Press Coverage

MAY 2019 csengineermag.com 25 With nearly 20 years of experience on her resume, Emily Herndon is a recognized expert in the field of strategic asset management. Her job is to meet with a client, evaluate their facilities and, through an assort- ment of means, figure out how to make those facilities perform better. Easier said than done, of course. And when clients come calling, they do so in a state of distress. Since Herndon works with federal owners with enormous asset portfolios, the challenges are big and the solutions even bigger. But for Herndon, that's what it's all about. "They've got a problem that they can't solve," Herndon said of her clients. "They end up liking us at the end of the day." Her specialty is federal clients, agencies that manage millions of square feet of facilities. Projects can take months, and even years, to complete. Her work can take her anywhere, and can involve almost anything, from locks and dams to an abandoned missile silo. "You never know exactly what you're going to find," she said. For over seven years she was at Booz Allen Hamilton, a mega-firm, and from there went to Jacobs, an even bigger mega-firm, for nearly 12. In May, she took a position at Woolpert, where, as a senior con- sultant, she helped found the firm's Strategic Consulting group, which focuses on asset management in aviation, water, land management, and federal facilities. "Everyone's managing their assets with limited budgets, and every- one's assets are aging," she said. Clients have a surplus of data and don't know what to do with it. More- over, clients are finding themselves at important crossroads, hence the need to contact people like Herndon. This, Herndon said, is what cli- ents are saying about themselves: We need to manage ourselves more strategically. We can't get by without a plan anymore. Apparently this conversation is taking place a lot, because Herndon and her growing team are busy. "There's so much work out there," she said. "Right now, we have more work than we can do." A Conversation with Emily Herndon C+S: What will be your top priority as a board member of the NIBS Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee? Emily Herndon: I'm really looking forward to bringing a fresh new perspective to the committee. My first priority is to work with the board to develop our strategic plan where we will outline the commit- tee's short- and long-term goals, what we plan to accomplish over the next 3-5 years and how we plan to get there. The Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee has an incredible purview that addresses over 75 percent of the building's total cost of ownership and everything we can do to enhance life-cycle performance improves the overall in- dustry. C+S: From your vantage point, what do you see as the greatest chal- lenge to sustainability in terms of asset management. EH: Asset management is inherently a practice in sustainability. By managing your portfolio in a strategic, comprehensive and holistic manner, your assets will operate more efficiently. I think we are chal- lenged a bit in the perception that sustainability has fallen off the radar and is not generally made a priority by leadership. As sustainability professionals we need to understand that sustainability concepts should IMPROVING VALUE ACE STRATEGIC CONSULTANT EMILY HERNDON, LEED AP, HAS A TEAM, AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, AND A GRAND PLAN By Richard Massey

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