Search Results for: FLEX

FLEX Feature: Northbridge Environmental with Sarah Merkel


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Tell us about Northbridge Environmental.
Northbridge Environmental Management Consultants is headquartered in the Boston area, but has remote workers located all over the country (including me!). Northbridge has contracts with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental agencies in about 20 states. We support EPA and state agencies in implementing the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs, which are financing programs to help cities and towns construct infrastructure for wastewater, drinking water, stormwater and other water quality projects.

What is your role at Northbridge?
I’ve been with Northbridge for 16 years and am a Senior Associate. My role includes traveling around the country to train EPA and state agency staff on how to run the State Revolving Fund programs. We also work directly with state agencies to help them run their infrastructure financing programs more efficiently and market them more effectively. We are always working on a wide variety of different projects, which keeps the job interesting.

What is your favorite part about working for this organization?
The job requires us to be knowledgeable in a wide variety of subject areas, including environmental regulations, engineering, construction, municipal finance, water quality science and federal policy. It is a very complex area to work in, which also makes it interesting and engaging. Everyone on my 6-person team has been with the company between 8-30 years; we all enjoy the work and enjoy working together.

What would surprise people about this organization?
My team used to work together in an office in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, but everyone now works remotely in different parts of the country. We have no “home base” but are in constant contact through online chats and video calls and see each other in person at events a few times each year.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about Northbridge?
I’ve been working for Northbridge remotely for 13 years, which allowed my husband and me to move back to Venango County. Back then it was more of a novelty to work remotely, but now it has become so common. There are so many opportunities to work for interesting companies or state and federal agencies while staying close to home — we are not limited by geography anymore!

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) January 2023 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.

FLEX Leadership Reflects on Another Successful Year


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FLEX started in 2007 and few could have imagined the growth we would see. “FLEX membership has grown by 28 members in 2022 and we plan to continue growing membership in 2023 by offering a variety of events and opportunities for young professionals in the community.,” said Joslyn Dechant, Membership Committee Chair.

Additionally, Joslyn said: “We hosted two successful Speaker Series, the first with Hind Karns from Wemanigit Business Consulting about Foundations for Effective Communication and the second with Jeff Polley from Together We Can and Amariliz Sanchez regarding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. As we look forward to offering more professional development opportunities in 2023, stay tuned for our announcement of our next Speaker Series.”

No matter what your skill level or interest is, FLEX allows you to practice things in a low stakes environment. This can include networking, event planning, fundraising, getting sponsorships, running a meeting, writing an article, using technology, public speaking, and much more.

According to Ivy Kuberry, past Chair and ongoing Chair of the Events & Fundraising Committee: “With the help of a great leadership team and wonderful committee members, I have become much more comfortable planning FLEX events in the community. My goal is to help young professionals in Venango County connect, strengthen relationships, and work with a fantastic team.” Upon joining FLEX Leadership, Megan Sternagel will serve as Vice Chair of Events and Fundraising and is looking forward to collaborating with various businesses and young professionals in our community to promote networking. “I am looking forward to assisting Ivy in all of our traditional upcoming events as part of the new leadership team. In the upcoming year I hope to bring at least a couple of new events to FLEX to promote our networking and leadership within our community.”

Our region’s Young Professional of the Year Stephanie Staub was honored along with a group of outstanding nominees who represent only a fraction of the region’s successful young professionals (YP’s).

Devin Zagar, Chair of the Marketing & Community Partnerships Committee, noted “Last year was a great success, and we are optimistic about the future. We’re excited to connect with more young professionals in our community and foster relationships that will help us all grow and have a greater impact.”

Become a part of FLEX in a new way this year! Whether you’re coming to an event, joining one of our committees, or volunteering, we look forward to seeing you and growing alongside you.

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) January 2023 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.

