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ASHRAE Journal:
ASHRAE Journal presents:
Alex McQuade:
Hello everyone, and welcome to the ASHRAE Journal Podcast. Today, I am your host, Alex McQuade, and I have the privilege of interviewing my father, Bill McQuade. Our guest today is the current ASHRAE Society President, he holds 22 U.S. and international patents, he served as a Chapter President and is a current ASHRAE Fellow. Bill is a triple Penn State grad and father of two. And throughout his career, he's worked in various aspects of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. He is the current Global Vice President for Government Affairs and Sustainability at Baltimore Air Coil Company. And I also have the privilege of co-interviewing my father with my brother, Colin McQuade, and he is on this interview as well. So I'll pass the mic to him to introduce himself.
Colin McQuade:
I'm Colin. I am a culinary student at the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts, and I am excited today to interview my father.
Bill McQuade:
And an ASHRAE student member, right?
Colin McQuade:
Yeah, and an ASHRAE student member.
Alex McQuade:
Awesome. So I think we can roll onto our first question of the day. So I think what would be best is if we kind of did a run through from the beginning of your career to now. So I think we can start with when you were in college. So my first question for you is, what was your first job out of college? And how did you decide that HVAC was the right industry for you?
Bill McQuade:
Well, it actually started before I had left college. I was very interested in airplanes because my father was an Air Force Pilot. And I didn't have perfect eyes, so I went to college to design jet engines. I loved all aspects of airplanes, but in particularly the engines. And when I went to Penn State, I took all kinds of thermodynamics and turbomachinery courses. But when I graduated, there was no jobs in the industry. Typically with the defense industry is either feast or famine. They either hire a bunch or they're laying people off, and it happened to be in a layoff cycle.
So I decided to stay at Penn State and get my master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. And I was looking for support and I got an assistantship, a graduate assistantship or research assistantship, excuse me, with Dr. Ralph Webb, who had been the head of Heat Transfer at Trane. He was the father of enhanced boiling tubes in chillers. And the research I did was very focused on the HVAC industry. So he had a number of consortiums that had companies like York International and Johnson Controls and Trane and others that were members. And that was my first introduction to the HVAC industry. And when I finished my research, which was around the transition to low—or getting away from ozone depleting refrigerants, I finished my research and I got a job with York International in York, Pennsylvania.
Colin McQuade:
That's very interesting. If you could go back to your college days and give yourself a piece of advice, what would you say?
Bill McQuade:
I think at the time I was in college, I was so kind of focused on making the right decision coming out of college and making sure I was in the career path that I thought would be the rest of my career. I think I would tell myself to relax, things are going to change. You may not end up doing what you think you're going to be doing. I certainly learned that right off the bat with not working in the aircraft industry. But even throughout my career, my roles have changed. What I'm doing now is very different than what I started doing. So I would tell myself to relax and kind of take life and opportunities as they come and be curious.
Alex McQuade:
I think that's wonderful advice, especially as your son, I think I also struggle with the same thing. And I think that's something that we can all learn to live by is like, try to relax and enjoy the moment.
So since we're on the ASHRAE Journal podcast, I think it's really important that we find out when you first got involved with ASHRAE. So do you think you could shed some light on that time of your life?
Bill McQuade:
Sure. When I joined York, I started working for a gentleman by the name of Keith Starner. And Keith was very involved in ASHRAE in some of the TCs around heat transfer and TC 8.2, which was centrifugal machines. And my first day of work, I got settled and got my allocations of office supplies. And the next thing Keith did was handed me an application to become an ASHRAE member. So he told me how important it was to our industry and that I needed to sign up right away. And only a few months later, I was going to my first annual meeting of ASHRAE, which happened to be in Philadelphia that year. And he brought me to TC 8.2, sat me at the table and said, "Look for an opportunity to volunteer to do something." So my indoctrination to ASHRAE was immediate and it made all the difference to getting me up to speed in my career.
