By Joe
Nowlan
In April, the editors of tED magazine sent out a call for
the industry’s “rising stars”—electrical professionals 34 years old or younger
who have the initiative, drive, integrity, and creativity to move the industry
forward in the decades to come. The call drew nominations from all segments of
the industry—distributors, suppliers, rep firms, software/services providers,
and VARs. Here on tedmag.com, we will post a new, full interview with one of
these impressive young people weekly; coverage of all of the honorees can be
found in the July 2012 issue
of tED. Watch for information about our next “30 Under 35” competition in
early 2013.
Brian Logan
grew up near the Fort Eustis Army base in Virginia where his father was an
electrician and retired after 22 years in the civil service. That was Logan’s
first exposure to the electrical industry.
“Electrical
knowledge was floating around my house at all times,” Logan said. “All of the
science projects that I did during middle school and high school at some point
had something to do with electrical automation or electricity.”
As a kid he
enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together. And most of the
time those items would still work after he’d put them together again. Most
times, he admits.
“Well, there
was this alarm clock one time. That was a little trickier than I thought it
was,” Logan laughed.
After high
school, he began attending Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Va., while
serving as a member of the Hampton Volunteer Fire Department. Logan studied
fire administration with an eye on being a fire investigator.
Eventually Logan
switched his focus of studies to mechanical engineering in which he went on to
earn an associate’s degree and, later, a second associate’s degree in drafting
and design. Logan then
transferred to Old Dominion University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in civil
engineering.
It was while
studying for his associate’s degree that he took a part-time position as a shop
assistant with System East Incorporated, a Virginia Systems Integrator that
focuses primarily on the water/waste water industry.
He found the
work to be challenging as well as enjoyable. He went on to earn other
promotions and eventually became a full time project manager. His overall experience
there has proven invaluable to his career, Logan explained.
“I got to
see the whole job from a very holistic standpoint … from the 10,000 foot level,
and find out what I can do better,” he said. “One of the things I enjoyed at
Systems East was putting the pieces of the puzzle together and engineering
designs to exceed my customer’s expectations.”
Today, Logan
is the Customer Support and Maintenance director at EECO. The experience he
accumulated at Systems East (and after that serving as a PLC/HMI/software
consultant for two Rockwell distributors) serves him well at EECO, he
explained, where he focuses on promoting the company’s field service
engineering solutions.
“I can go to
a customer and say, ‘How can we make your system more functional, more
efficient, more reliable and also show an ROI?’ And we try to see how we can do
that either through upgrading or migrating their older technology into newer
technology, because I can speak that language from my history as a
programmer/project manager/system consultant,” Logan said.
While still
fairly young himself, Logan keeps an eye out for younger talent to bring to
EECO and has some criteria in mind.
“There are
so many different positions that you can have in this industry,” Logan
explained. “As far as personal growth goes, it is a great industry to be in
because you can grow through many phases of your life in this industry. Many
doors in this industry will open up for you. Whether you like sales,
operations, finance, management, or human resources this industry nearly has
you covered.”
Joe
Nowlan is a Boston-based freelance writer/editor and author. He can be reached
at jcnowlan@msn.com.