Ecmweb 24686 Electrical All Stars 2019 Shetrone Pr
Ecmweb 24686 Electrical All Stars 2019 Shetrone Pr
Ecmweb 24686 Electrical All Stars 2019 Shetrone Pr
Ecmweb 24686 Electrical All Stars 2019 Shetrone Pr
Ecmweb 24686 Electrical All Stars 2019 Shetrone Pr

2019’s Under 30 EC&M Electrical All Stars: Reese Shetrone, P.E.

May 16, 2019
Reese Shetrone of Walker Engineering Shetrone recently started his rotation in project management and is learning how all of his previous experience relates.

REESE SHETRONE, P.E.
Title: Assistant Project Manager
Company: Walker Engineering, Inc.
Location: Houston
Age: 28
Years on the Job: Six
Outside Interests: Traveling, snowboarding, going to concerts, volunteering at the Museum of Natural Science and rooting for the Texas Longhorns and the Houston Rockets

As a Houston native, Reese Shetrone always thought he would end up in the oil and gas industry like the rest of his family. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas, however, his career took a different turn.

As he began interviewing for jobs, Walker Engineering invited him to apply for a position. Following the interview, he was intrigued by the company’s variety of projects as well as its practice of growing engineers by exposing them to multiple roles.

“I’d be able to work on design-build projects, perform BIM coordination, do estimation and preconstruction, scheduling, and project management,” he says. “When you’re 22 and have no idea what you want to do with your life, that’s pretty appealing, and I was sold.”

Reese Shetrone tracks installation progress to prepare for monthly projections.

He started in the BIM department, where he immediately worked with the BIM manager on a surface water treatment plant project in Conroe, Texas. After shadowing the BIM manager for a month, he was given the reigns on the project.

“That’s been my experience with every step in the rotation, and something that I’ve liked about working at Walker,” he says. “Once you have learned the tools, you’re given the opportunity to use them right away.”

At Walker Engineering, he says the rotations are sequenced in a way that they build on one another. For example, starting with BIM and preparing design-build drawings helped him to learn all the building blocks of a job.

Next, working in estimating and preconstruction gave him the opportunity to understand the costs of a project and start forming relationships with the vendors. Recently, he started his rotation in project management and is learning how all his previous experience relates.

“That’s one of the reasons for the rotations in the first place,” he says. “Understanding the tools each department uses and how they work together allows you to form a bigger picture of the whole process behind each project. It allows you to find which niche you want to fill and allows you to perform that role in a way that will help the bottom line of any project.”

During his time at Walker Engineering, Shetrone became the Building Information Modeling (BIM) manager across all four divisions — Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin — after the company’s Dallas BIM manager quit and the company decided to expand its BIM capabilities and fold the BIM divisions into one.

Shetrone updates project schedules and manpower projection. 

“During his time as BIM manager, his department grew by well over 250%, in which he maintained a culture of diversity and inclusiveness,” says Terrence Brown, assistant project manager at Walker Engineering, Inc.

Soon after, the company began working on two major projects: the Houston Methodist Walter Tower and UT Austin’s Engineering Education and Research Center. In addition, the estimating and preconstruction departments continued to secure more work, and Walker expanded into the San Antonio market. As part of this growth, he had the opportunity to build up an entire department to meet the need for more manpower. He was then responsible for mentoring and training the new employees.

“Managing that workload forced me to implement new management and organization strategies for both myself and my employees,” he says. “I’m proud of all the work the team did, all the projects we completed, and our accomplishments in the years I was with them.”

Since he started working in 2013, he has seen the construction industry grow and adopt new technologies. For example, he helped bring a document management program to Walker, and his company has pushed more iPads out to the field and introduced mobile job boxes.

“We’re going to see more solutions heading out into the field, and it’s necessary when considering the shortage of skilled labor in the construction industry,” he says.

Currently, he is serving as an assistant project manager in the electrical service and special projects group for the Houston office. He’s also earned his P.E. and learned from the experiences of the senior project managers.

“I’ve used every opportunity to grow and shape myself into the project manager I want to be,” he says.

About the Author

Amy Fischbach | Amy Fischbach, EUO Contributing Editor

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