The military provides countless opportunities for those who choose to enroll. It’s an opportunity to serve your country, sometimes for a career, for others only a brief time before eventually entering civilian life and finding another career.
Mike Baranovic is no different than many of those men and women who entered the military. Baranovic spent five years in the Navy and served in Iraq with the 2nd Marine Division and took on several different duties during that time, a period of his life that put him on the career path into facilities management.
“I went from construction to medicine to facilities management,” says Baranovic, a 2025 Facility Champion recipient. “The truth is, I like fixing buildings more than I like fixing people.”
Baranovic recently changed jobs. After spending five years as the facilities director at Front Range Community College in Colorado, he was named the Deputy Director of Facilities for Weld County, Colorado, last month.
“This change is an awesome opportunity to work for a much larger organization and will help propel me towards future goals both personal and professional,” he says.
Baranovic certainly made an impact at Front Range. During his time at the college, he was part of the construction team that built the Grays Peak medical career building that earned LEED Silver design recognition. He was also part of a $30 million effort to modernize the main campus in Westminster, Colorado, which included the renovation of a 400,000 square foot facility.
Baranovic attended Front Range as an undergraduate before moving to Colorado State University to finish his education, but returning to Front Range to play a role in the community college’s growth left an impression on him.
“I knew that I wanted to work at either place after graduating,” he says of either education setting. “I am lucky that this worked out in my favor and that I was able to join the Front Range team and be part of their student success driven mission for so many years.”
The experience at Front Range helped Baranovic realize the impact that the facilities industry can have on building occupants.
“Facilities teams are truly essential to the business operations we serve,” he says. “If we didn’t do our jobs at a high level then the cascading impact would be quickly recognized.”
While still relatively early in his facilities executive career, Baranovic has already started to envision leaving behind a legacy at the places that employ him. He is a firm believer in training and empowering his employees to ensure they are set up for success, whether they continue as an employee with him or move on to bigger successes.
“A sports analogy is the concept of coaching tree,” he says. “Many of today’s NFL coaches can trace their beginnings to a select few hall of fame-level coaches that they were mentored by. My legacy is the managers that I mentor and the subsequent managers that they mentor.”
Baranovic is the third of the eight 2025 Facility Champions who will be profiled on FacilitiesNet leading up to the webcast, “FM Innovation and Evolution: A Facility Champions Discussion” that will honor the recipients. The webcast will air on November 6 at 1 p.m. ET on FacilitiesNet. You can register to view the webcast here.
Dave Lubach is the executive editor of the facilities market.
