 In April 2006, at the biennial meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Ginette Basak became the first female chairman of the International Cost Engineering Council
(ICEC). A member of AACE International since 1980, prolific author of technical papers, and a seemingly tireless volunteer, Ginette is an honorary fellow of
AACE International, and is a registered professional engineer in Canada. Mrs. Basak is currently a project controls manager at Fluor Canada Ltd. in Calgary.
She is responsible for estimating, cost control, and scheduling activities on Phase 2/3 utilities and offsites for Canadian Natural Resources' Horizon Oil
Sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Ginette Basak was born in Montreal, Canada, to parents whose ancestors originally immigrated to Canada from
Normandy and Brittany almost 400 years ago. She attended a French elementary school and an English Catholic high school. At that time, it was not illegal for
a Francophone (native French-speaking person) to attend an English school, unlike today. Quebec's Charter of the French Language (also known as Bill 101) was
enacted 20 years ago as a remedy to preserve the French language.
Ginette originally wanted to be a lawyer, but the cultural expectation was that
girls would get married and do volunteer work instead of pursuing a career. Her earliest role models were volunteers—women who had a family, but who were
strong and quite capable. “These women could run a company,” says Ginette, “but they weren't given the opportunity to do so.” After graduating from high
school and attending one year of college, Ginette obtained a secretarial degree and worked for Christian Dior perfumes, followed by organizing concerts at
McGill University's Faculty of Music as concert officer. While an administrative assistant at McGill's Engineering Faculty, the Associate Dean encouraged her
to pursue an engineering degree and become an engineering librarian. At that time, Ginette had met several women in their 50's, who had engineering degrees
but were unable to find work as engineers. A career as a librarian seemed a viable option and, after studying at night school to fulfill the pre-requisites,
she entered the civil engineering program at Concordia University. While in college, she met and married Asit Basak, a post-doctoral fellow who has a Ph.D.
in structural dynamics. Ginette specialized in water treatment and construction management, graduating in 1979 with the Civil Engineering Medal for the
highest GPA in civil engineering. There were only eight women out of 200 engineering graduates that year.
In an unusually egalitarian arrangement, Ginette and Asit agreed to "take turns" when each of them needed to relocate for career reasons. In search of work, and with husband in tow, Mrs. Basak left
Montreal for Calgary, where the oil industry was booming. Interviewers focused on whether she would ultimately choose career over family, and they implied
that field conditions would not be supportive of female staff. Frustrated, Ginette attended an "open house" at Fluor Canada, Ltd., where she was introduced
to cost and scheduling engineering as a discipline and potential career path. She joined Fluor as a cost/schedule engineer, performing cost and schedule
control and manpower planning on methanol projects. Ginette embraced Fluor's training programs, including in-house courses on cost, schedule, and project
management topics, and she received an MBA in marketing and organizational dynamics at the University of Calgary, through a company-sponsored program. While
at Fluor, she was strongly encouraged to join AACE International, which she did in 1980, soon becoming treasurer of AACE International's Chinook-Calgary
Section.
Two years later, Ginette joined Partec Lavalin to work as lead cost engineer on the Gulf Hanlan Robb project, the largest sour gas processing
plant at that time. As a lead cost engineer on Syncrude and natural gas projects, she was one of only two women in the department. Although she experienced
isolation on these big projects, Ginette was mentored by several members of the local Section of AACE International, and found inspiration in the group.
One of her most challenging projects was as lead cost on Esso Resources' gas processing facilities in Norman Wells, North West Territories, 30 miles below
the "tree line." With only 1 ½ hours of daylight and below-40-degree temperatures in winter, "walking the site" to check out labor progress proved to be a
daily battle with Mother Nature. Ginette is adamant when she says, “Project controls cannot be performed sitting at a computer inside an office…it is
important for the cost engineer to see what's going on around the site. It is also important for project controls personnel to establish a visible presence
with the rest of the construction team.”
She later joined Kilborn Engineering in Saskatoon, as lead cost engineer and control team manager, and the
only woman on a joint venture project with Fluor. When the Upgrader project came to an end, Ginette joined SED Systems, a high-tech design/manufacturing
company of hardware and software for space instrumentation and satellite communications, as manager of their program controls department. She had a unique
opportunity to establish a new department for program controls, integrating project planning and controls, contract administration services, and project
accounting. Although SED was in the manufacturing industry, team members were able to take basic project controls principles and apply them to the
manufacturing environment.
In 1989, it was Ginette's turn to move, following her husband to Vancouver where they both worked for Cominco Engineering.
Mrs. Basak became project controls manager, performing cost control and scheduling for mining projects in remote Canadian locations, Nevada, and Chile. She
was able to draw upon her multilingual skills, developing project procedures and project quality assurance manuals in both English and French and translating
Spanish technical documents. The transition from oil and gas to mining was difficult, as the mining industry was notoriously unsupportive of female
engineers. Cominco had difficulty keeping female engineers on staff, yet Ginette stayed with the company for six years. She even worked on copper/zinc/gold
mine and mill projects, although it was considered to be bad luck for females to enter a gold mine.
