Willowglensystems, 9808 42 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB (2026)

04/25/2024

📆 🔙 Throwback Thursday: Business Members Board of Governors Meeting

Blake Bradburn and Gerardo Zendejas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the APTA Business Members Board of Governors meeting. What a great opportunity to connect with all of the stakeholders from the rail industry.

04/18/2024

🌐: Part 4

Effective leadership is a driving force behind success in the rapidly evolving technology industry landscape. Our commitment to these conversations stems from our unique position as integration subsystems SCADA specialist solutions for metro rail automation projects.

In Part 4 of our series, Willowglen Systems asks Ian Verhappen, Manager of Cybersecurity & Safety, for tips on staying current and what advice he would give to aspiring automation engineers. Read his responses below ➡️:

☑️ Volunteer: My work in international standards development turned into volunteering as a committee chair and Managing Director, which led to additional leadership roles within the International Society of Automation (ISA), including several terms as a vice-president at ISA. As part of my Foundation Fieldbus work, I became involved with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, where again I started as an expert, then took on roles within the Canadian Mirror Committee, then convenorship, Systems Committee Chair, and now also serve as a member of the IEC Strategic Management Board. Participating in standards, the basis for innovation, also keeps me aware of industry trends. Also, as a trade journal columnist, I generate content for others and am a continuous reader of trends in my sector, so I have always stayed current with technology.

☑️Career Advice: Find a mentor or role model and be true to yourself. Then, do something you love, which will keep you motivated and excited to work every day.

📷 Ian, at the Sydney Tower while at the IEC SMB meeting, thinking of everyone back in Canada (hence pointing to Vancouver).

This post wraps up our . Thanks for following!

04/15/2024

Last Monday, April 8, 2024, the Willowglen crew captured some stunning images of the solar eclipse in Edmonton, Alberta, and shared the moment with their colleagues. As the Moon positioned itself between the Sun and Earth, plunging various regions into temporary darkness, Intermediate Software Developer Archit Siby captured this . Thanks for sharing, Archit!

04/11/2024

📆 🔙 Throwback Thursday - High-Speed Rail Morocco

🐍 Work perk for our sales team - watching snake charmers in the Souk Semmarine market in Marrakech, Morocco, for the UIC World Congress High-Speed Rail Event. We bet sometimes during the cold Canadian winters, Ramin Vali and Blake Bradburn wish they could meet up more often in Morocco.

04/10/2024

🍑 in Atlanta

➡️ Behind every successful project lies a team of dedicated and talented individuals. Willowglen Systems is so proud of what our employees accomplished.

04/09/2024

🌐: Part 3

Effective leadership is a driving force behind success in the rapidly evolving technology industry landscape. Our commitment to these conversations stems from our unique position as integration subsystems SCADA specialist solutions for metro rail automation projects.

In Part 3 of our series, Willowglen Systems asked Ian Verhappen, Manager of Cybersecurity & Safety, what excites him about automation and how he sees the evolving industry. Read his responses below ➡️:

☑️ Innovation: With the increasing use of internet protocols everywhere (IoT), we are on the cusp of the next generation of innovation. For the Operations Technology space, this is more than process control. IoT is pushing Industrial Automation Control Systems (IACS) to manage assets. SCADA as the IACS platform for widely distributed and irregularly updating signals is a natural fit for managing all this data, so being part of the community and developing the standards and products to meet those needs motivates me to get up every morning.

☑️ Industry Insights: There are more devices, more data, and more complexity. Our job as engineers is to hide the complexity so people can use that data to improve their lives, so no more thought is required about how something works than turning on the lights — that is the magic we need to create and are building.

📷 Ian, enjoying a moment of relaxation after the IEC TC65 AG14 meeting in Tokyo at an owl cafe.

👣 Follow us next week when Ian discusses the importance and value of volunteering in the automation industry.

04/05/2024

👏 Congratulations to Nomana Waqas, Senior Manager of Project Management at Willowglen Systems, on earning a new certification: Generative AI Overview for Project Managers from the Project Management Institute. Your dedication to professional development is commendable.

