Michael started in mechanical commissioning straight out of high school in the US and continued for over ten years before picking up a passion for carpentry and wood working. This brought him to his next ten years of general residential carpentry and a hobby of woodworking.
After relocating to Australia Michael picked right back up with mechanical commissioning, this time in the metric system.
With Michael’s 14 years of experience in commercial mechanical commissioning, the majority of this involved managing the commissioning process. Michael spent two of those years solely performing commissioning duties at Intel’s micro chip manufacturing clean room fabs. He has also performed commissioning duties on a wide range of building types, from industrial to hospitals, labs, schools, office buildings and more. During his most recent year of commissioning, he was able to utilise his background to thrive in the site manager role for mechanical construction on a new hospital as well as a new airport expansion.
This all leads to Michael being a well-rounded holistic commissioning manager. His understanding and experience with the construction, installation and commissioning trades offers him an overall perspective of each project he approaches.
Why commissioning?
Commissioning is something I fell into right out of high school. I wasn’t seeking it out but it found me. I quickly took to it and found it very rewarding. I have a passion for understanding how things work and how they can be improved.
In my late 20s, I went into carpentry and woodworking for a number of years. It was something I did in high school and I found it rewarding, especially working with my hands and being creative. When I came to Australia, I once again found myself in commissioning with a new passion for it.
What’s a commissioning myth you’d like to debunk?
The ‘anyone can do it’ mentality. Commissioning takes a specific mentality, personality and skill set that includes a technically sound, scientific and approach.
What do you do outside of work that helps fuel your creativity and commitment to engineering?
I have my little wood shop in my garage where I can do my hands-on creative projects. It still has the aspect of creativity, problem solving and working with my hands that I have in commissioning but I see the results in a different way.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned at ECS?
How to be a consultant including understanding how I present myself to clients. I’ve learned the value of my input.
What professional relationships do you value the most?
Relationships which value and respect what each other has to offer are more valuable to me than making money. They’ll outlive any other.
What does Making Spaces Work mean to you?
It means focusing on the specific building I’m working on as being the my main objective. Commercial and contractual requirements may get in the way but they won’t stop me from wanting what’s best for the building and the services involved.
