 Of
the AACE International women that I have met, they have certain
personality traits in common. These women are daring, fearless, and
they enjoy a good challenge. They are risk takers and pioneers.
Marlene Hyde is no exception. She has been flying hot air balloons
for over 30 years, and she and her husband have given over 8,000
balloon rides. Imagine attempting to navigate a balloon while at the
mercy of the winds, with only the other balloons as your guide to
the ever changing air currents, doing the best that you can to avoid
obstacles such as high voltage power lines and shotgun-toting
farmers. Balloonists always carry a bottle of champagne to mollify
the landowners wherever they land and they say the Irish
balloonists' prayer upon landing: “May the winds welcome you with
softness. The sun has blessed you with his warm hands. You have
flown so high and so well that God has joined you in your laughter
and has set you gently back again into the loving arms of Mother
Earth.”
Marlene has successfully blazed a trail in her profession,
charting a course for the next generation of women in project
controls. She attended the University of New Mexico, where she
received her bachelor's degree in architecture and planning. She
went on to win a scholarship from AGC and complete her master's
degree in construction engineering and management in 1976, the first
woman at the University of New Mexico to do so. The University was
caught off guard by her achievement, and at first failed to invite
Marlene to graduation and issue her master's degree because they
were certain that there had been some mistake. They soon rectified
their error.
She applied for many construction jobs, and became the
construction manager for a 9-month long project at Presbyterian
Hospital in Albuquerque. At that time, she and her husband decided
that this was a good time to start a family. Testament to her
perseverance is the fact that Marlene attended a bid opening while
in labor with her daughter, and was ready to come back to work at
the hospital three months later when the bid had been negotiated.
The nine month long project turned into a career at the hospital
that lasted for the next seven years.
In the early 1980's, an
interesting and challenging opportunity came available at Sandia
National Laboratories. Marlene joined the labs as the long-range
facilities planner. She worked long hours, and was proud to have
developed the first-ever long range site development plan. She also
handled all the NEPA environmental work and the land permit
negotiations. Having accomplished all that, she was lured away to
Intel, where she helped construct the world's largest cleanroom and
several other buildings. However, the long hours (frequently 12-15
hours/day) led her to decide that there was more to life. She left
Intel to start her own company, and spent the next two years running
an employment agency.
At that time, the environmental engineering
field was high profile, and the industry was booming. Marlene took a
number of courses in environmental engineering, ultimately receiving
a certificate in hazardous waste management, and was wooed back to
working at a consulting firm. At that time, she joined AACE
International and served as a board member for the Rio Grande
Section. She achieved her CCE certification in 1993.
Marlene spent
the next six years growing the company, with Sandia and Los Alamos
as clients, working on environmental projects and performing cost
and schedule control on those projects. When that company was bought
out, she started her own consulting firm. Hyde Consulting LLC was
born, an effort which Marlene says was largely because of invaluable
contacts at AACE International and the skills that she had honed
within the organization.
She landed several five-year contracts,
providing services such as lifecycle costing, scheduling,
environmental assessments, energy conservation program management,
cost estimating and budgeting, along with other consulting. She had
many top-name clients, including Indian Health Services; Motorola
Headquarters in Schaumberg, Illinois; the University of New Mexico;
and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad.
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Five years later, a
new opportunity was identified—the DOE was requiring all projects
over $20 million to have earned value reporting project controls.
Marlene assembled a team and approached Sandia National Laboratories
to perform this work, winning the job (through ORION International
Technologies). She initiated the project controls system for Sandia
National Laboratories' Corporate Projects Department, including
scheduling for over $400 million in projects. They also developed
the project performance management program, which enabled Sandia to
be the first DOE facility to have its earned value management system
certified by the Defense Contract Management Agency. This program
recently received the NOVA award, a national recognition by Lockheed
Martin. Marlene has most recently been instrumental in developing
the cost estimating system for facilities projects at Sandia.
As one
would expect from such a high achiever, Marlene is a very active and
committed member of AACE International, her community, and her
church. She and her husband of 36 years have helped to raise several
foster children, friends' children, and foreign exchange students
from Norway, Colombia, and Australia. She reactivated the AACE
International Albuquerque/Rio Grande Section in early 2003, and
served as president of the Section for one and a half years. She
presented a paper at the AACE International Annual Meeting in
Orlando in 2003, on Avoiding Project Controls Pitfalls, and
participated in the team that developed the PSP (Planning and
Scheduling Professional) Certification. She was recently appointed
to the AACE International Certification Board and is also currently
serving on the AACE International Women in Project Controls
Committee.
Marlene is an inspiration to others, both at home and in her
chosen profession. Her fearlessness is contagious, and seems to have
been passed down to her daughter, who is married, and has been a
combat flight medic with the US Army National Guard in Afghanistan,
a paragliding pilot, an ambulance driver, and is currently serving
in Iraq. Marlene's husband of 36 years is a corporate attorney who
loves to balloon, fly airplanes, ski, and travel to many interesting
places, including Peru, Costa Rica, Brazil, Norway, Australia,
Thailand, Singapore, etc. They have led mission trips and
participated in many exciting experiences, including zipping through
the rainforest canopy, riding elephants, whitewater rafting on the Sarapaqui River, riding horseback along the seashore, climbing the
steps of the Temple of Dawn in Bangkok, wearing boa constrictors
around their necks, snorkeling with sharks and manta rays, and
swimming with dolphins, among other experiences.
In looking back at
her career, Marlene testifies that she had to work very hard in
order to be taken seriously as a woman in the male-dominated field
of construction. From the outset, she believed that she needed to
set a good example for other women —and, to Marlene, that meant that
giving anything less than 110 percent of her best was not an option.
She also says that, as her career has changed dynamically over the
years, “AACE International has been a tremendous asset in my career.
The certification program has allowed me to demonstrate a level of
professional accomplishment that gives me and my employer
credibility. By attending local section meetings, I've kept current
with issues and trends in our local market and met people from a
variety of industries who are excellent resources when questions
come up. Through the Cost Engineering journal and attending the
Annual Meeting, I've learned what direction the rest of the US and
the world is heading and what the standards of the industry are.
Most importantly for me, as my career has changed over the years
from scheduling, to project controls, to earned value, to
estimating, the resources of AACE International—people, seminars,
books and other materials—have been there to provide guidance. And
now, after more than 30 years of experience, I'm able to provide
mentoring and encouragement to others coming into the profession.”
So, the next time you see hot air balloons in the sky, or a
skier flying down the ski slopes, be sure to wave. Marlene Hyde
might just wave back to you.
Article by Alexia Nalewaik, CCE
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