04/04/2024

🐘 in South Africa

Kudos to everyone who contributed to this project's success, which is a testament to your outstanding work and accomplishments.

Thanks to Douglas Fisher for capturing this moment during your safari adventure at Pilanesberg National Park. 📸

04/02/2024

🌐: Part 2

Effective leadership is a driving force behind success in the rapidly evolving technology industry landscape. Our commitment to these conversations stems from our unique position as integration subsystems SCADA specialist solutions for metro rail automation projects.

In Part 2 of our series, Willowglen Systems asked
Ian Verhappen, Manager of Cybersecurity & Safety, why management is so important in the tech industry. Read Ian’s response below ➡️:

☑️ Inspiration: My oil sands employer greatly influenced how I manage and lead today. They encouraged participative management, and I use the same style at work. Because standards require consensus, participative management also makes sense there. The key to reaching a consensus and engaging is to ensure everyone is heard. The most important thing to do is listen, especially since, in most cases, my colleagues have more experience in the areas we are discussing than I do.

👣 Follow us next week when Ian discusses insights into the automation industry and why innovation matters.

📷 Ian (third person from the right in the photo) is at the IEC SC65E WG10 /ISA-108 meeting with other committee members in Houston.

03/29/2024

🐣 Happy Good Friday! Today marks a day of reflection and renewal for many around the world. May your Easter be filled with hope and new beginnings.

03/27/2024

🔦 Employee Spotlight: Trevor Gerbrand, Senior Manager, Solutions Architect

Congratulations to Trevor Gerbrand on reaching a remarkable milestone of 16 years! He started at Willowglen Systems in 2008 as a software developer contributing to SCADACOM 3. Over the years, he's spearheaded the architecture of newer versions and subsequent iterations, SCADACOM 5 and 6.

Trevor has deployed successful projects in diverse sectors, including metro rail and oil and gas, and collaborated with visionary colleagues. He has contributed to shaping the company into what it is today. Currently, he is responsible for leading a team of solutions architects, with the responsibility of transforming client aspirations into technological solutions implemented in the real world.

Thanks, Trevor, for being an invaluable part of our journey. Here's to many more years of shared achievements! For more about our company's history, ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gTJpwSyW

03/26/2024

🌐: Part 1

Effective leadership is a driving force behind success in the rapidly evolving technology industry landscape. Our commitment to these conversations stems from our unique position as integration subsystems SCADA specialist solutions for metro rail automation projects.

Ever wonder how an engineer gets into the automation sector? Willowglen Systems asked Ian Verhappen, Manager of Cybersecurity & Safety, about his journey to becoming one of the industry’s most renowned experts and an Automation Hall of Famer. Read about Ian’s journey below ➡️:

☑️ Education: During my chemical engineering degree at the University of Alberta, I became interested in control engineering. Control engineering deals with designing and implementing systems to manage or regulate the behaviour of other systems to ensure that a system behaves in a desired manner, providing stability, performance, and responsiveness.

☑️ Professional Background: I spent most of my career in oil and gas. I entered the automation and control sector when I was hired as a process analyzer engineer because my supervisor wanted a chemical engineer to understand the mini process of analyzer sample systems. I became involved in my professional engineering society to network with experienced people willing to share their knowledge, which led to the development of related international standards. It was not too long before I was giving back to my profession as a volunteer leader and standards participant, then leader. I was involved in the Foundation Fieldbus development efforts, including installing a pilot project, which led to developing the Foundation's "installation guide" and co-authoring a book on the subject that is available today. I was nominated as an ISA Fellow in 2003. In 2013, I was named to the Process Automation Hall of Fame for contributing to the automation profession.

☑️ Current Status Quo: I moved from the oil sands to a product company, then to the EPC/consulting world, and then to a product environment with Willowglen, where, as a Solution Architect, I can use my experiences to help define the requirements for our company's fifth-generation SCADA platform SentientQ.

👣 Follow us next week when Ian discusses why leadership and management are so important in automation.

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