Wes Johnston Email & Phone Number

Denver, Colorado, United States

Mechanical project manager in the Denver metro area overseeing small to mid-size industrial construction projects across various market sectors.

Reno, Nevada, United States

As a Project Manager at Fortis, I worked on a hyperscale data center campus overseeing electrical, fire alarm, telecom and control system scopes from bid issuance through project completion. My experience in those 18 months took me through the wholistic technical project management experience, starting at scope buyout and contract execution through to full building commissioning and turnover. Through the roll, I gained extensive experience on both financial and technical project management, while building entirely new team relationships with a new client and subcontractors.As an MEP project manager, I was the primary POC to manage bid leveling, change orders, billing reviews, and financial closeout for over $100M in scope. I was heavily involved in design and commissioning coordination activities between a variety of vendors and contractors. My specialization on these project was particularly focused on power distribution, working heavily with our electrical subcontractors and vendors. I have worked around a wide range of switchgear, industrial generators, busway and panel board power distribution systems. I’ve also been heavily involved in design coordination, procurement, installation and functional testing of design-build fire alarm systems, building security systems, BMS & PMS control systems. Our projects were managed utilizing the L5 commissioning program, which I have now seen through on several hyper scale projects. Starting at factory witness testing (L1), to construction completion inspections (L2), device functional testing (L3), system functional testing (L4), to integrated systems testing (L5), I’ve been involved in the daily planning & progression through the entire building commissioning process for mechanical, electrical, and control system integration.

Prineville, Oregon, United States

As a project engineer at Fortis, I worked on a hyperscale data center campus overseeing electrical and fire alarm scopes from bid issuance through project completion. My experience in those 3 years took me through the wholistic technical project management experience, starting at scope buyout and contract execution through to full building commissioning and turnover. Through the roll, I gained extensive experience on both financial and technical project management. I managed bid leveling, change orders, billing reviews, and financial closeout for several hyperscale projects. I’ve also been heavily involved in design and commissioning coordination activities between a variety of vendors and contractors. My specialization in Prineville was particularly focused on power distribution and fire life safety systems. I worked around a wide range of switchgear & generators, while also overseeing full design-build implementation of all the campuses fire alarm and fire suppression systems. Through my exceptional performance, I gradually gained responsibilities within the Prineville team. This culminated in my promotion and relocation to a new hyperscale campus in Reno, Nevada to manage an entirely new team and client relations from breaking ground through substantial completion.

Corvallis, Oregon Area

The Oregon State High Altitude Rocketry Team was an entirely undergraduate team of 22 engineering students tasked with designing and building a twin stage rocket ship with the goal of launching to 150,000 feet. I spent the year as the team lead for structures & integration. Our task was to manufacture the airframe, nose cone, fins, and inter-stage coupler of the rocket, along with figuring out the most effective way to integrate all other systems into the available space. The project concluded at the Spaceport America Cup in June of 2019, where our completed rocket experienced motor failure at 4,000 feet altitude. While we didn’t achieve mission success, it was still an extremely rewarding and valuable learning experience for all team members, myself included!

As an Ambassador to the college of engineering, I assisted with new student outreach and orientation. I gave tours of the engineering facilities throughout the year, and also helped with orientation sessions for incoming students during the summer. The Ambassador program is also focused on leadership development, as we also participate in and assist with the College of Engineering Leadership Academy.

Prineville, Oregon

While at Fortis, I acted as one of two project engineers for the general contractor overseeing the electrical scope of a 1 million square foot data center. This job required constant communication and collaboration between a variety of trades to coordinate issue resolution, ensuring that we held to an extremely tight construction schedule. As issues arose, I would gather all necessary information, bring together PM's and Superintendents from related trades, and run meetings to discuss and resolve the problem.I also was in charge of submittal management for the electrical and telecommunications scope. Prior to procurement, I would review all documentation to ensure specification compliance. As the site switched to Procore for submittal, RFI, and overall document control, I was tasked with organizing and establishing the systems we used to manage documents, drawings, and formatting of submittal package structures. This system was then used by hundreds across the site for the duration of the project.

Corvallis, Oregon Area

As a student outreach assistant, I work closely with the Office of Commercialization and Corporate development. My primary job is to do market research in the fields of products that are brought through the Accelerator. These range from local start up companies trying to move forward with their businesses to professors at the university looking to potentially patent the products of their research. This past summer, I worked more extensively with Launch-phase companies. I spent most of my time helping to develop and carry out the launch strategy for Bee-Certain, a company that develops wireless bee-hive monitoring systems. This included developing long term schedules and deliverables, meeting regularly to discuss progress, and writing/distributing a press release.

Hillsboro, Oregon

With my time at Genentech, I worked within the Frontline Support group. My focus within the group was to support teams across the site through design based projects. These projects focused largely on ideation, CAD modeling, and 3D printing for prototyping. Genentech had recently implemented a 3D printing laboratory, and I gradually took on roles within the lab until I was overseeing all operations. In my time there, I worked with six groups and completed twelve projects to AID technicians and reduce waste on the manufacturing lines. In the course of a few months, I become proficient in the operation of multiple 3D printers and 3D slicing softwares, and wrote the work instruction for Simplify3D at the site, having had no prior experience in that field. Through this internship, I developed my skills in creative problem solving, 3D modeling, technical writing, and much more. However, my biggest takeaway from this experience was just how quickly you can learn and develop if you go into a situation with an open mind. Over the course of these few months, I gained a tremendous amount of confidence in my abilities as an engineer, and it has made me that much more excited for the opportunities that lie ahead of me in this profession.

Hermiston, Or

I worked in an equipment shop for multiple summers assisting with maintenance and organization of heavy machinery. I gained experience in operating heavy machinery such as excavators, tractors, and heavy mowers. I also assisted with long range logistics, accounting, labor, and participated in equipment sales demonstrations.The work also included traveling around Oregon and Washington doing general contracting for local properties. We mowed heavy brush using a combination of hand held and machine operated equipment. I also helped negotiate prices and job site tasks with customers.

Monroe, Oregon

I was one of 3 undergraduate students at OSU asked to participate in the Willamette Angel's Conference. The conference is a competition between many different companies (44 this year) to receive funding from a group of investors. I worked with the investors to review each company, perform due diligence, and make recommendations. I took on the role of a due diligence team lead for one of the 10 semi-finalist companies. For this, I was in charge of maintaining contact with the company owners, planning group meetings and conference calls, and organizing due diligence efforts to learn more about their product, market, and any other necessary information worthwhile for investors to know. I also prepared presentations for the investors to explain my findings and advocate whether or not to move forward with due diligence efforts. At the end of the conference, with the help of my findings and recommendations, the group invested a total of $600,000.

Corvallis, Oregon

I spent the summer after my freshman year working as a lab research assistant in the Combustion, Ignition, Radiation and Energy (CIRE) lab. I assisted graduate students in data acquisition and maintenance of lab equipment. The research regarded turbulent flame speed during combustion of jet propulsion fuels. I studied heat transfer and thermodynamics to further my understanding of the research.

Bachelor’S Degree, Mechanical Engineering With A Minor In Business & Entrepreneurship, Graduate

Activities and Societies: Engineering Ambassadors, CIRE research lab, Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, College of Engineering Leadership.

High School

Activities and Societies: Varsity Football4.0 GPA, 4.4 weighted. Co-Valedictorian of my graduating class, commended national merit.