Phoenix Mecano March Employee Spotlight: Engineer Faisal Pawaskar

What made you want to get into engineering?

I originally had an interest in automotive. I was and still am a big car nerd. I was more technically inclined when it came to cars.

What aspect about your job do you really enjoy?

The most fun part is being exposed to a unique project. The way each project can be so different while using the same product is interesting.

What’s one thing people might not know about you?

I’m into electronic music and I used to DJ a little bit.

What is one thing people don’t know about Phoenix Mecano’s products that you think they would find surprising or interesting?

The possibilities in terms of customization we can provide to make our enclosures perfectly suited to the customer’s needs. We go beyond just selling enclosures. We see our strength in the value added services we can offer our customers from our facility in Frederick, MD.

What’s the coolest application of a Phoenix Mecano product that you’ve seen?

Besides Robert Downey Jr handling our Pilot Handheld enclosure in Iron-man? We had a customer who had developed a way to reliably distribute full-bandwidth audio signal wirelessly to loudspeakers in remote locations, and the electronics needed to be housed in the open for clear transmission. Our Aluminum enclosures are being used to house the electronics and antennas and protect them from the elements and temperature variations, allowing the customer to provide high quality audio transmission across a large area (like a concert).

If there was another career field you could break into, what would it be?

Automotive engineering. The reason I’m not in that field now is because the university I studied at didn’t offer it.

What is your background? Ex: where are you originally from, where did you go to school, etc.

I am Indian. My parents moved to the United Arab Emirates in 1979. I was born there and did most of my schooling there. I spent some time in India and went to school there for three years, then went to college in Sharjah (southern neighbor of Dubai). I worked in Dubai for three years then moved to the United States to be with my wife, who is a US citizen.

What is your favorite pastime?

I love listening to music and audio books.

Where would you like to be, career wise, in 10 years?

I’m currently in school getting my MBA, so I’d like to be in a position at Phoenix Mecano that I could utilize my technical skills and the knowledge gained from my MBA.

Have you travelled a lot? Where to?

What’s the #1 place you would like to visit? I’ve travelled a decent amount. I’ve been to India, New Zealand, Dubai and Ireland. I’d love to visit Japan someday.

Do you have any bucket list items? Ex: skydiving, learning to play an instrument, etc.

I had an early ambition of being a rally car driver as a kid. I’d love to race competition series motorcycles!

So there you have it, straight from the man himself! In addition to this interview, we also asked President & CEO Philip Brown about Faisal and he was happy to share his thoughts.

“Faisal is a very talented, professional engineer. Not only is his structured mindset helping to build opportunities for his future, he doesn’t lose sight of what his daily functions are, here and now. Faisal’s international “flavor” has helped mold his work ethic and development in this field. He is a good listener, as well as a good communicator, and has all of the engineering principles I like to see in a Phoenix Mecano employee. He always strives to advance himself professionally and has proven himself to be a genuinely nice person.”

And that’s all for this month’s Employee Spotlight! We hope you enjoyed learning more about Faisal and we can’t wait to bring you more ‘Spotlights’ in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned to our blog to see what’s next!