Colin McQuade:
So you've been mentioning some of the mentors in your career. I wanted to ask, who are some of the biggest mentors in your life?
Bill McQuade:
Well, in my life, certainly my parents both had very strong work ethics. My father was a—his father passed away when he was very young, so his whole family had to work to get by. And he joined the Air Force straight out of high school and was able actually to become a pilot and become an officer without ever having gone to college, he retired as a Colonel in the Air Force. So he did that through hard work and determination and that example certainly helped me decide how I was going to approach life. He always told me to do a little more, you'll stand out like a sore thumb. So that's something that I always took.
Certainly within ASHRAE, there's been a lot of folks who have been very important to kind of my development within ASHRAE. I think about folks like Tom Watson and Julian DeBullet, Tom Werkema, Charlie Culp, Jim Wolf, Bill Bahnfleth and the late David Underwood who just passed away. Different times through my journey in ASHRAE, those folks have made a big difference in either giving me advice or giving me opportunities to maybe participate on a committee. Or just kind of help guiding me and giving me pointers on how best to approach things. So those folks have been huge and I certainly think about paying that forward as I go. I take the time to identify folks who I think have potential and try to help them move forward.
ASHRAE Journal:
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Alex McQuade:
So now I kind of want to transition to something that Colin and I have actually gotten to play a little bit of a part in, which is your presidential year so far. We're about the six-month marker here during this recording. So I'm curious, what have been some highlights of your presidential year so far? I know mine have been Romania and going to Ecuador, I think those have been amazing because I got to be there. I'm sure they were a highlight for you. But I'm curious to see what your other highlights were.
Bill McQuade:
Yeah, obviously I'm getting to see a lot of places and meet a number of people and it's amazing. I mean, ASHRAE is such a family and such a brother- and sisterhood. It's wherever you go, regardless of geographic borders or cultures, we're all one when it comes to ASHRAE. So I've been treated like gold everywhere that I've been. It's been exciting to see, particularly the youth, the young members getting excited and just seeing the potential that our young generation of ASHRAE members has. We're in good hands going forward. I'm so excited about our future, seeing and meeting the students and the YEA members around the world.
As far as takeaways, I've done a lot of speaking at different events. Not just our chapters regional conferences, but also a number of outside conferences and symposiums. And I'm finding really three things. One, when it comes to indoor environmental quality, which is my focus of my theme this year, there's a lot of excitement about that and a lot of different organizations that are working in that area. And what I've been told and the feedback that I've gotten is they're very excited that ASHRAE is focused on this. And they're also looking as ASHRAE because of our global scope and because of our technical prowess, they're looking for us to be the convener of multiple organizations in working together rather than duplicating efforts. So that's something that absolutely is a thing that I keep getting, that I keep seeing in different parts of the world, regardless if it's in Asia or Europe or, of course, North America.
Second thing is decarbonization. There's been a lot of concern about transitions in the leadership in the U.S. in terms of the government, but what I'm seeing is the focus on decarbonization and getting buildings to net zero carbon is universal, there's a tremendous amount of interest. Within the United States, with a lot of the consulting engineer community and commitments that corporations have made. But also around the world, whether it's Asia or India or Europe, folks are really focused on getting to net zero carbon. And they're really happy to see the Center of Excellence for building decarbonization and what we're doing in terms of getting resources out to the masses, particularly around the MEP type systems.
And then lastly, workforce development. Dennis last year, that was his focus and theme. There is a strong need for educational resources, training resources for not only the new generation, but also kind of retraining of existing generation to learn more about operations and maintenance, to learn about decarbonization, about what AI might mean to our industry. And that's something that certainly is universal. I'm hearing that everywhere I go.
Colin McQuade:
And you were saying earlier about indoor air quality, all of this stuff relates to that. Your theme has been shelter for your presidency, and it's been in your speech. I'm wondering if you had a dream shelter, what would it be?
