I have always loved working with my hands. Growing up in a little Ukrainian village, I was always able to build something at home with scrap materials that were laying around. Even now when I look at any waste material, I ask myself what I can create with it. This led me to a career in construction. When I came to the US back in 2009, I immediately noticed how fast-paced construction is here and how much waste it generates. The speed and constructibility approach impressed me, but the waste disappointed me. I asked why the industry easily throws away good materials, and the answer was always that it’s cheaper to buy new materials than dealing with wrong sizes. After 4 years as a GC, I got an opportunity through my friend to join VEC in the early days, despite not knowing BIM and electrical. I quickly understood that I could provide real value by bringing my goal of reducing waste to fruition through efficiently utilizing BIM.
My proudest moment was at the end of our early mega projects that I was leading. This was my first project at VEC which I started as a BIM Specialist without knowing much about BIM and electrical. I worked so hard that working 12–13 hours a day became my norm. VEC CEO, Shane, came back from the meeting with my client and shared that he just received the most rewarding feedback from a client he had ever received. The feedback was “I probably shouldn't tell you this, but it shouldn't be this easy."
It’s very hard to say which one was the most memorable. Each of our events and gatherings come with such great joy and a new experience that I wouldn’t have ever experienced without the VEC team. I love them all — trips to Tahoe, Las Vegas, Nashville, golfing after work, and just grabbing lunch with teammates is the best time.
I have always loved working with my hands. Growing up in a little Ukrainian village, I was always able to build something at home with scrap materials that were laying around. Even now when I look at any waste material, I ask myself what I can create with it. This led me to a career in construction. When I came to the US back in 2009, I immediately noticed how fast-paced construction is here and how much waste it generates. The speed and constructibility approach impressed me, but the waste disappointed me. I asked why the industry easily throws away good materials, and the answer was always that it’s cheaper to buy new materials than dealing with wrong sizes. After 4 years as a GC, I got an opportunity through my friend to join VEC in the early days, despite not knowing BIM and electrical. I quickly understood that I could provide real value by bringing my goal of reducing waste to fruition through efficiently utilizing BIM.
I’ve had a chance over the last decade plus to engage with owners, builders, and designers on projects all over the world. One key insight is that many of the challenges are shared by each stakeholder group, but they are approaching solutions from a different perspective. I bring a unique and broad industry perspective that will help our clients work better together as effective teams across the supply chain by bringing clarity to the challenges they face and driving innovative solutions that position VEC as a trusted partner. My background in data and AI also brings a perspective on the importance of data governance and standardization, which becomes increasingly important as more of the industry adopts cutting-edge tools. My hope is to leverage this expertise to modernize and streamline VEC’s operations internally, and to deliver value to our clients to help the best build better.
VEC was built on innovation from the start. Our proven track record of using advanced technology solutions to deliver real-world value for projects doesn’t need to be reinvented, because the strong foundation is there. But we need to evolve, and help our client evolve with us. Innovation is in our DNA, and that necessitates change and growth as technology evolves. We are in a period of unprecedented change across the industry and the world at large, and my goal is to build systems and processes that will allow us to stay ahead of the curve. The opportunity for the next phase of growth at VEC is to expand our breadth and our depth to deliver value to our clients across the entire project lifecycle.
