What attracted you to join FM:Systems? I found a business development representative (BDR) role on LinkedIn with a very appealing job description. FM:Systems only had 30 employees in 2012, and they really had a great company culture that I wanted to be a part of. After being in the BDR role for about 10 months, I transitioned into a marketing role, which is exactly what I wanted to do!

Tell us something people might not know about FM:Systems. The squares in our logo are actually an "F" and an "M." 

Leasha has been a part of the FM:Systems Family for 8 years, starting with us right out of college. She graduated with her B.S. in Business Marketing from UNC-Greensboro. You can find her generating new business opportunities for our sales team through marketing campaigns by creating awareness of FM:Systems. She works in our Raleigh, NC headquarters.

Sum up your FM:Systems career to date in one word. Growth!

What is your proudest moment at FM:Systems? In 2013, she was given the huge responsibility of planning User Conference (where many of our clients and prospects join us for 3 days of information and fun). It was a big project that Kurt asked me to take over, and we blew the numbers out of the park! It was a great!

What gets you out of bed every morning? Well, my alarm clock. I have to drag myself out of bed, haha! On a serious note, I'm part of an amazing company with a great team. That really helps me get out of bed. I come into such a great job and company culture with an amazing team!

What is your motto or personal mantra? I'm a big believer in karma. I think it's important to treat people how you want to be treated!

If you could switch jobs with anyone in the world, who would it be? I would be Carrie Underwood--she's my idol!

Where would you like to go on a dream vacation? I'd love to go to Greece!

If you could only drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be? Pumpking. It's very fall and tastes just like pumpkins!

What is something you've always wanted to try? Sky-diving.

What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love? My guilty pleasure is Keeping up with the Kardashians. Their lives are a total disaster, but that's what makes it so interesting to watch.

What is your favorite food? This is my favorite topic of conversation. A really great steak meal is my go-to, but sushi is a good runner-up!

You're happiest when...I'm around my friends and family. 

What is your greatest fear? I'm terrified of bees, wasps, and cockroaches!

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? I would definitely jet set first-class somewhere. Maybe Bali or Greece! It's really great that FM:Systems has an open-time off policy that I can take advantage of. 

What is the best gift you've ever received? Two years ago, my family and I traveled to Taiwan to visit my brother. We spent two weeks together traveling all over the country, and it was great!

What chore do you absolute hate doing? Emptying the dishwasher.

When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you pass the time? Sit back, relax, and catch up on social media and the news.

What's your favorite indoor or outdoor activity? I like to cycle after work at the YMCA during the week. On the weekend, I enjoy hiking around different parks in Raleigh!

Tell us what do you do at FM:Systems?

I look at the data that is provided to us from different sources (sensors installed in buildings – WiFi routers, badge readers, light sensors). We take the data and use different algorithms to make it bit more understandable. We are making sense of the data and doing some quality control, cleaning it up, and running some logics. My day-to-day is developing new logics for sensors and services that are on the product roadmap.

Tell us a little bit about your educational and professional background.

I received my PhD from Cornell University in 2009. I spent 2 years doing research for his Post Doc. I joined Baker-Hughes (gas company) and developed tools that are used in upstream exploration. After that I joined Rifiniti, an FM:Systems company, as Director of Data Science.

What attracted you to join FM:Systems?

Both companies are leading in a sector which is going to have a big impact in the near future, if not already doing so. I work with very bright colleagues that are using some of the latest technologies in data science and providing valuable insight for clients. My colleagues are always eager to help!

Tell us something people might not know about FM:Systems.

How small the Boston team is—only 8 people in the Boston office! Very eager to learn and moving with trends!

Sum up your FM:Systems career to date in one word.

Fruitful.

What is your proudest moment at FM:Systems?

When we started using the automation platform for client delivery before, we were spending a lot of time doing manual work for client delivery around data. We were spending 80% of our time on client delivery! We had a big push for automation, so we worked day and night for the past year to be where we are now with client delivery. Now we can focus on other projects to make things better for our clients!

What’s something you learned in the past week?

I learned some more about his colleagues and the countries they originate from. I also studied a new tactic in chess!

Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

1. Avid chess player
2. I have a small dog named Cookie
3. I can walk all the way to work, except in the cold winters!

What gets you out of bed every morning?

New day=new adventures! I always tell myself that I will be better than yesterday!

What is your motto or personal mantra?

I should be better tomorrow than I am today!

If you could switch jobs with anyone in the world, who would it be?

Elon Musk

Where would you like to go on a dream vacation?

Iceland

If you could only drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Heineken

What is something you’ve always wanted to try?

To finish a book each week

What is your favorite food?

Beef Kabob

You’re happiest when….

When I’m working on a mathematical problem or walking my dog—this also happens at the same time sometimes!

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?

I would probably dedicate my life to research.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

A book on how to play chess that I received when I was 7 years old.

What chore do you absolutely hate doing?

Mowing my lawn when I used to live in Texas in the summer months

When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you pass the time?

If I’m somewhere where I have internet access, I would follow a research topic that I enjoy.

What’s your favorite indoor or outdoor activity?

Indoor – watching movies with my wife

Outdoor – walking long distances or hiking

Tell us what do you do at FM:Systems?

I’m on of our QA leads at FM:Systems. I manage the quality processes as well as the quality of the applications and software here.

Tell us a little bit about your educational and professional background.

As far as education goes, I actually didn’t originally go to school in the technology field. I pursued pharmaceutical sciences when I first started and learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t my passion. I then decided to pursue a degree in computer sciences and wanted to eventually create my own personal software at home. This eventually evolved into computer theory, which is where I’m at now in QA!

As far as my career goes, my first job out of college was as a Junior QA Engineer. My role was essentially to break things like applications and see how to make them better. That slowly evolved into what can we do to better improve our quality processes and sparked my interest in that area.

What attracted you to join FM:Systems?

The people. We have a good culture here and that’s all because of the people I work with. Everyone encourages each other to learn, do the right thing, and push out quality software. My management team has always encouraged me to evolve my skillset and be really innovative to push our boundaries.

Tell us something people might not know about FM:Systems.

We have a popcorn machine!

Sum up your FM:Systems career to date in one word.

Ambition.

What is your proudest moment at FM:Systems?

The sum of all my effort. At the start of my career here we had a lack of quality assurance. We have evolved quite a bit and have built a great QA team as well as processes to support our software.

Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

For the past 2 years, I went from 230 pounds to 157 pounds. My passion for health and fitness has increased quite a bit during this time.

I love video games! There’s a video game called Marvel vs Capcom 2, which is a fighting game. I placed 1^st regionally in that game back in high school.

I met my wife on World of Warcraft. Now we’re together with 2 kids! Don’t let your parents tell you that video games amount to nothing.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

Besides the kids waking me up super early? A couple of passions of mine are video games but also my love for high-fantasy novels, particularly those by Brian Sanderson. I wake up very eager to listen to and read new novels every morning.

What is your motto or personal mantra?

Don’t be afraid of carbs—no, I’m just kidding! I personally believe that everyone hasn’t grown up, we just get better pretending like we have. There’s a kid in all of us.

If you could switch jobs with anyone in the world, who would it be?

Growing up, I really thought I was going to be an astronaut.

Where would you like to go on a dream vacation?

Japan. I love Japanese animation, the food is great, and they’re leaders in technology.

If you could only drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Not big on beer, but I would probably just choose any light calorie beer or an IPA.

What is something you’ve always wanted to try?

There’s a famous track in Europe and race with some of the top cars there. I would want to drive one of the cars on the track!

What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?

Mean Girls – it’s such a fantastic movie! I also enjoy True Blood, it has a pretty good storyline.

What is your favorite food?

Mom’s cooking! She makes a lot of traditional Vietnamese dishes and brings me back to my childhood.

You’re happiest when….

I’m with my family!

What is your greatest fear?

Uncertainty. I like to have a tight schedule and understand what’s on my plate.

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?

My son is on the autism spectrum, and he’s definitely a bright little boy. I’m very adamant about autism research, so I would donate the money to autism research.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

A San Francisco 49ers starter jacket that was autographed by Jerry Rice, who I believe is the greatest football player of all time. I got it from my dad, who’s also a big 49ers fan.

What chore do you absolutely hate doing?

