Fanshawe graduate wins the 2016 Premier's Award in technology field

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Fanshawe alumnus Chris Gower was awarded a Premier's Award in the technology field on Nov. 21.

Chris Gower, chief operator officer of buildings at PCL Construction Inc., was named the recipient of the 2016 Premier's Award in the technology field, according to a Fanshawe press release.

The award was received at a gala in Toronto Nov. 21 and is a celebration for college graduates within Ontario.

Gower graduated from the construction engineering technology management program at Fanshawe in 1992 and since then has worked mainly for PCL for over 21 years.

“It's a great honour to receive the award. It's a proud moment to represent Fanshawe College and I think the award was set up and structured to celebrate the college system in Ontario and from that perspective, there certainly is a sense of pride in winning this award,” Gower said.

The gala held 107 graduates that were nominated for the possibility of winning an award in one of the following six categories: business, community services, creative arts and design, health sciences, recent graduate and technology.

“We are so proud of Chris and this achievement. His Fanshawe diploma, together with his knowledge, passion and leadership has enabled him to excel. We are honoured to count him as a member of our growing alumni family,” Fanshawe President, Peter Devlin, said in the press release.

Gower said that Fanshawe faculty and teachers paved the way for his success by providing him with “real-life” examples of what he would encounter. This allowed him to apply his skills and knowledge in the workforce with ease.

“The teachers managed to provide the right education to allow me to connect the dots when I got into the workforce and that allowed me to have success at a relatively early stage in my career,” Gower said.

He said that being successful in his early years helped build his confidence and allowed him to demonstrate competence in his work. As a result he was provided with more opportunities and tasks to complete for the company.

Gower said that while he had goals to reach the level of success he has achieved, he didn't grow up in the type of environment that offered a lot of encouragement, when it came to setting goals.

“I don't think anybody really, or at least I didn't anticipate hitting many goals and exceeding some of them that I had laid out in the very early days,” Gower said.

Gower said that throughout his career he still makes balancing work and family time a priority.

“Family is important…I've been happily married now for 22 years and I have two great kids… it's always been demanding throughout the years since graduating,” Gower said.

Looking into the future, Gower hopes to continue to grow personally and aspires to achieve the role of CEO of PCL.

More importantly he wants to continue to mentor others, give back to the community and help advance the business industry.

“It's less about me in this stage in my career and more about how can I help others,” Gower said.

Some advice that he wishes to pass on to students is that building a career is not just about being smart or lucky, but is built upon hard work and setting goals.

He also said that lifelong learning is a key aspect to being successful.

“The hard work needs to be applied not just to work, but to self development and learning and if any student can do that and be a lifelong learner, life gets easier for sure,” Gower said.