For Anne Finerfrock, the job goes well beyond Bowers
"I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my degree," Anne said. "I stumbled into an internship with a mechanical contractor close to where I grew up in Virginia, and was fortunate to intern with them after my junior year and I loved the industry."
She has worked in the mechanical contracting industry ever since. Later in her career, when Bowers made the decision to begin self-performing the sheet metal scope on projects, Anne was one of about 12 people who came over to help Bowers build out its capabilities and perform that work in-house. Her career since then has included project management, estimating and preconstruction, data centers, fabrication, and shop operations. Today, she is a vice president of Bowers, where she will enjoy her 11 year anniversary with the brand in November.
However, much of Anne's job happens outside Bowers. She serves on the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) Board of Directors and its Project Managers Education Committee, teaching at the Institute of Project Management (IPM) through MCAA, and works with division leads on project management and field training. She is also a part of the MCAA Hyper-Scale Data Center Task Force and a management trustee on the United Association International Training Fund. Locally, workforce development initiatives include the Leadership Team of DC Builds DC, a contractor-led group focused on growing the workforce available for projects in Washington, D.C. and on the Board of Directors for the Mechanical Contractors Association of Metropolitan Washington (MCAMW).
The morning of our interview, Anne had already been at the University of Maryland teaching Special Topics in Mechanical Contracting. She recently helped take on the course and describes that work as another part of workforce development: introducing more people to mechanical contracting and getting them interested in the industry.
At Bowers, Anne supports the sheet metal project managers and shop teams and gets involved in capacity planning and conversations around off-site manufacturing. When Bowers recently hosted the MCA Fab Conference, more than 250 people came through its shops over two days.
"Having people who live it every day come through the shops and get their feedback was a great experience," Anne said.
Anne said one thing she's learned over time is that the way she sees a problem being solved doesn't have to be the way the team gets there.
"If the team gets to the solution and solves the problem at the end, whether or not it was the road you first thought that everyone should take or not, that's a win," she said. "And that's what success looks like."
Outside of work, Anne has three kids, and most of her spare time is spent with them. She started coaching her daughter's lacrosse team when she was in kindergarten and kept coaching up until she went to high school, where she later served as commissioner of the league. These days, she's with three kids at three different sports and just as busy outside of work as she is in the office.
Her preferred place to spend whatever free time is left is pretty simple: the beach. "Sitting on that beach is where you would find me in my spare time," Anne said.
Anne expects off-site manufacturing to become a bigger part of what Bowers does as part of Legence. She continues to be involved in that work, specifically around expanding what the company can do through its fabrication processes.