Bill McQuade:
Well, yeah, just to explain that a little bit. Shelter, I bring that up in my theme and I relate a lot of the initiatives within my theme to kind of the idea of how buildings are not just protection from the elements, it's places where you grow as a person, where you find your personal identity. They have the opportunity to keep you healthy and productive and really to allow you to explore your full potential. And so that's kind of where the idea of shelter, it's not just the elements, it's the whole aspect, the whole reason that we create buildings. So that's kind of where that comes from.
My dream shelter, I do like the outdoors. I probably, when I built the house that I'm in now in a neighborhood and the idea there was to allow you two to have friends and that and the neighborhood. But I think, I guess I would probably want to be a little further out, a little more remote, maybe some kind of a mountain house or maybe an old farm or something like that. Certainly I would work to make it as close to net zero energy and carbon as possible and it would have world-class IEQ, that's for sure.
Colin McQuade:
Have a waterfall underneath like Falling Waters and all that?
Bill McQuade:
Maybe. Maybe in the backyard anyways.
Alex McQuade:
I love that. It sounds like it might be a bit of a challenge. And speaking of challenges, what is a major challenge that you've noticed in the implementation of initiatives like Designing for Life, one of your major themes of your presidency? And how do you hope that can be addressed in the future?
Bill McQuade:
When it comes to indoor environmental quality, what typically happens is that building owners and designers make a choice between energy efficiency initiatives and indoor environmental quality initiatives. And when it comes down to a tight budget for a project, they tend to value engineer out the indoor environmental, the people kind of focused features in a building.
And it doesn't have to be that way. I think when a lot of times you look at the capitalization budget or the cap budget where a building is built or renovated versus the operating budget that a company might have, and they come out of two different pockets. So the people who pay for energy or look at the cost of employee absenteeism or productivity are different than the people who are assigning capital resources to a project. And so finding a way that we use more of a comprehensive approach to building design is what's really needed. And that's part of my first initiative that developing that roadmap around how to find that nexus between energy efficiency, and indoor environmental quality, and approaching the design of a building or the retrofit of an existing building in more of a comprehensive approach.
The other thing is kind of assigning, what is the true value of indoor environmental quality? I think there's a far-reaching societal impacts in terms of people living longer, healthier, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity that aren't quantified in kind of the initial decision making. So how do we better emphasize those kinds of benefits from indoor environmental quality so that everyone thinks about them and that as we create maybe incentives to get people to improve the indoor environmental quality, what's the best way to approach that, maybe even from a policy standpoint? So certainly kind of making people aware of the value of it.
And I think we had that for a little bit there during COVID. I think everybody understood how important a healthy approach to buildings was in preventing the transmission of COVID. But as we get further away from that pandemic, the concern is that people will go back to their past practices of not focusing on that as much.
Colin McQuade:
So far throughout this year, you've seen a lot of buildings and you've seen these plans taken away from pen and paper and put into an actual building. Through that this year, what have you seen that has been very interesting to you with the new technology and new stuff that has been implemented into buildings?
Bill McQuade:
I think where I've seen it implemented in the most comprehensive ways, probably in the recent visit that I had to the Japanese chapter in Tokyo. Some of the members took us for a tour on a number of buildings that they had been working in. And just to see the emphasis that they put on the indoor environment and how that's important to productivity of the people. We had, for instance, they focus on where they put meeting spaces. For collaborative spaces, they put them to the outside, toward the windows, where you might be able to have more of a lively discussion and not be as influenced by things going on outside. Whereas they have areas for focused work more toward the center of the building that are quieter, have less traffic and people can focus.
Another thing is, there was a number of buildings that had heat maps, and they would show you the temperature zones in the building. And if you're an employee that maybe feels cold all the time, you can seat yourself in an area that is warmer or vice versa. Or if you have, for instance, work to do that you want to be focused, then you head to that focus area. And then lighting, acoustics, all of that has been really something that I've seen implemented very well in Japan, and I think we could learn a lot from them. And at the same time, they've kept a very efficient building. So they're finding that right balance. And I think we can learn a lot from what's going on in Japan.
