Anne Dooley, CEO Winthrop Engineering
Manage episode 349155952 series 3402125
Data centres are a fast-growing sector in engineering but can also be incredibly fast projects with timelines as short as a year. How do you work at that speed and still deliver quality and innovation?
Winthrop Engineering has grown from being an MEP business in the nineties to delivering turnkey data centres all across Europe today, with a turnover expected to exceed €1bn in 2022.
What is it like to lead a company working at this scale and pace? CEO Anne Dooley has been a director with the firm since 1997. She shares some of the progress they have made and factors that helped them grow. You’ll hear about problems in setting up data centres, the timelines demanded by clients, and what to do when problems arise.
Anne also reflects on the importance of teams and how Winthrop lay out a path for progression, career development and hands-on mentoring.
TOPICS WE DISCUSSED INCLUDE
- How engineering is a portable career
- The challenges of working across an entire project
- Dealing with timelines and demanding clients
- The role of 3D modelling and prefabrication
- How seasoned experience and youthful drive works for them
- Describes the flat structure and Winthrop and the reasoning behind it
- Ways you can stay on top of your game
- How to incorporate sustainability into high-performance building design
- Anne’s view on the biggest challenge facing engineering
QUOTES
We deliver everything, the building structure, architecture, the MEP so we can move all the pieces around and be a good deal more nimble.
If the client has an issue, our first reaction is to not to sit down and write a letter. Our first reaction is to say, okay this has happened, we have to deliver it together. Let’s figure out how to make it better.
The ethos of our success, is partnership with our clients in partnership with our team, all delivering together
I love my job, I love my career, I love the delivery of it
Data centres are the next utility. We're not going to put our phones in the bin. We're not going to drive without Google Maps, or drop office software. The cloud requires a utility and that's why data centres exist
Power utilization and efficiency is hugely important and because they're very focused on that, data-centres are designed to be as energy efficient as possible
GUEST DETAILS
Anne Dooley has been a director with Winthrop Engineering since 1997 and has helped the company grow from its MEP heritage to its current status as a leading provider of data centres in Ireland and across Europe. Anne leads 750 staff by example and is a huge believer in mentoring and career progression. This is a key demonstrable part of her company ethos. She has also been credited with the Businesswoman of the Year Award and recently was appointed CEO at Winthrop.
CONTACT DETAILS
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-dooley-63248a12/
MORE INFORMATION
Looking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer.
https://www.engineersireland.ie/
32 episodes