Talent

Employee Success Stories

Middough strives to hire, train, support and promote employees who represent our core values as a company by exhibiting professionalism, taking initiative, honoring commitments and dedication to continuous improvement.

Middough Annual EHS & Quality Excellence Awards

Middough recognizes individuals who demonstrate outstanding initiative and contribution to the advancement of Middough’s culture of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) excellence and Quality excellence. Each year, one individual from each office is recognized for EHS Excellence and for Quality Excellence demonstrated through the year. Awards are also given for the top contributor for the year in EHS and in Quality. 

As a company we look for recognizable initiative showing specific signs of progress toward our continuous improvement priorities, demonstration of a One Middough™ culture, and delivery of Performance You Trust™ and Project Solutions.



Overall EHS & Quality Excellence Award Recipients

Alex Lutz

2023 Overall EHS Excellence Award Recipient 

Alex is a Sr. Engineer in the Pittsburgh office who exceeded the annual goal of safety observations by submitting 26 observations in his first year with Middough. Not only did Alex meet the 2023 EHS priority of 100% participation in the Safe By Choice Observation program, he leveraged those observations by leading the Pittsburgh office with eight Safe By Design observations including recognizing:

  • Two instances of instrumentation did not meet area classification requirements for a facility. As a result, Alex ensured all instruments and sensors for these projects were properly specified and updated to meet the area classification.
  • An OEM would not be providing all the safety elements needed in a plant’s process, therefore ensured those safety elements were included, and documented the change properly.
  • Each vendor on a project would be concerned with their safety designs, but would not integrate the safety measures into the entire project. Therefore, Alex ensured Middough covered the safety design gaps for the project.

Thank you for your commitment to safety, Alex!

Pictured: Michael Enders, Alex Lutz, Bob Necciai

Michelle Casto

2023 Overall Quality Excellence Award Recipient


Michelle is a Senior Process Engineer in Middough’s Cleveland office. In 2023, Michelle submitted five Quality Observations. Following one of her quality observations, Michelle developed a written procedure to memorialize the needed linkage of Plant 3D and Aspen software for higher quality design and efficiency. 

Michelle’s commitment to drive results in quality improvement and being accountable to take on the quality improvement task implementation, which will immediately drive value-added internal cost savings for our clients, is truly remarkable. 

Congratulations, Michelle and thank you for delivering Performance You Trust™.

 


 

Pictured: Mark Seifried, Michelle Casto, and Carl Wendell

William A. Zato

2022 Overall EHS Excellence Award Recipient

 

Since Middough’s EHS Safety Program inception, Bill has served as the Indiana office’s Safety Champion. Over the years, he has been instrumental in organizing, training, and enforcing safety measures throughout the office. In 2022, with a nearly doubled workforce and a move to a new office building this past year, Bill's efforts were especially crucial. He led the charge for training new and existing employees, extensively researched safety equipment, and regularly updated the office on new EHS developments from Middough and our clients.

In addition, Bill led by example by submitting 15 safety observations this year and presented the office’s observations at the monthly EHS leadership meeting. Bill manages his busy project workload while simultaneously advocating for workplace safety. Everyone greatly values Bill's efforts and dedication to safety.

 



Bill Zato holding award

Pictured: Carl Wendell, Bill Zato, and Tom Sexton

Christopher D. Ryan

2022 Overall Quality Excellence Award Recipient

In 2022, Chris demonstrated emerging leadership skills while working as an on-site project engineer during the Commercial Metals Corporation Arizona Plant Expansion. Tasked initially with civil/structural support during construction, he was instrumental in assuring RFIs were addressed, and submittals reviewed and coordinated. Taking initiative, Chris identified communication gaps between the trade contractors and the construction process. 

He also recognized the value he could add to the project by leveraging the project’s 3D Model to show the trade contractors the design intent and communicate construction sequencing to eliminate unnecessary rework, which plagued the project early on. His insight and understanding of the value of the 3D Model clearly enhanced the overall project outcome. This demonstrated leadership significantly improved communication, coordination, and quality control for the duration of construction. 

Chris’ efforts demonstrate our core values of taking initiative and being professional. Thank you, Chris, for your commitment to quality and delivering Performance You Trust™.

Pictured: Carl Wendell and Christopher Ryan

Larry Krakovsky

2021 Overall EHS Excellence Award Recipient

 

In recognition of his commitment to Environmental Health and Safety, Larry Krakovsky, Mechanical Specialist, is hereby presented the 2021 Middough Overall Company EHS Excellence Award. During the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Larry has been immersed in Middough’s health and safety effort. He has been a leader in the office, at the site, and from home.

 

Larry has not only provided EHS orientation for the Cleveland new hires but also did so for the Pittsburgh office. His technique for introducing the Middough safety observation program during the new hire orientation has helped many of the new employees become active participants in our program. He regularly encourages the office as a whole and as individuals to submit safety observations. Larry’s commitment resulted in submission of 92 observations in 2021 with four of those being significant Safe by Design entries. Additionally, he is the go-to person when safety equipment is needed for work in the field work and communicates proactively with EHS Manager, Tom Sexton, when there is a need for specialized equipment. Larry is a veteran EHS champion and we are greatly appreciative of the ways he has exceeded expectations in 2021. Thank you, Larry, for exemplifying Middough’s Safe by Choice culture.

Thomas Voytko

2021 Overall Quality Excellence Award Recipient

 

In recognition of his commitment to quality, Tom Voytko, Sr. Structural Engineer, is hereby presented the 2021 Middough Overall Company Quality Excellence Award. 

 

Tom exemplified the One Middough culture by work sharing with every office and over 30 team members during the execution of the largest project in the company in 2021. As the structural discipline lead for this confidential project for the past eighteen months, Tom and the entire project team were tested with fast-track schedule demands and ever-increasing scope. Tom tackled this by leading proactive meetings with the client, vendors, and contractors. He identified issues and solved problems before construction. He executed over 75 DQR meetings achieving near perfect scores. His organization and leadership are invaluable at Middough and 2021 was truly remarkable.

 

Thank you, Tom, for demonstrating Middough’s core values of being professional, taking initiative, honoring commitments, and continuously improving. Your behavior, tested during the many storms of a major project, truly demonstrated your ongoing commitment to the Middough brand promise, Performance You Trust™.

Middough EHS & Quality Excellence Award Recipients

To see a full list of our 2022 EHS Excellence winners, click here.

To see a full list of our 2022 Quality Excellence winners, click here.

To see a full list of our 2021 EHS and Quality winners, click here.