Alex McQuade:
Yeah, and it sounds like what that requires is a lot of planning and really having everything set forth. Speaking of plans, we still have another six months of your presidency left. What are some plans and goals that you have for these next six months? And how do you plan to maximize this opportunity?
Bill McQuade:
Sure. So the first six months, really, you become president July 1, and that's really the kickoff of our chapter's regional conference season. So I immediately went and visited, I think, four or five different chapter regional conferences, or CRCs. So that was a lot of kind of understanding the strengths and possibly areas of focus for each of the regions, getting feedback from our members on what's going right, what we could improve upon. And then we had our big IEQ conference in September up in Montreal, that was very energizing to see how much focus that people have on indoor environmental quality. And then I recently visited Greenbuild and seeing the focus on decarbonization. And just a couple other conferences that I participated in where I'm either speaking on decarbonization or on indoor environmental quality.
Kind of the next six months are really focused on visiting individual chapters in the region. So I'll be spending a good bit of time traveling in springtime, kind of reaching out to the grassroots of our society. And kind of getting feedback from them on how to improve things and kind of bringing the message of healthy buildings and designing for life to the masses. So I'm looking forward to that. Of course, there's a few conferences sprinkled in there, certainly the expo and our winter meeting.
And then I'm going to be visiting ACREX over in India, which is their big show. And also China refrigeration shows. So while I'm in each of those regions attending those conferences, I'll take the time to certainly visit the various chapters. And then kind of leading up to our annual meeting in June. So really excited about what we have to do going forward, I think it's going to be great getting the feedback. Of course, there's a lot of ASHRAE things that go on in there too, the board meetings and ExCom meetings and kind of guiding the society through the development of the next budget and handing the society off to Sarah for her year.
Colin McQuade:
With this year, you've traveled a lot and I mean, you will travel a bunch more, as you've just said. How do you feel that you can keep your body and mind healthy throughout this time? And is there anything that you do in specific to keep everything moving smoothly?
Bill McQuade:
Certainly there's been a lot of travel and that does take its toll on your body. I am working full time for my company too. Baltimore Air Coil has been great about supporting me and giving me the time to go do this travel. But at the same time, I have responsibilities in there. So a lot of times at the end of the night, I have kind of three choices. One is to either work out, two is to get a good night's sleep, or three is to get caught up on my email and work. So it's constantly a battle of which one I do. I hate to say it, but a lot of times the one that doesn't get the focus is working out.
But that's something when I do come home, I go every day either to the gym or I do like yoga and Pilates. So I get a workout in as much as I possibly can. And occasionally on the road, there's various hotels and things have gyms and things like that. So I'm trying to do it. Also, whenever I can get a chance, I go for a walk or a hike and certainly the different places that I've visited, that's something that they seem to prioritize based upon my theme and again, kind of showing that I'm an outdoors person. So I've had some wonderful opportunities to go on hikes or visit something outside and get my legs moving. So that's what it is. My goal is not to get too fat while I'm in this year, but we'll see. We'll see how I do.
Alex McQuade:
Every time I call you, you're in a different time zone. So one thing that I'm curious about, when you're thinking about six months down the line when you're passing the torch to Sarah, are there any things that you kind of had to push off this year, just because you have so many priorities that you hope you get to do when you are no longer a president? Like any personal goals, any professional goals that you would like to accomplish?
Bill McQuade:
Yeah, certainly there's some initiatives that I want to really dive into and focus on. BAC has been very patient and supportive of me. I want to make sure that I come back and do the best job possible for BAC. But other than that, there's certainly some ... I'd like to do some more certifications within ASHRAE. I recently got the Certified Decarbonization Professional and I'd like to do a couple more of those. So that's certainly on my plate.
