MEMBER INTERVIEW
Guy Smith Guy Smith, PQS(F)
When was your first introduction to construction? My life in the construction industry began at a very early age – probably when I was about six years old. My father, though originally trained as a quantity surveyor, operated a small residential construction company, and he used to bring me along to his construction sites (safety was not as big a concern in the mid-20th century!). I think those visits to dad’s housing projects planted the seed for my involvement in the industry. I must admit, however, that a career in construction was not my first choice: my original career plan was to be a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, but when that did not work out, it was not much of a stretch for me to make the jump into quantity surveying instead. It was in my blood – literally. When did you begin your Quantity Surveying career? Again, I started in quantity surveying very early. After my father left the building profession and resumed his career as a quantity surveyor, he often used to bring his work home with him. In an effort to help me improve my mental math skills in my early teens, he used to give me stacks of dimensions to extend, and I guess I caught the bug. My official quantity surveying career, however, started when I was accepted into the trainee quantity surveying program with George Wimpey Construction (now part of Carillion plc) in London, embarking on a series of cooperative (“sandwich”) courses in the Higher National Diploma program at Willesden College of Technology in 1973. Wimpey treated me very well: in my various assignments with the
In an effort to help me improve my mental math skills in my early teens, my father used to give me stacks of dimensions to extend, and I guess I caught the bug. company, I got to work as a Trainee (later Assistant) Quantity Surveyor on numerous social and speculative housing projects throughout the United Kingdom, later moving to Canada with the company and continuing my career in housing and small commercial, industrial and engineering projects in Toronto and Edmonton. What types of role and responsibilities have you held? After moving to Edmonton in 1979, I had the opportunity to resume my ‘partnership’ with my father (who had moved to Canada in 1976) in a small quantity surveying consulting practice. I became one of dad’s two partners in the practice, eventually assuming a whole lot more responsibility when he died suddenly in late 1981. My surviving partner and I parted ways in 1983 and I operated the practice as a sole practitioner until the Fall of 1985, when a chance phone call from John Pettie, who was then the leader of the Cost Control and Analysis Branch at Alberta Public Works, Supply and Services, led me into my next role as a Cost Analyst in the branch. My role there was to support cost managers and project managers on a wide range of institutional buildings, including provincial buildings, courthouses and other facilities for our public sector clients. As I progressed into a management role in the department, I
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became responsible for tracking and projecting cost trends and developing construction cost models. In 2000, I made yet another career change, assuming the role of Regional Manager in the Learning and Housing Facilities Branch in the same department, which by now was known as Alberta Infrastructure. In this position, I worked closely with facilities managers from more than 20 school boards in the northern sector of the province to help them plan their capital and maintenance construction projects. By 2004, I was appointed the Regional Director in the same branch, providing support to the school boards as they planned their annual capital funding requests and leading a team of managers and facilities technologists. In June 2007, I left Infrastructure to assume the role of Director of the Alternative Capital Financing Office at Alberta Treasury Board. In this role, I was responsible for developing the process and framework for the first public-private partnership project for social infrastructure – a project which would lead to the highly successful Alberta Schools Alternative Procurement (ASAP) program, the first two projects of which I served on as the assistant project director. Through the ASAP projects, we were able to build more than 50 new schools throughout Alberta, two years faster
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