FLEX Feature: Komatsu Mining Corp. with Joel King


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We started our “FLEX Feature” series in January of this year to share about Venango County businesses and nonprofits through the eyes of young professionals who work there. We specifically wanted to feature organizations that do interesting and amazing things, but are not talked about enough or what they do is misunderstood.

This month we’re excited to hear from Joel King of Komatsu Mining, with locations in Reno and Franklin.

Tell us about Komatsu.
Komatsu, formerly known as Joy, designs and builds heavy duty machines for underground soft rock mining. Our main location is on Liberty Street in Franklin, but we have many offices and manufacturing facilities across the United States and around the world. The Franklin office is the global center of engineering, new product development, contract management, supply chain, quality assurance, and more.

What is your role there?
I am an Electrical Engineer responsible for the design and support of underground haulage machines, including Shuttle Cars and Battery Haulers. The main job of these machines is to transport coal, potash, gypsum, or other minerals from the mining face to a conveyor belt leading out of the mine to the surface.

What is your favorite part about working at Komatsu?
My favorite part about working at Komatsu is the variety of new challenges that we face. We frequently receive requests from customers to use new systems and technologies and it’s our job to integrate these into our machine designs. Recently we installed a new Shuttle Car LED head light and tail light system which provides better lighting and visibility for the miners underground. We are also beginning to implement lithium-ion technology to create machines that run solely on battery power. Another fun part of the job is traveling to mines and heading underground to observe the mining machines in operation.

What is surprising about the organization?
Right now our largest market in the United States is in coal. Some people don’t realize the market price of coal – currently it is about $400 per ton which might not seem like much. In order to be profitable, coal mines must be highly efficient and produce hundreds of tons every day. This is what drives the need for the heavy duty and high capacity machines that Komatsu specializes in.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
More information can be found on the company website: komatsu.com/industries/underground-softrock-mining/

You can also find Komatsu on Facebook at facebook.com/KomatsuMining and LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/komatsu-mining

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) December 2022 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.

FLEX Annual Meeting


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Another great FLEX Annual Meeting was held in November—an event we host annually to celebrate successes and look towards the next year.

FLEX members gathered at Trails to Ales II in Franklin for food, drinks, networking, and a fantastic game of Kahoot trivia, hosted by Events & Fundraising Chair, Ivy Kuberry.

With the new year quickly approaching, this is a great time to set your goals and intentions for the year – and we hope involvement in FLEX can be one of them! Let us know if you’re looking to get more involved with a committee or event, or if you just want to connect with other young professionals. We love making connections!

We officially welcomed new leadership (see below) and are excited to see what this new team of young professionals will bring to FLEX in 2023.

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) December 2022 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.

FLEX Holiday Happenings


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We invite you to join us at one or all of these events:

• Barrow-Civic Theatre Christmas Tree: Stop by to see the FLEX Christmas Tree at the Barrow-Civic Theatre and cast your vote for your favorite tree! Trees will be displayed in the theatre lobby through December 23rd.

• Ugly Holiday Sweater Party: Our Annual Sweater Party will take place Thursday, December 8, at FoxTales Pub in Franklin. Wear your best festive ugly sweater and join us for a fun evening with other young professionals. We ask each attendee to bring a nonperishable food item(s) that will be donated to the Saint Elizabeth Center in oil City.

• Dinner & A Show Social: Join us on Saturday, January 14 for our annual Dinner & a Show social. We will meet at Bella Cucina for dinner and then go to the Barrow-Civic Theatre for the performance of Liberty Cabaret’s Sound Track. The first 12 FLEX members to register will get a free ticket to the show. Dinner will be Dutch treat. This is a popular event with limited availability, so let us know as soon as possible if you are interested!

We’ll have more details for all of these events on our Facebook page and in our Weekly Update email.

Happy Holidays to all of our FLEX Members!

This article was published in the Future Leaders & Entrepreneurs Exchange’s (FLEX) December 2022 edition of the FLEX Your Ideas (FYI) Newsletter.