Meet the Leadership: Andy Fouss, PE, Principal

How did you become interested in engineering?

As a young kid, I was always fascinated with how things worked. Being a very inquisitive young boy, I loved to ask my parents about this. Once when I was about ten years old, I must have asked my Dad too many times how the lawn mower worked because he let me take it completely apart and put it back together again. I never really grew out of learning how things were put together, and engineering and design seemed to make the most sense.

What has been the most interesting or significant change to the industry you’ve witnessed in your time with HAWA?

The development of 3D modeling is the most fascinating change to me. I can remember first starting out and having to draw sections of mechanical rooms and corridors to make sure everything fit and to help visualize 3D things dimensionally. Now with Revit and other programs, we are able to draw and see everything in three dimensions. It brings the things we visualize in our head to life.

What do you most look forward to when you walk into work?

Working with the people at our office, our design partners and our construction partners. There are a lot of great people in our industry.

What is one thing about your job that might surprise people?

The amount of meetings we attend. When I was in college, I thought engineers sat in front of a computer all day and did calculations. I never would have thought I would be in four meetings a day, and trying to find time to do calculations and design systems. But I would not trade in the meetings, as they are a great time to build relationships, collaborate, coordinate a project, and help bring the project together.

What do you hope to bring to your new role?

We are fortunate to have some great young engineers who are eager to learn, great at picking things up and have the ability to think outside the box. I hope to be able to mentor and train them to be great project managers and leaders in the company and the industry. I am looking at them as the future of HAWA and of the ACE Industry.