Meet Alex Orphanos

He believes his greatest assets to Westminster are his openmindedness, courage to pursue something new and calm composure, which comes in handy during challenging situations. The most important thing he's learned so far is that you have to trust yourself. "Do not be overly critical. Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy." 

The most rewarding part of the job is being able to see a project from start to finish, and having a tangible completed project that exemplifies the teamwork within the shop.

He likes that employees are given the opportunity to continue their education, and are then required to use the new skills in their jobs. The Westminster culture is another plus. "The family-focused values make it an enjoyable place to work."

The industry’s biggest challenge, according to Alex, is training the future workforce. "Training programs and apprenticeship programs in our area have been drastically reduced and training new hires has been pushed to the industry veterans. This creates a huge problem of transferring the knowledge from the industry champions with many years of experience to the next generation of workers. Also, the industry needs to be open to new technologies and processes because the technology that is available allows a company to be incredibly efficient."