A newspaper ad drew Ginette to TransCanada Pipelines
in 1995. This “owner company” had a number of female engineers on staff. As manager of project management and controls for capital construction projects
totaling over $1 billion per year, Ginette identified a “black hole” of project information, caused by legacy systems and geographically diverse project
sites. She led the in-house development and implementation of the innovative “Project Cockpit” internet application, which centralized information from
multiple existing databases and enabled team members to log in from remote locations to access project information.
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Ginette attended a joint AACE
International/ICEC meeting in Vancouver, and was inspired by her husband to answer an ICEC call for papers. Her technical paper on the “Project Cockpit”
topic, entitled, “Enhanced Project Cost Control: A Dynamic and Contemporary Approach to Accessing and Modifying Project Information Using the Internet,” was
presented in 1998, at the International Cost Engineering Congress in Rotterdam, and received the Jan Korevaar Outstanding Paper Award. Ginette became
Director of ICEC Region 1 (North and South America) in 1999.
Laid off after the TransCanada Pipelines/NOVA merger in 1999, Ginette turned to the AACE
International network in Calgary to find her next job. At Bantrel Inc., Ginette joined the PMO team as project controls manager and business manager for the
sulphur and hydrogen units on the Athabasca Oil Sands Downstream Project. Project controls for this mega-project were dynamic, and the project controls team
tackled estimate development, schedules, validation of contractors' progress and performance, cost reports, trending system effectiveness, cash flow and
contingency evaluation. Later projects led to a focus on the development of sound project estimates and cash flow forecasts, as well as fit-for-purpose
processes to capture data, monitor status, report and evaluate performance with special emphasis on early notification of potential changes. During this time
period, Ginette's volunteerism went into overdrive, as she was President of AACE International's Chinook-Calgary Section, co-chair of the conference
organizing committee for the 2nd World Cost Congress in 2000 (a joint meeting of AACE International and ICEC) in Calgary, and ICEC Administrative Vice Chair
for Regions 1 and 2.
After a short stint as vice-president of a software development company, Ginette rejoined Fluor Canada . The kinship of the extended
Fluor family was hard to resist, and Ginette felt at home as lead cost engineer on the Horizon Oil Sands project. She also became Senior Vice Chair of
ICEC.
Outside of the workplace, Ginette shares her passion for music and art with her husband and their 15-year-old daughter. Musical tastes range from
baroque to jazz, while collecting Inuit sculptures and Pacific Northwest Coast Native masks and prints provides a continuing source of joy and renewal.
Twenty-seven years of experience in project controls gives her a bird's-eye view of the industry. According to Ginette, “…there are some days where
everything is working well and others where you're pulling your hair out, but you will never be bored in project controls.” With almost half of her career
spent working for owner companies, Ginette gained a first-hand perspective and appreciation of owner needs. She believes strongly in project controls as a
very viable career choice and constantly evolving profession. She perceives that lack of visibility of project controls as a career is the primary detriment
in recruiting, and can be a barrier in effectiveness of project controls on the job. She is actively searching for a way to convey the energy and benefits
that come from a career in project controls, and she believes that senior project controls professionals have a personal obligation to share their knowledge
and experience with young recruits.
“Commitment from senior management is needed to ensure that project controls isn't at the bottom of the totem pole,
and that professional recognition is provided within the company for project controls professionals,” says Ginette. She has found that Fluor is one of the
few companies that gives more than just lip service to the importance of project controls for project success, with extensive in-house training and support
of project controls professionals at both local and international levels.
Ginette has definitely seen a change in demographics over time. There are
more women in engineering than before, but she observes that women in project controls are still “low-key.” More people with business backgrounds are
choosing project controls as a career, which brings additional skill sets (such as project accounting and business analysis) to the team, and trades people
have proven to be excellent estimators. She believes that project controls as a profession will need to adapt their resources and training materials to
support the technical development of non-engineers. With the globalization of today's workforce, another key “soft” skill set that needs to be developed is
the ability to function in a culturally diverse workplace.
“It is important to be active in professional societies,” says Ginette. “A main component of
success is lifelong learning.” She believes that the local Section is the best source of support for people working in project controls, and happily attests
to the benefits of mentorship through AACE International and ICEC.
So, what is ICEC? “It is worldwide confederation of more than 40 national and
multinational cost engineering, quantity surveying, and project management societies which acts to promote the exchange of cost engineering and project
management information and experiences.” Although ICEC is an association of societies, the focus is on serving the needs of the over 100,000 individual
members with common interests in professional development, standards and practices. After many years of effort, ICEC is now being recognized by the United
Nations as a NGO (non-governmental organization) thus enhancing the ability of its members to help developing countries by sharing its technical expertise in
cost and project management.
Shameless promotion of professional associations is a Ginette Basak trademark, as she encourages us to note that the next
ICEC meeting will be conducted jointly with AACE International in 2008, in Toronto, Canada, and the 2010 meeting will be in Singapore. She looks forward to
seeing you there!
Article by Alexia Nalewaik, CCE
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