Henry was born and raised in San Francisco. He went to Cogswell Polytechnical College in San Francisco where he studied Civil Structural Engineering. He graduated in 1982 and worked as a service project engineer at Siemens for 10 years. In 1992, Henry learned that Western Allied was looking for a project manager in the service department and decided to take a leap of faith. 30 years later, he is now preparing to retire at the end of October! Henry primarily handles clients in the San Francisco and Marin areas. Over these many years, Henry has enjoyed that the work is always challenging and different. What he will miss most in retirement is the familiarity and closeness of the people in the field and the office.
Outside of work, Henry enjoys playing bridge with friends and doing volunteer work for the SF Aids Foundation and Shanti. He has been married for 15 years and together for 30 years with his husband, Jeff. What he is looking forward to in retirement is taking it easy and taking care of his elderly mom. One day, he also hopes to take a cruise in the Mediterranean once COVID subsides.
Fun Fact: Henry is a collector of art by mostly California artists, including lithographs and paintings.
Mark has been with Western Allied for 29 years – as a service technician for 21 years and in the office for the last 8 years after retiring from the union. During his time at WAM, Mark has not only been one of our top service techs, but he has also mentored many techs along the way. Mark was also an instructor at the Local 467 Union Hall for 6 years. Rob Monaghan describes Mark as a service guru; he is a man of few words, who could fix just about anything. Mark was born in Alameda and has lived in Castro Valley since 1968. When he was growing up, his parents owned small restaurants, and he learned that he liked working on the equipment in their restaurants, but not working in the restaurants. He went to Laney College in Oakland where he took courses in HVAC. Now after three decades at WAM, Mark will be retiring this year. One of the reasons that Mark likes working for WAM is how the company treats its employees. He appreciates that WAM has a culture of understanding and accommodating family matters. The people are what he will miss the most.
In his personal life, Mark is married to his wife, Tammie. They have 4 grown kids, 4 grandkids, and one 11-year-old foster daughter. One of his kids is Josh Edwards, who is one of the core members of our startup department. In his free time, Mark enjoys doing crossword puzzles and working on projects around the house. His latest project was remodeling his kitchen and laundry room. Mark recently went on a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina that he said was “really cool.”
Fun Fact about Mark: He and his wife rode their Harley to the Sturgis motorcycle rally in 2009.
Chalini started at WAM in 2019 in the engineering department and soon became a full-fledged member of our growing Controls Department. She is helping to develop controls drawings, generating standards, and being part of the process development. Chalini has most recently stepped into the new role of project manager in the Controls Department. Chalini was born in Mountain View and grew up in the South Bay. As a child, Chalini liked to play with Legos and Meccano sets. She enjoyed working with tools and helping do work around the house. At a high school career day, Chalini met an electrical engineer who worked on biomedical devices for cataracts, designing the PC board, and all the circuitry involved. Chalini thought this was super cool and could see herself in this field; this solidified her interest in engineering. She went to college at San Jose State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Thermal Design. In her last semester in college, Chalini went to a San Jose ASHRAE event where she met two female WAM engineers. Chalini is still involved in San Jose ASHRAE as the Student Activities Chair and Secretary. As a member of our Controls Department, Chalini is grateful for the opportunities WAM has given her to develop and grow with the department.
In her personal life, Chalini acquired a pandemic pet husky named Athena. Having a pup has prompted Chalini to get out and explore the outdoors. She’s been able to explore areas of her hometown that she was never aware of before her husky! Chalini also enjoys spending time with her family and writing poetry. Chalini and her siblings were born in the U.S., but her family heritage and culture are from Sri Lanka. Not many people know about Sri Lanka, so she takes pride in her unique heritage and preserving parts of that culture in her life – like food, language, and traditions.
Juan is our incoming CFO while our current CFO, Jeff Pierce, prepares to retire at the end of the year. Juan comes to us with 20 years of experience in the construction industry and a personal interest in treating people with respect and care. His journey is as compelling as he is. Juan grew up in a small suburb of East Los Angeles called Maywood. As a young man, Juan started going to Long Beach City College and worked part-time at Turner Construction as an accounting clerk. It turned out that he had a real knack for accounting and soon transitioned to become a full-time clerk. He advanced quickly to a point where he felt the need to focus on building hands-on experience rather than continuing with a theoretical education experience. After years of hard work and continued promotion within the financial world, in 2013, the Boldt Company moved him up to the Bay Area to be the Financial Manager on 2 hospital projects and eventually the Western Operations Controller. Juan then moved on to DPR Construction as the Bay Area Regional Controller. After a few years at DPR and during the pandemic, Juan was approached by a very persistent recruiter. He was not looking to move, but once he was told the company name, he was intrigued by WAM’s reputation and people’s stories. After coming in to meet Zach Russi and the ownership group, he went home and told his wife that “they are genuinely nice people”. The good reputation of WAM got his foot in the door, but what “pulled [him] in entirely was the people itself”. He would then decide “to come and learn from this group of individuals and work with a group of people who truly enjoy being around each other.”
His personal life revolves around doing activities with his wife and two kids. Juan has been with his high school sweetheart, Teresa, for 24 years. Together, they have two children: daughter Mia (13) and son Marco (11). The family enjoys hiking, swimming, going to the beach and taking long drives. The one hobby Juan took up with his friends during the pandemic was starting a whiskey tasting club. He says it’s a great opportunity to hang out, talk, and try a lot of different whiskies from around the world. His favorite is an 18 year old Glenfiddich scotch.
Fun Fact: Juan has a rabbit, dog, and 3 chickens: Thumpalina the rabbit was rescued from a shelter, Luna is a black lab, and his chickens are Puffy, Squawky, and GC (Grilled Chicken, because she wasn’t producing any eggs and Juan told his kids that she would be useful one way or another! Update: Fortunately for GC, she eventually did start to produce eggs.).
