Welcome to Meet the Team, a new section dedicated to showcasing HVACR talent. Meet industry peers and get a unique insight into their roles and responsibilities.
In this issue, CCN profiles Airmaster, which provides end-to-end management of heating, ventilation, process cooling, air conditioning and building automation across Australia and South East Asia.
Airmaster manages 3,200 sites around the country, from retail spaces, commercial office buildings, universities, hospitals and hotels. Clients include Westfield, Jones Lang LaSalle, Qantas, Knight Frank and CBRE.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Airmaster has 12 branches across Australia and employs over 660 staff.
Meet management system coordinator, Irene Winter, who is responsible for the development, maintenance and improvement of Airmaster’s integrated management system.
This includes planning and completing internal audits, liaison with external interested parties (independent certification bodies, regulatory agencies, clients etc.) on quality, safety and environmental management matters.
Winter has been working in the HVAC industry for 19years.
“My industry experience began in 1998 for Envirotech, a controls company, where I started off as a trainee before moving into the office manager role,” she said.
“Siemens Building Technologies bought out Envirotech in 1999, and I was employed there as a Service Administrator.
“I joined Airmaster in 2004 in the position of service controller then moved into the position of office manager for two years before moving into my current role.”
Winter is qualified as a certified lead auditor in WPHS, ENV & QA systems. The most rewarding part of the job for Winter is overseeing the assimilation of safety and environmental cognizance into every day work practices by staff, ensuring they return home safely to their families.
She said the most challenging part of the job is educating ‘attitudes of old’ that it’s totally cool to step back to review safe work practices, as well as forward thinking environmental attitudes.
CCN: What do you like most about your team?
“Simplicity. We strive to develop our systems as simple as possible so they are easily understood and utilised,” Winter said.
“We work well together because we have practical experience and a diverse range of skill sets across the entire team.
“We also share a can-do attitude that keeps us motivated.”
CCN: So what's next for your team?
“We have just developed and started to roll out Incident Investigation training to all branches and our next big project is to develop an online induction process for all employees and contractors.”
Meet Madhu Atre
Chief product architect - eValuate
CCN: Tell us about your role?
Lead & manage the development of eValuate, an Asset Life Cycle Management System that was built-in-house by Airmaster. eValuate currently manages 80,000 assets, across a portfolio of 1,600 sites. Site assets include a vast array of HVAC and other infrastructure. It’s aim to is provide a means to aid property owners simplify the management of their facility’s assets and assist in capital expenditure planning.
CCN: Briefly tell us about your industry experience?
I have been in the HVAC industry for five years; in the service industry for 12+ years. Previously I worked in Business Process Improvement and CRM. I was involved in implementing Salesforce CRM to streamline the service and sales process. My work involved using LEAN and Six Sigma techniques to improve and optimize business processes.
CCN: What is the most rewarding part of your job? Most challenging part?
It is rewarding to develop a product that helps customers streamline asset management and CapEx planning.
This is one of the key differentiators between Airmaster and our competitors and helps us to ensure we are ahead of the pack, in helping Customers manage their asset life cycle and budgets.
A key challenge is developing a product that meets customers needs but is also simple to use.
CCN: What do you like most about your team?
We’re a small team with a mix of HVAC and IT knowledge and levels of experience ranging from five to 35 years in the industry. We are aware of each other's expertise and try to leverage this to ensure we are able to deliver in a succinct and timely manner.
CCN: What are you working on now and what is your next big project?
We are currently in the process of releasing a Customer App for eValuate. This is will provide visibility of the portfolio across mobile devices. We are also working on a new feature that will let customers know the Ozone Depletion Potential of the various refrigerants that make up the customers portfolio. Through eValuate, we will help customers identify assets with high ODP, and facilitate a replacement and CapEx plan.
Meet Kelli McDonald
Commercial manager - National JLL / ANZ
CCN: What does your job involve?
I manage a key national account for Airmaster – the ANZ Bank Commercial Portfolio for JLL – this includes overseeing commercial delivery and account development, while ensuring Airmaster continuously meets and exceeds all contractual responsibilities and obligations under the multi services agreement for national and international services delivery.
The ANZ Commercial Portfolio engagement includes delivery across a diverse commercial portfolio in Australia – 16 properties in six states and territories, comprising base building and tenant services in over 210,000m2, including the Gothic & Heritage building at 100 Queen Street, and Melbourne’s Collins Place Tower at 55 Collins Street.
Internationally, my team also deliver change management services for HVAC and electrical maintenance services across seven South East Asia countries, with a further country in plan.
CCN: How long have you been in the industry and where were you previously?
I have been in the industry and at Airmaster for 17 years. I began in 2000 as a service controller before moving into a maintenance administration role.
In 2003, I relocated to Sydney to establish Airmaster’s NSW branch alongside the branch manager. I was the office manager there for two years before transferring back to Melbourne to help prepare and transition the national ANZ contract. Since this time, I have grown my family with the arrival of my daughter and have been promoted to my current role.
CCN: Most rewarding part of your job? Most challenging part?
The most rewarding part is developing and fostering the relationship with the customer, learning and understanding their needs as a result, and bringing innovative ideas to the table while at the same time continually delivering. The most challenging part is finding the balance between work and family life.
CCN: What do you like most about your team?
We have all worked together for such a long time now on this particular contract and we are all so passionate to ensure this contract remains a success.
CCN: Why do you think you work so well together?
We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses; which enables us to all focus on the strengths. The relationships are built on mutual respect, and an understanding of each other’s capabilities, skillsets. Great communication is important too, it ensures there is a constant positive vibe within the team.
CCN: What are you working on now and what is your next big project?
As we continue to explore energy-savings initiatives with both my client and the wider JLL business, we are currently working on a variety of data analytics-based projects formed by the ever-emerging connectivity technology of the IoT (Internet of Things) and predictive maintenance principles. There is a big opportunity to apply these principles to the HVAC industry, and it is great when we have partners that are willing to explore this with us.