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Howdy,

I am an engineering manager from Calgary, Alberta. We engineer and fabricate equipment for the oil/water/gas separation and life is busy.

Formerly I was with GE, I ran through the Six Sigma program, I was a Black Belt and then just like the kid who lick the candy he picks up off the ground the second time, even though the first lick tasted terrible, I became a Master Black Belt :wink: . 4 years in the six sigma program allowed me to see the entire business and drove me to complete an MBA. I then had the opportunity to become an intrapreneur and started a pipeline inspection business within a larger organization. It was a lot of stress but it was the greatest time, we did everything from scratch. We built it up and then integrated it into the overall organization, a decision I fought against and lost. My life became an endless flurry of airplanes and I decided that I didn't want to move just to travel more and I wanted to see my little girls (currently 7 and 3) grow up, so I found my current position. It was the best decision I ever made.

I am an elder in my church, focused family man, and dedicated employee and servant leader. I always try to improve my skills and deflect pain from my team so they can excel. My favourite experiences have been seeing people who report to me succeed and have big careers.

I found manager tools when I was getting into podcasts and have been subscribing for about 7 months now, I love the content and use a lot of the advice.

Ryan

Mark's picture
Admin Role Badge

Ryan-

Welcome aboard! I spent a few minutes explaining oil shale extraction techniques and supply and demand/price elasticity to my intern at lunch.

And then I told her something I wonder if even folks up there know... that one of the great thriller writers, Alistair MacLean, wrote Athabasca, in 1982. (It wasn't very good for him, but it was worth reading.)

Say Athabasca then, and people would've said, Alistair MacLean. Say it today... and folks say ... OIL!

Glad you're a member.

Mark

MikeK's picture

Welcome Ryan, great to hear about your experiences and management ambitions from another Calgarian!!

I too am working in the Oil/Gas sector here in a small engineering firm for oil field equipment (vehicle and mobile) monitoring and control systems.

I haven't got a bio up myself but plan to soon...
Mike

PierG's picture

Ryan,

welcome on board.

I like methodologies: as you probably have read around, I'm currently involved in the 'agile' world.

I'm sure your six sigma experience will be a great asset for us!

If you have time and if you want, we'd love to have few lines of presentation about six sigma for who doesn't know what it is.

Ciao,

PierG