What was your background before joining Stroud?

I joined Stroud through the experienced hire pathway in 2019, after starting my consulting career in PwC Canada's Operations practice. I graduated with a B. Sc. in Engineering Chemistry from Queen's University in 2016.

What is a typical day for a Project Lead?

As a Project Lead, you have significant autonomy in your day-to-day work. On any given day, I spend time on-site planning actions for my team, executing on opportunities, and building alignment with client leaders on our progress and next steps. Similarly, as a Project Lead, I am often involved in championing an internal project that improves Stroud as a business.

In what ways have you developed professionally since joining?

The biggest area of professional growth I've noticed since joining Stroud is the emphasis I place on fact-based decision making. Rather than relying on commonly accepted best practices, opinions from influential experts, or past experiences, it is important to pause and critically assess what embedded assumptions may be baked into a manufacturing process or planned capital project. Rigorous evaluation of what we truly do and don’t fully understand is often what leads to the big results breakthroughs.

What have been your favorite moments on the job so far?

Many people will remember 2020 as a year when their favourite items were out-of-stock stock at the grocery store due to pandemic demand shocks. I got to see the supplier side of the story while working with a food production facility in Wisconsin. The team's work achieved a 20% throughput increase across 7 production lines, and we still found time to hike, kayak, and eat LOTS of barbeque in the evenings.