Take Five!

Great inspiration can come from a simple conversation, so, to keep you inspired, ASABE is pleased to offer a new series of casual interviews with Society members. This month, spend a few moments getting acquainted with. . .

Robert Large, BS, PE

What is your current job title? With what kind of projects are you involved? I am an environmental compliance specialist with Gulfstream's environmental, health and safety department. I manage the development and implementation of federally mandated oil spill prevention and stormwater pollution prevention plans. I continually work with our facilities group to identify and update plant infrastructure to benefit our operations and the environment. I'm also involved in managing a project with our information technology group to develop a web-based data tracking and reporting system to store company-wide environmental performance metrics as well as ISO/OHSAS management system data.

What was it about the discipline that drew you to agricultural and biological engineering? The natural environment. I was taught at a young age how to respect and find beauty in the great outdoors. The opportunity to build a career around the foundation of environmental stewardship is what attracted me to the discipline in college.

What was your biggest challenge when you started your career? I started my career as a consultant for an international environmental engineering firm. The company was based out of Long Beach, California, and I worked in a branch office in Atlanta, Georgia. As my second assignment I was placed on an audit team to conduct site inspections, training, and upper-management consultation during two-day site visits to bottling facilities across the country. As part of the competition to win the bid for the project, my counterpart and I were solicited to conduct the two-hour training presentations to the management team of the Fortune-500 company that was requesting proposals. Walking in to their corporate headquarters and presenting the training to the EHS director and regional managers, my manager and section director, as well as a few off-site folks via a web-broadcast was by far the most intimidating and challenging task of my early career. But we both performed well, won the contract, and I had plenty of time to practice my public speaking after conducting the training and site visits at 52 sites across the country over the next two years.

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Name: Robert P. Large

Current home: Savannah, Georgia

Born/raised: Reading, Pennsylvania

Education: BS (2003), Biosystems Engineering, Clemson University

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