“Never turn down an opportunity.”
This advice has served Lucas Brockman well over his last six years with GE and FieldCore. Formerly an automotive mechanic, he began his GE career at the West Chester Tool Center in Ohio in 2014. That’s when Chase Bortone (North America Service Director) and Dan Steingraeber (North America Resource Manager) met him. At the time, Lucas was helping to stock and revamp kits in the Tool Center as an hourly employee. He also supported the implementation of the Maximo inventory system, working with an offshore team and managing training. When meeting Chase and Dan, Lucas expressed interest in eventually becoming a Field Engineer, and both Chase and Dan saw his potential to succeed in an future FE role.
The following year, their discussions came to fruition. As Chase Bortone recalls, “Lucas was interested in the Field Engineer role and is a very smart and mechanically skilled person. His background, work ethic, and willingness to challenge himself made him a perfect fit for the job. He was persistent in his communications and interactions with both Dan and I and he didn’t just talk about it. When the FE opportunity came along, he took it and ran!” In 2015, Lucas left Ohio for Houston – where he trained to become a FE. He loved the project management elements of being an FE, and taking responsibility for a full project. He continued to be challenged by his mentors, Dan and Chase, progressing further in his career path. In 2016, he became a Field Engineer, managing various outages and earning a reputation as an extremely capable project manager. He was selected as a participant of FieldCore’s Project Management Program, where he was directly mentored by extremely experienced FEs and Service Managers.
Fast forward to 2020 – Lucas was recently promoted to an Outage Manager role in North America. Though he’s no longer an FE, he appreciates that his new role still allows him to maintain the relationships he’s built over the last few years out on sites. These days though, he gets to stay closer to home, enjoying more time with his wife and 4 young children. Looking back at the last few years of his career, he notes a common theme: “Always raise your hand for the hard projects, the projects no one wants to do. Never turn down an opportunity to learn and gain experience doing something not many people know how to do.”
Where is Lucas off to next? He’ll be back on a project soon, using the lessons learned through his career to support his Field Engineer colleagues and deliver successfully for our customers.