I love to learn. And I find one of the best ways to do that is to read the Journal articles that come out. And when I first started my career, I read just ones that were relevant to chiller design or whatever I was focused on at the time. But I spent tour on the publications committee and every year we had to read all of the journal articles to pick the best article of the year. And I'll tell you, I learned so much from reading articles that I didn't think I was interested in because it gives you a broader perspective. So kind of making sure that I'm keeping up with kind of the trends. It's part of my job for Baltimore Air Coil, but it's also part of kind of me understanding where the industry is going, and what external forces are acting on our industry, and how we could be more agile.
So I'm looking forward to kind of keeping up with that and maybe read a few books too. I'd like to kind of get back to that. I was pretty good for a while of reading books and listening to books on audio. And I really just haven't had a chance for the past six, eight months.
Colin McQuade:
You've mentioned about designs and how you've read the Journal articles on that. Whenever you were first started, you were a design engineer. How did you take the transition into leadership at York and then JCI? And how has that kind of helped you through ASHRAE and then into Baltimore Air Coil and all that?
Bill McQuade:
So I think ASHRAE actually played a big role in that also because when you start off as a design engineer, you might be focusing on developing one component in a piece of equipment or something like that. And eventually as people get confident in you, they might give you a project that has multiple people working on it. And then from that, if you show the ability to project manage, that is something that maybe leads to maybe your first manager role and then from there you move up.
And really ASHRAE has been important for that because I learned how to run a meeting, for instance, with people who don't report to you in ASHRAE. As I took certainly a technical committee chairmanship, I learned how to work with my competitors in accomplishing something for the good of the industry. And so you learn people dynamics and how to lead a team through working in ASHRAE.
And then as I moved up in the ASHRAE organization where you started looking at developing budgets and selling a proposal to, for instance, the board of directors on getting something done and working on even larger size projects. And that certainly helped me in my work doing a similar thing for my company. And so they've kind of fed on each other as I've gone. But certainly ASHRAE, if you look at ASHRAE as an opportunity to learn and to build skills, it's a safe environment for your company to send you to and to learn these things that you then can use in business. So from that standpoint, that was one of the things I think that's really helped my career move forward was my time in ASHRAE, and the things that I've learned in ASHRAE and vice versa.
Colin McQuade:
What would you say to a young engineer that's in ASHRAE? What's a word of advice that you would give to them?
Bill McQuade:
Yeah. Sometimes I hear people hesitate to participate in a technical committee or in another committee because they feel like they don't know enough. I would say jump in with both feet. People in ASHRAE, people that want to get involved and that work hard, we'll teach you the ropes. And if you have a question about something and it doesn't make sense, there's a good chance that there's other people in the room that have that same question. So I'd say never hesitate to ask a dumb question because it's probably not dumb. Probably people sitting in the room that have that same question. So that would be my advice to them.
Alex McQuade:
I like what you said about jumping in with both feet, just because I think that's something that extends past ASHRAE and everything. I'm a PharmD student at Purdue and I think that's something I've learned from you as well is just like, there is no table that I don't have a seat at. It's worth trying and seeing where I can bring my skillset to. And I definitely agree with you that that's the best advice a young member of ASHRAE could definitely have is just have the guts and motivation and push to just jump in and you won't have any regrets.
I guess speaking of like inspiration and things that I've learned from you, I know that your dad is a huge inspiration to you and you talked a lot about him in the mentorship question. But you're a big inspiration for us as well. And so, I'm very grateful that Colin and I have the opportunity to tell you how much all that you do means to us. I'm sure that your dad is smiling down from heaven, looking at all of the amazing work you're doing now. What accomplishment do you think he would be most proud of if you showed him?
Bill McQuade:
That's a good question. I think my dad was one that I mentioned work ethic and he was also big on character and integrity. And that was something that I think has been a guidepost for me in my career is making sure that I not only do things well, but do things with integrity and character. And so I think if he looked down, I think he would be proud that I've had a career that I've been able to maintain that.
