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.