Sea Power - February/March 2016

I have about 2 million square feet of interior and exterior production area, about 20 buildings, three piers with 4,200 feet of berth space, two floating dry docks, 61 cranes, vehicles, conveyor systems, compressed gas and air systems. In essence, I own everything in this facility with the exception of the ships on the water and the people who work on them.

The shipyard is a little bit like a family business to me, as my youngest son works with me at the shipyard. He is an outside machinist, while also working toward his college degree. He is a senior this year, majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of North Florida.

On Navy ships, you’re either an
engineer or you’re a passenger. As
an engineer on board the ship, I
was responsible for everything that
allowed that ship to function and
operate. Everything I do here I’m
able to do because of the skillsets
that I picked up in the military.

My military experience taught me that the most important thing I can do is take care of the people who work for me … to engage them every day and care about them in every way. I learned that if you take care of your people, they will take care of you. I learned that you need to know your people or you will fail them. If you fail them, you can never be successful. I also learned to always remain humble and approachable, to lead them from the front and always remind them that they are important.

One of the pillars and core values of BAE Systems is that safety is paramount, and for us it’s not just a slogan. People are important and we live that, breathe that, every single day. I instill in my team members a desire to take care of our people always, in all ways.

The worst thing that could possibly occur in my position is for me to have to deal with one of my team members potentially becoming injured. I’m going on almost five years without an accident and without an injury in my department and I’m pretty proud of that.

The industry is changing for my shipyard. The workload is decreasing because of the state of the oil industry that we support, so it makes the job a little bit more challenging. We have to do more with less. That has an impact on my people.

Doing our jobs and having an impact on our customers, so the next time they have a job that comes up, they seriously consider coming back to our facility because of the quality of the work, the quality of life that we provided — all that plays into what makes my job very enjoyable.