And also, I think he was very popular with his troops. As I mentioned, he was an Air Force Colonel and a Wing Commander and he was well thought of as a leader. So I think that was important, kind of making sure that you take care of the people that are coming up under you. And I think he would approve of things that I've done in that aspect in mentoring people or helping lift people up. So we all work as a team, there's no individuals in ASHRAE. And so that's something that I think is important to keep in mind that we do this together, we have to help each other. And together we can accomplish much more than any one of us can individually.
Colin McQuade:
For you, what do you think in ASHRAE has fulfilled you personally in life?
Bill McQuade:
Obviously I've worked in the industry for over 32 years and I'm very proud of the things that I've designed or the projects that I've been involved in. But I think there's a bigger sense of kind of helping not only promote our industry, but helping society in general. And so I think from an ASHRAE standpoint, I take a lot of pleasure in the fact that I've had an impact even in a very small way to kind of what our industry has done and what we do for society. I think it's so important that the built environment keeps us healthy and keeps us safe and keeps us productive, and does it in a way that's responsible from an environmental standpoint. So I would say that kind of the societal and industry contributions probably outweigh kind of the personal engineering kind of contributions or things that I've done personally or for my specific company. So I'd say it's really made my career fulfilling. And I don't think I would be nearly as happy in my work if I didn't have ASHRAE as part of it.
Alex McQuade:
ASHRAE has been such a wonderful place for Colin and I to go to meetings. I'm not an engineer, I'm not studying to be an engineer. But I've always felt like I've been part of the family of ASHRAE and I think that's definitely something the organization has that is really unique and special. It's like everyone comes from all over with many different interests and cultures and backgrounds, but everybody has this united mission and a lot of care for each other. So I wanted to say too, thank you to everyone out there listening who is part of ASHRAE for welcoming my brother, Colin, and I into your organization and for making us feel so welcome.
With that, we have like one more question, a fun question to kind of wrap up this interview with a bow. And this is the most important question of the whole interview, what actor do you think would play you in a movie? Just so we know when we're casting.
Bill McQuade:
That's funny. I think because my hair went gray early, I think George Clooney would be the best person to, because he's got the gray hair like I do, the Irish heritage and we go gray early. So that would be a fun one to have. And he's kind of a down to earth kind of character. So I can't think of anyone else right offhand, but that's—George Clooney would be a good one.
Alex McQuade:
Yeah, I agree.
Colin McQuade:
And for my money, I think Jeff Goldblum would be a good one.
Bill McQuade:
Jeff Goldblum, he's too tall.
Colin McQuade:
Yeah, but he's a Pittsburgher.
Bill McQuade:
He is a Pittsburgher. He is.
Colin McQuade:
I have one more question to ask you. What's a quote that you live by and that you think that other people should also?
Bill McQuade:
That's a good one to wrap up. I talk about it a lot in my area related to government affairs, but the best, probably my favorite quote is from Abraham Lincoln and it's "The best way to predict the future is to create it." And that kind of goes into the jumping in with both feet. It's one thing to wait and see what happens, it's another thing to get in there and influence what's going to be by participating early. And so I think ASHRAE gives people an opportunity to do that. Really, whether it's research or standards or participating in technical committees, it's an opportunity to help create the future and that you have a much better understanding of where we're going. So I think that's probably it. All right.
Alex McQuade:
Well, I want to just thank all of our audience members for listening to the ASHRAE Journal Podcast. We've appreciated your time and we're looking forward to the next six months of this presidency and we hope everybody has a wonderful rest of your day.
ASHRAE Journal:
The ASHRAE Journal podcast team is editor, Drew Champlin; managing editor, Linda Rathke; producer and assistant editor, Allison Hambrick; assistant editor, Mary Sims; associate editor, Tani Palefski; technical editor, Rebecca Norris; and Creative Designer, Teresa Carboni.
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