Celebrating National Engineers Week

Our engineers create exceptional value in all that they do. From preventative maintenance to emergency management, engineers are essential to every operation. February 22-28 is National Engineers Week, a movement to inspire the next generation of innovators, spotlight the impact of the profession, and strengthen connections across the engineering community.

We are proud to celebrate and recognize the following outstanding individuals at our resorts for always doing what’s right and serving with love:

Dino Koukoumtzis
Director of Engineering

What do you love about engineering?
One of the most rewarding parts of engineering is helping my fellow colleagues. When equipment fails, it can significantly impact operations, create uncomfortable situations for coworkers, or negatively affect a guest’s experience. Being able to step in, troubleshoot, and restore systems so others can do their jobs comfortably and safely is incredibly fulfilling.

How do you create value at your property?
Creating value comes from a combination of preventive maintenance, experience, and problem-solving. While we care for equipment regularly, there are always external factors, such as salty air, aging equipment, poor installation practices, water quality, and misuse, that work against us and can often shorten equipment life significantly.

Reaching out to vendors for repairs is often easy, but it can also be very costly. With over 20 years in the HVAC installation industry, I’ve learned that looking at a problem from a different angle can make a big difference. For example, we once received a proposal to replace the equipment due to a broken damper linkage at a cost of $9,800. Instead, we accessed the linkage, designed a custom bracket, and had it fabricated by a welder. The final repair cost was $700, saving the property and ownership a significant amount while restoring full functionality to the system. This type of ingenuity is applied across all aspects of our engineering work. Sharing these ideas and approaches with the team helps create value today while developing the next generation of engineers for the future.

Darrell Scheck
Director of Engineering

What do you love most about engineering?
Problem solving, helping others and seeing the results!!! What I really love about maintenance is that it fits how my mind works. I like figuring things out — digging into a problem, understanding why something failed, and coming up with the fix that actually solves it long term. There’s something satisfying about knowing the building depends on us and that our work has real, immediate impact. I also enjoy the variety. No two days are the same, and there’s always something new to troubleshoot or improve. It keeps things interesting. One minute it’s a mechanical issue, the next it’s planning out a long term upgrade or helping a team member learn something new. I love the people’s side of it as well and maybe even more then the maintenance side. Seeing the team grow, become more confident, and take pride in the work — that’s huge. When someone who used to struggle with a system becomes the go to expert, that’s one of the best parts of the job. Then there’s the feeling of keeping things running smoothly for everyone who uses the property. When people are comfortable, when things work the way, they should, when you prevent headaches before they happen. Engineering plays a big role in the overall experience, even if most people don’t think about it. Before coming to the hospitality industry, I worked in maintenance and the trades for over 20 years, and I always felt like it wasn’t enough.  It wasn’t until I was out of work due to a surgery that I found out what was missing.  When I was out of work, I was placed on light duty and there was no light duty in the trades, so I took a job as a night audit for about 6 months until I was able to go back to work at full duty.  What I found was the opportunity to interact with people (guests) both internal and external, and that was what I was missing.  So I quickly started looking for positions in hospitality that would better suit my skill set and that is when I found Engineering and I have loved it ever since. There’s just a sense of purpose in it. You get to protect the building, support the operation, keep people safe, and solve problems all day long. That combination is what makes Engineering feel rewarding.

How do you create value?
Protecting the Asset itself!!! As a Director of Engineering, creating value isn’t just about fixing what’s broken — it’s about elevating the entire property’s performance, reputation, and long term profitability. What I really focus on at the property is keeping everything running the way it’s supposed to. When the building is healthy, everything else just works better. I’m always looking for ways to extend the life of our equipment, cut down on the emergency calls, and keep things efficient so we’re not burning money on preventable problems. A lot of the value comes from the little things people don’t always see — tightening up PM routines, catching issues early, making sure our utilities aren’t drifting out of line, keeping vendors honest, that kind of thing. All of it adds up.  This is the same with communication with the ownership and Davidson to help bring more value to our property as well as others.  Working with 3M to show an increase in energy savings along with guest comfort to our ownership team.  I also found a product that helped clear our AHU coils when they were 100% impacted, and this saved us from having to replace the coil.  I then shared this product with both the corporate Engineering at Davidson and our ownership team to see if this information could assist with similar issues at other properties. But honestly, one of the biggest impacts comes from how we support the people who live, work, or visit here. When the AC works, the water’s hot, and the elevators don’t break down, people notice. It drives satisfaction, reviews, retention — all the things that matter to the property’s performance. Safety is another area where maintenance really makes a difference. Staying ahead on compliance, testing life-safety equipment, keeping equipment rooms clean and organized — it’s not flashy, but it protects the property and the people in it.

And of course, the team plays a huge part. When our team members are trained, motivated, and take pride in their work, the whole property feels different. A strong engineering team creates value just through the consistency and quality of their work.  Along with our ability to build team members to grow within the company.  I get much joy out of seeing my team members being promoted out to other properties within the company.

At the end of the day, my job is a mix of taking care of the building, taking care of the people who rely on it, and planning far enough ahead, so we’re not constantly reacting. That’s where the real value shows up.