Military backgrounds dovetail nicely with careers in facility management. While facility executives may not be faced with life-and-death situations like a soldier on the front line, they can certainly relate to unexpected changes in their daily routine.
“You just have to be ready to do something different all the time, and you just have to deal with it,” says Brian Cowperthwaite, the vice president of facilities and operations for the Medical College of Wisconsin outside Milwaukee. “In the military you’re asked to move every two or three years. Change and disruption are normal. You have to think on your feet. That’s facilities, right?”
Cowperthwaite spent 22 years in the military, but he always had his eyes on the civilian world. Eventually, he found his way into a facilities career where he implemented his military experience into the executive position he holds today.
Cowperthwaite’s military experience included stints as an operations manager for more than 5,000 U.S. Marine Corps infantry regimental combat teams overseas before landing at a training center in California to serve as a logistics manager for a rotating population of up to 12,000 personnel at a time.
“I wanted to do a little bit more, so I enlisted in an officer program where they send you off to college for a bunch of years and bring you back as an officer,” he says of the assignments. “I wanted to go into the private sector someday, and I wanted to move into supply chain management – kind of something to use my brain a little bit more.”
Cowperthwaite leaned into asset management tasks and utilizing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) while in the military, embracing concepts such as enacting recycling programs, securing contracts that increased efficiency on bases, and establishing transportation management programs.
He enlisted fresh out of high school because, in his words, his “options were very limited.” Finally, some 20 years later, it was time to move on. And this time, his options were many.
Cowperthwaite’s re-entry into civilian life initially focused on wind farms and turbines – a decision that his wife questioned.
“I remember her saying, ‘You don’t know anything about turbines,’” he joked. “But I said that’s not what they’re asking for.”
What they were looking for was someone who excelled in operational leadership, and his military background proved a perfect match. Cowperthwaite was as a tooling and logistics manager for the onshore wind program for a major North American company, leading operations for more than 400 wind farms. He oversaw engineering, product development, asset management, installation, hiring and onboarding, among his duties.
He eventually found his way into higher education – and a more intimate role in facilities – as the senior director of facility services operations and maintenance at the University of Chicago, an education institution and hospital with 135 buildings across 217 acres, where leaders such as John D’Angelo took him under his wing.
“Brian had a career (in the military) that focused on building skills in logistics and leadership,” says D’Angelo, who has since moved on to Indiana University as its VP of capital planning and facilities. “Both of those skills are directly applicable to higher education and any other role in the civilian world. He did not have significant experience in either of the shared governance model in higher education or the technical trades necessary in large campus built-environment management, but his ability to build upon his foundational skills in this role was truly impressive.”
At the university, Cowperthwaite embraced data collection and evaluation, using key performance indicators (KPIs), data from CMMS and other programs to optimize maintenance programs and assess workforce, productivity and operational risks and needs. Those duties included managing large operations, maintenance capital budgets and service contracts while managing groups that included tradespeople, union contractors, inventory management employees and custodial and warehouse employees.
The setting at Chicago was a new challenge, but one he embraced. In 2020, the Leadership in Educational Facilities organization, or more commonly known as APPA, recognized Cowperthwaite and D’Angelo for developing the Infrastructure Resiliency Model (IRM), which helps facilities with data-based solutions for deferred maintenance issues.
His ability to problem-solve and adjust to situations on the fly paid dividends during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as well as periods of civil unrest on campus, when thinking on your feet and change and disruption were the rule for all institutional and commercial facilities.
“Brian always had a way to lower the temperature of any campus or hospital situation and crisis, and put things into perspective, calm the waters if you will, and repeatedly stressed not to take anything personal, try to see the other side and keep it professional,” says Bob Bandura, chief electrical engineer in facilities services at the University of Chicago.
While many facility leaders struggled during the pandemic to figure out how to properly address the historic moment, Cowperthwaite leaned into his training and helped navigate the university through a rough period in its history.
“Although we identified risks as part of our work on implementing IRM, both were considered lower probability events (civil unrest and a pandemic) until they occurred,” D’Angelo says. “Like most of the country and all of higher ed, we were building and executing our response and recovery programs in real time. Brian leaned into his logistics and kept not only the university running with supply chain solutions (such as personal protection equipment, disinfectant, graffiti removal and toilet paper), but he became the lead for our hospital as well.”
When he is asked about the future of the facilities management profession and the transition to more data-based analysis continues, Cowperthwaite gets excited about its direction and the philosophy switch to more data-based evaluation approaches that continue to evolve.
“We’re going through a huge transition, but I think with facilities, it’s going to be a challenge to kind of pick our battles,” he says. “I can use artificial intelligence to analyze data, work order systems or KPIs, but the application is where it’s going to be interesting.”
As his career has evolved, Cowperthwaite has learned to savor developing a staff. A successful facility executive’s resume requires more than an engineering degree and an encyclopedic mind about how systems work. They must have a firm grasp on leadership concepts such as improving employee morale, managing the facilities budget and having the ability to put out any figurative fires that pop up along the way.
“I’m not an engineer,” he says. “I think whenever I’ve interviewed for jobs, I tell people that and ask if that’s a problem. ... I kind of focus on my operational expertise and culture and developing people. Developing teams is more of my strength and what I enjoy.”
That desire to develop strong teams was established early in his career, when a boss referred to him as “hey, you” for five years. Cowperthwaite was determined to have stronger relationships with his teams after that experience.
That desire to reach his team on a more personal level has helped ease his transition to the position he started a year ago at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), an institution focused on research, clinical care, education and community initiatives.
Cowperthwaite manages about 70 employees, which comprises nearly 50 acres and almost 2 million square feet that includes offices, wet labs, an outpatient clinic and teaching and learning spaces.
While MCW shares the complex with two large hospitals and other healthcare entities, the idea of managing a smaller staff with a smaller facilities footprint than the University of Chicago appealed to him.
“I know everybody, I can learn their names, where they’re from,” he says of his current team. “It makes it kind of enjoyable to have a relationship with everyone.”
Coming into the new position, Cowperthwaite may have brought along shiny career credentials, but he still had to build credibility among his new team. He recommends that any manager in a similar position should take the first steps in getting to know their staff instead of expecting their staff to reach out to them.
“People know when you’re fake, when you care, when you’re interested in listening or hearing,” he says. “There are a million things going on every day that I could be doing and they could be doing, but to stop and have a legit conversation with someone – talk about sports, do lunch, ask about the holidays? It's hard and it involved effort, but it’s worth it.”
Dave Lubach is the chief editor of the facilities market. He has 10 years of experience writing about facilities management and maintenance issues.
