>> Joe Lamack: Joe Lamack.
I'm an '87 Chemical Engineer.
I was involved in the Naval ROTC
program here and I currently work
for a company called Air Products and Chemicals
and I'm the Manager of Mergers and Acquisitions
and Business Development for a
particular division of the company.
And in my company, we buy and we sell parts
of businesses or entire businesses and so,
my job is to work with the
leadership of my particular division
which is the North American Gases Division
to understand how the division wants to grow.
Do they want to grow organically through
things that are developed in-house
or do they see particular technologies
or companies that may be of interest
and then explore whether or not there's a
relationship that we can develop that could lead
to us acquiring them or doing joint
ventures or partnership arrangements?
Days are always different.
You know, in my particular role, today, it
really is deal dependent and so, you know,
for instance we closed on an acquisition back in
March of part of a company that's headquartered
in Quebec that has its technology
center in Vancouver, British Columbia.
And so, from January to March, I was heavily
involved in the negotiations of the deal
with the business team so I was out of
the office a lot up in Quebec working
with our attorneys and our outside
council to try to close the deal.
So, from my perspective, it's a very
different environment, I'm used to more,
kind of day to day, a lot of
the work being very similar.
But, in this particular role,
it's all deal dependent.
A lot of things that you would do
on a day to day basis get to put
to the side if a deal is imminent.
And so that's kind of the role that I'm in,
that's the capacity that I'm in is, you know,
stay focused on important deals and then
work with the finance team, the attorneys,
the business leaders to try to make
sure that we're moving the deal on.
My role is, essentially, North
America and our definition
of North America is just the U.S. and Canada.
But, some of the roles that I've been in,
I've had to travel more internationally.
Actually in the role I'm in now I'm also
involved in a couple of international deals
and so I was just out of the country in
Latin America last week as an example.
But, I would say that over my
19 year career with my company
in the various commercial roles I've been in,
my travel is probably varied
between 20 and 30 percent.
So, it's a lot of domestic travel
involved with the roles that I've had.
The great thing about my company is I haven't
had the same job for more than 2 or 3 years.
I've really moved around a lot and done a
lot of different things and that's allowed me
to stay excited and energized about, you
know, the time that I spend with my company.
[Silence] I always would have
to say it's the people aspects.
You know, we pride ourselves, as a
company, on getting quality people.
So, I think that people is really important
because you spend more time at work than,
oftentimes, you do with your family
which is, in many cases, unfortunate.
But, you have to be able to go to work every
day and be excited about projects and working
with quality people who are really smart and
have great ideas on how to execute plans and,
so, I think that people is important.
In the particular division that I
work in, it's a very diverse division
where we're not just dealing
with one particular industry,
we deal with a lot of different industries.
And so, I like to tell people that it's
everything from our company being able to say
that we supply hydrogen for the space shuttle
for its entire existence to being able
to say that, you know, if
you go to the supermarket
and you buy some frozen food products, that
those frozen food products that were processed
with Air Products like the nitrogen.
Or, if you go for an MRI,
it's Air Product's helium.
It's, kind of, the fact that, you know, we
have a lot of product that go into things
that people are used to experiencing
that makes the job interesting as well.
[Silence] I look at the resume and I see
the GPA and I see that they've done a couple
of work assignments perhaps,
but then I always challenge them
to say, well, what else did you do?
You know, were you a leader
in your university setting?
You know, were you involved
in community service?
You know, tell me a time when, you know,
you grabbed a group of people involved
in a particular project and you
helped drive toward success.
And so I think, you know,
the students that I'm seeing
at the university level already kind of get it.
But, I want to make sure that they understand
that there's always that reinforcement piece
and there's always the opportunity to do those
things as you progress through life and so.
You know, I always try to stay busy, my wife
always tries to stay busy as a Villanova alum.
We try to give back, we try to
stay involved in the community.
I think those are the kinds of
people that are always going
to be successful in industry,
that stay involved.
You know, I was never the best engineer,
I never will be the best engineer.
But, I understand enough about the technical
aspects to apply them to business and then,
at the same time, I try to make sure that I take
what I've learned in the military and also just
by being a person who gives
back in the community.
Try to take those skills into
the customer setting even.
Talk about the advantage of doing business
with my company versus somebody else.
[Silence] With my degree, I entered the Navy
as a Naval Officer, got commissioned here
at Villanova and was in active duty for 6 years.
Was on a ship for 3 years and then up
in Newport, Rhode Island for 3 years.
And it was after the completion of those 6 years
and started looking for a place to work and,
using some of the Military headhunters, that
I landed at my current employer, Air Products
and Chemicals which has a long standing
history of employment for Villanovans
that are in the engineering school.
Mostly mechanical and chemical engineers.
I probably gained more, or as
much, from my military experience
as I did with my Villanova education.
I think they really go hand in hand.
You know, with the Villanova engineering
degree, I learned the fundamentals of, you know,
fluid flow and heat transfer and, you know,
at that point, I still wasn't sure whether
or not I wanted to be involved
in hardcore engineering.
I didn't grow up taking apart the family
television or the radio or the bicycle
to know whether or not I really
wanted to be a hands-on engineer.
And so I used my degree and then my Military
experience where I was involved with engineering
and operations to determine, at that
point in my life, that even a company
like Air Products was a good place to work
because they have a really solid rotational
program that allows you to work in a couple
of different jobs for short periods of time
and kind of narrow down your focus as to
where you want to take your career.
And it was at that point and in that
experience that I realized that I wanted
to use my technical degree,
but more in a business capacity
which is what I've done most
of my Air Products career.
[Silence] I would say, you
know, challenge yourself.
You know, I remember back to when I
was a freshman at Villanova and I came
in as a Physics major and I had no idea what
I was going to do with a Physics degree.
After my first semester, I realized that I
didn't think Physics was going to work out.
And so, I went home at Christmas and
I was contemplating a shift into,
you know, another degree within Villanova.
I wasn't planning on transferring, but
I needed to do something different.
You know, so I was rattling around the ideas
of what I was going to major in after Physics
and hadn't really thought
about engineering a whole lot.
I didn't have a lot of mentors that kind of
gave me that advice to stick with engineering.
But, my next door neighbor was a
Michigan State alum, he was an engineer.
You know, had never really spent much
time talking to him about engineering.
And he said to me, "Listen,"
he said, "you've never,
you've never backed down from a challenge.
You know, you've always tried to overachieve.
Why would you, you know, settle on maybe a
degree path that would be an easier way out?
Why don't you explore engineering?"
And so that's what I did.
And that's what I've always
said to young people.
I say, "Listen, maybe engineering
isn't the thing you want to do.
Pick something that's of interest
to you, but work hard at it.
And, at the same time, you know, stay
well-rounded, stay grounded, stay centered,
but always think about giving back, being a
good person, not trying to squash the hopes
of somebody else, you know, to your benefit.
And stay involved."