Meet Team Member Alex Muench

Alex joined the team in 2018 as a Project Manager. We asked him about his experience at Energenecs.

How would you describe what you do?

I do a little bit of everything, a jack of all trades! My official title is Project Manager, but I basically provide a lot of coordination between our manufacturers and vendors, along with our team and controls guys to make sure everything jives. I review plans and specs, coordinate approvals with customers (contractors and engineers), and order appropriate equipment. I track documents, budgets, and schedules. I also track delivery and then implement all the coordination for starting up and servicing the projects until they are closed out. In general, I strive to make sure the finished project is exactly what the customer needs and all parties are happy with the finished product. I also provide design work in some cases.

How did you get involved in the water industry?

I went to school at University of Wisconsin – Madison and was in the Biological Systems Engineering Department. It’s related to civil engineering with a natural resources and environmental emphasis. I was more interested in the biological processes of wastewater. Fresh out of college, I worked for the City of Madison Engineering Department on full road reconstruction. I had field and office experience in construction management and design working with sanitary and storm sewers and related roadwork.

I was aware of Energenecs because I went to school with an employee of Energenecs and he got me connected with Jared, and ended up moving here. I really enjoy working at Energenecs because you deal with so many projects with a lot of variance so you learn about all the different equipment and processes at a treatment plant.

How many projects do you have going on?

A lot [laughs] and they are all at different levels. I usually have between 20 and 35 at a time. Our electrical Project Managers do a lot more in depth controls design. We also have the manufacturers, and industry leaders, doing some of the preliminary design work, and I use my knowledge to double check everything is appropriate for the application. The fact that I work closely with the manufacturers often allows me to handle a large volume of projects. It Is a lot more fast paced when you work on the mechanical and process side of things.

The sales team works with engineers to get our equipment selected, so there is a lot of work done on the front end for that. There are other cases where we work on design build projects where we have general ideas of what equipment we need and then I help select and size the equipment.

What do you enjoy about your job?

It is very rewarding when I finish a project that I was very hands-on with, then hear that everyone is happy with it. You run into that often! I end up checking in and they tell me everything is running great. We develop good relationships with the operations teams at plants, and our service team does a good job making sure they feel comfortable and supported.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love to ski and snowboard. My dad grew up skiing, and he taught everyone in our family when we were kids. I try to go at least once a year on a trip. I joined the Wisconsin Hoofers Ski & Snowboard club in college, and we went on one big ski trip over winter breaks and I kind of fell in love with it. Being out in the mountains it’s just so beautiful. I’d choose a mountain over a beach almost every time! My favorite has been Whitefish in Montana, it’s so remote, and the views of Glacier National Park are outstanding. The mountains seem to go on for as far as the eye can see..