for teams to access crucial information within their buildings through a mobile-first platform.  David is also on the Education Program Committee at IFMA, the International Facility Management Association and runs his own podcast called Facility Voices, which you should all check out as well.  In this episode we discuss the challenges and opportunities around the skilled labor shortage and what successful companies are doing to identify, attract, train and retain great talent. 

Mary Gloven is joining us on today’s episode — Mary is the Facility Manager at The Alliance Center, which is a co-working space in Denver Colorado supporting more than 160 organizations, ranging from local to national groups all working to advance social and environmental solutions. Mary talks about what stood out from Alliance’s recruiting process, and what other organizations can do to attract, retain and foster great talent within the industry. We also discuss some of the initiatives she’s leading at the building, and what contractors can do to differentiate themselves when they’re providing services to Facility Operators like herself.

In today’s show I’d like to welcome John Powers to the show — John is the CEO and Founder of Elexity, a commercial building control system that is a complement to solar installations. John’s company turns commercial buildings into flexible distributed energy resources with a one-day installation process. By controlling flexible building loads, Elexity mimics a battery at an equivalent cost of $50/kWh of capacity – a 10X improvement in storage economics. John discusses the trends in electrification, how are they affecting commercial buildings and facilities, what the biggest ROI opportunities are, and what building managers can do right now with a) the least amount of effort and b) see an ROI in the shortest amount of time

In today’s episode we have Dr. Louis Fletcher on the show, the Executive Director of Facilities and Operations for El Paso County Colorado School District 49, leading facility maintenance, transportation, nutrition services, security deployment, strategic planning, and capital construction serving over 28,000 PK-12 Students. In this episode Louis discusses two main topics: 1) public-private partnership opportunities between Facility Services vendors and Public Schools to unlock government funding for facility maintenance and retrofit projects, and 2) opportunities to work with vendors to manage energy more efficiently and a) save on costs, and b) sell it back to the grid for income which can be reinvested into deferred facility maintenance.

In today’s episode I’d like to welcome Scott Wharton to the show. Scott is the CEO of Tandem PV, a company which is driving the transition to a net zero economy by developing perovskite-based solar panels. Scott discusses what Perovskite-based solar cells are, why they’re the future, and how they produce 25% higher energy density at fraction of the cost.