I love my dogs (a 15-year-old yorkie and a corgi puppy), but when they eat, food gets everywhere! I don’t enjoy cleaning up after them.

When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you pass the time?

Reading and listening to my audio books, which are of course, high-fantasy novels.

What’s your favorite indoor or outdoor activity?

My favorite indoor activity is playing video games. For outdoor activities, it’s running! I also enjoy rowing, which could be indoor or outdoor depending on if there’s a lake nearby.

Tell us what do you do at FM:Systems?

I’m a Software Implementation Engineer, and I help with the technical implementation for new clients. I also do work on client-specific configurations.

Tell us a little bit about your educational and professional background.

I graduated from Virigina Tech in 2012. I worked as an IT supervisor at a Marshalls distribution center. I also worked at a small grants management software company before coming to FM:Systems!

As far as my career goes, my first job out of college was as a Junior QA Engineer. My role was essentially to break things like applications and see how to make them better. That slowly evolved into what can we do to better improve our quality processes and sparked my interest in that area.

What attracted you to join FM:Systems?

I was recruited on LinkedIn. The culture and team environment drew me to FM:Systems.

Tell us something people might not know about FM:Systems.

Though the company has been around for decades, I feel like people may not realize how many new employees we have. What we’re able to produce and accomplish is all the more impressive considering how much we’ve grown and how many new faces we’ve added over the past couple of years.

Sum up your FM:Systems career to date in one word.

Progress.

What is your proudest moment at FM:Systems?

Last year I was able to organize an impromptu food drive for our local Salvation Army who had made the news pleading for help filling their barren shelves. I had sent the email out in the evening requesting donations by lunch time the next day--which I thought was a pretty ridiculous ask—however, the FM Family came through with about two grocery carts worth of food in total. I should have never doubted them because I can’t think of any other group more prepared for last minute requests.

Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

Before COVID-19, I was playing basketball at 5:30am 3 days a week.

When I was in high school, I used to moderate a website where members were obsessed with making basketball highlight mixes from games they would record straight from their television. Many of the people I corresponded with grew up to become professional graphic designers who have had their work featured in magazines, sites, and video games like NBA 2k. I grew up to work for FM Systems.

I used to be so introverted that when I was in kindergarten, my teacher didn’t think I could talk. She sent a tape recorder home with me so that my parents could record me talking. She then started to bribe me with Power Rangers cards in class to talk as much as I did while I was home!

What gets you out of bed every morning?

My alarm clock? A chance to be better today than I was yesterday.

What is your motto or personal mantra?

“Esse Quam Videri”, which is Latin for “To be, rather than to seem.” I first heard it from Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People but it also happens to be North Carolina’s state motto. This made me really begin to think about how much of my perception is really reality. I’ve always challenged myself to “be” rather than to seem!

If you could switch jobs with anyone in the world, who would it be?

James Dolan who is the owner of the NY Knicks, who is my favorite basketball team. I would relieve the pain and suffering of many Knicks fans.

Where would you like to go on a dream vacation?

The hoops head in me would love to go to Vegas during Summer League and just watch basketball all week.

If you could only drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A Tiger Woods (if you know, you know).

What is something you’ve always wanted to try?

I would like to see a Cowboys games in the new Cowboy stadium or sit courtside at Madison Square Garden

What TV show or movie are you ashamed to admit you love?

The first Hunger Games! I didn’t know anything about it when I went to go watch it. After watching it I bought the book and devoured it in 3 days, which is the fastest I’ve ever read a book.

What is your favorite food?

I’m a big fan of Southern Cuisine, so fried chicken, mac & cheese, collard greens, and yams. I also love breakfast food, so biscuits & gravy.

You’re happiest when….

The people I care about are happy.

What is your greatest fear?

Being wrongfully convicted of a crime.

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?

Get a lawyer!

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

Some advice from our high school football coach: “do your job.” We each had individual responsibilities on the field, and if we all did our job, then we would achieve the result we’re trying to get.

What chore do you absolutely hate doing?

All chores, but cleaning the bathroom is the worst.

When you have 30 minutes of free time, how do you pass the time?

Reading a book or article.

What’s your favorite indoor or outdoor activity?

Pick-up basketball!