Robert Corion

Grounded in Excellence Robert Corion

Senior Vice President, Kapsch TrafficCom North America

"I was in fifth grade – when I got my paper route. I'd get up every Sunday to deliver the Toronto Sun. And the paper would come like five in the morning and I'd have to wake up and pack it and then put it on my red wagon and deliver to the subdivision across the street. But that created sort of a work ethic. In eighth grade, I was one of the top ten carriers in the city in sales."

Robert Corion was born in Sheffield, Eng- land from parents of Caribbean descent. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, although he spent many summers where his relatives lived in the island country of Grenada.

When Corion’s parents first moved to To- ronto from the UK, Corion and his sisters and brother went back to live with their aunts and grandparents just until Corion’s parents were established and set up with a house and jobs. “That’s a traditional thing that happens in the Caribbean culture, and it enabled us to build bonds with the country and our family. Then, when we moved to join them in Toronto, we were very appreciative for the different environment that we saw in Toronto. They meant for us to stay rooted and grounded in our heritage and understand what hard work is.”

Corion’s father was an electrician for the railway, and his mother ended up going back to George Brown College, once his youngest sister was in junior high, and became a nurse practitioner working in geriatrics. Since both of Corion’s parents were very professional, going to college “was mandatory” in his fam- ily. Education was very important in their household from the time the children were very young. “I can remember in first grade when I would come home, and my father would have math for us to do in addition to what we did in school.” Corion was an overachiever as a child, however, and didn’t mind too much. Ever since he was eight years old, Corion would wake up naturally and refreshed after only about 5 hours of sleep,

and his noise would disturb everyone else still asleep at his house. So, his parents had him start working a newspaper route, where he was responsible for delivering the Toronto Sun beginning at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays, load ing it up on his red wagon and then delivering it to the subdivision across the street when he was in the fifth grade. Then, in the 8th grade, he won a plaque award for his excel lence in sales, which included a limousine ride and tour of the CN Tower in the big city of Toronto, something indeed impres sive to a child of that age. “I think that was the beginning of recognizing that if I focus and dedicated myself, I could do whatever I wanted to do in life.”

Corion came to the United States to attend Andrews University in Michigan, majoring in aviation engineering. When he took a class in computer programming, Corion consid ered changing his major to computer science but was already too close to graduation and decided to stick with the aviation program. Upon graduation from college, he missed his Toronto life so much, so he returned there to work in different jobs that he could find which dealt directly with computers. That was Corion’s way of exploring the computer jobs in order to pick up skills in that area. While he was “gutting computers to learn what the components are and working for free” just to learn more, it made him that much more certain that he wanted to pursue computers as a career goal.

Then, in January of 1994, Corion received a job opportunity working for Continental Air lines in Houston, Texas. He worked there on the airplanes for some time and then found his way into an opening for writing the ap plication for the central reservation systems for group booking on the airlines. Before he could do it, though, his boss assigned him a mentor and gave him one year to figure it out. So, Corion sought out some classes he’d need in both hardware and software at Houston Community College. Once the system was deployed, it was successfully used for an extended time after Corion had left for another job in hospital/pharmacy interface programming at a tech company working for Cardinal Health. By that time, Corion was married, and his wife did not want to move to California, due to the higher cost of living there when that company came to the point

of needing to relocate him. Instead, he stayed and worked for Sterling McCall’s, writing car manufacturing software programs for them. It was in December of 2016 that Corion came to settle in Austin, signing his offer with Kapsch TrafficCom to work on transporta tion technology. For this system integrator who leads projects all over the world, Corion is responsible for the delivery operations of the business. What he enjoys most about his job is the challenge of keeping up with the fast pace of change in his industry and the problem solving. Corion always manages to stay one step ahead of things and is prepared as a leader. He has found that listening with his full attention to his customer needs and groups he manages has proven to be one of the most important skills that contribute to the success of what they accomplish together as a team. “There are so many different things coming out that you’re always in the process of learning…like a brand-new job every week. It’s an ever-changing process and amazing to see how far we’ve come in such a short time from a technology perspective. It’s just fun.” About the teams that Corion oversees, he knows, “The people I bring in are people that I know, I trust, that are hard workers just like I am…they go the extra mile, doing whatever it takes…not just showing up for eight hours. They put everything they have into it, because they are passionate about what they do. Those are the people I surround myself with…it shows when you have a group of people with that sort of focus…creates transformational change in a business.”

and mentor in his personal life. “When you change people’s lives with opportunity, you give them the opportunity to change every one in their network, everyone in their tree, and that’s the kind of change that you want to impact. Don’t just climb the ladder and pull it up so no one else can come…” Corion helps people “so that everyone grows at the same time, especially in the black community… so much good talent out there that people don’t have exposure to.”

“So, it’s been an interesting journey.” These days, Corion has followed in his father’s footsteps. He takes his own family to those places he used to call home so that they, too, can establish and preserve their own cultural roots. He has given his sons plenty of times tables to memorize over the years, “because I always felt like idle time is the devil’s work shop.” His sons are now grown in their 20s and have an impressive work ethic. Corion and his wife also have 2 younger daughters, ages 9 and 11. The family loves to travel together in their leisure time, especially to beaches. Spending time having fun with them as well as keeping involved as an elder in his church are Corion’s main personal life activities, which helps him “stay grounded and inspired…and it prepares me for a brand-new week with an open mindset.” It’s been many years since Corion, an avid pilot, has flown, he used to have a pilot’s license and airframe mechanic/avionics license as well. He says he’ll always love planes but he, and especially his wife, are perfectly happy with him staying on the engineering and technol ogy side of life.

Robert Corion

Robert Corion was born in Sheffield, England from parents of Caribbean descent. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, although he spent many summers where his relatives lived in the island country of Grenada.

When Corion’s parents first moved to Toronto from the UK, Corion and his sisters and brother went back to live with their aunts and grandparents just until Corion’s parents were established and set up with a house and jobs. “That’s a traditional thing that happens in the Caribbean culture, and it enabled us to build bonds with the country and our family. Then, when we moved to join them in Toronto, we were very appreciative for the different environment that we saw in Toronto. They meant for us to stay rooted and grounded in our heritage and understand what hard work is.”