Trena Ellis, Vice President of Facilities and Physical Security at Safe Credit Union, shares her career journey from local projects in Northern California to global work in Bangalore, India. She discusses leadership growth, the value of networking and vendor relationships, and how involvement in organizations like IFMA can open doors for FM professionals.
What does it take to grow from hands-on project work to leading teams and shaping strategy? In this episode, Second Vice Chair President on IFMA's Global Board of Directors, Wayne Whitzell, interviews Trena Ellis, Vice President of Facilities and Physical Security at Safe Credit Union, who shares her career journey across local builds in Northern California to international projects in Bangalore, India.
Trena opens up about the shift from being a doer to becoming a delegator, the power of networking and strong vendor partnerships, and how involvement with organizations like IFMA has expanded her perspective. Along the way, she offers valuable insights for both seasoned leaders and professionals just starting their FM careers.
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Time stamps:
00:00 Introduction and Career Beginnings
00:11 Welcome to Connected FM
01:30 Guest Introduction: Trena Ellis
02:39 Early Career and IFMA Involvement
04:04 Memorable Moments and Lessons Learned
08:04 Major Projects and Challenges
12:24 International Experience in India
20:01 The Importance of Networking and Vendor Relationships
27:55 Leadership and Delegation
33:19 Advice for Aspiring Facility Managers
34:55 Conclusion and Farewell
Trena Ellis: [00:00:00] My career started out at a property management company and has, now transcended into, being a vice president, but none of that would happen if I would not have engaged and networked.
Host: Welcome to Connected fm, a podcast connecting you to the latest insights, tools, and resources to help you succeed in facility management. This podcast is brought to you by ifma, the leading professional association for facility managers. If you are ready to grow your network and advance in your career.
Go to ifma.org to get started. Have you ever wondered what it takes to go from working in property management to leading large scale facility management teams? In today's episode, host Wayne Wezel, the second vice Chair president on ifma a's global board of directors. Interviews Trina Ellis, the Vice President of Facility and Physical Security at Safe Credit Union.
Trina shares her career journey across local bills in Northern [00:01:00] California to international projects in India. She opens up about the shift from being a doer to becoming a delegator, the power of networking and strong vendor partnerships. And how involvement with organizations like IFMA has expanded her perspective and career along the way.
She offers valuable insights for both seasoned leaders and professionals just starting their careers in facility management. Now, let's get into it.
Wayne Whitzell: Hello everybody. Welcome to the Connected FM podcast. I'm very excited today. I have a very special guest someone that not only is someone I look up to in the world of fm, but someone that I consider part of my inner circle here at at ifma and in life. She's a really great person.
She's a powerhouse FM, very influential in our local Northern California area here. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Trena Ellis. Trena. Welcome.
Trena Ellis: Thank [00:02:00] you. I'm happy to be here.
Wayne Whitzell: For those of you who may not have ever been introduced to Trena at Fusion or at World Workplace. Trena is the Vice President of Facilities and Physical Security for Safe Credit Union.
And that's a company that we have some very good credit unions here in the Sacramento area and very highly regarded as being great places to work consistently on top lists. And you know, no small reason because of the things that you and your team have been able to do there.
So congrats on that.
Trena Ellis: Thank you.
Yes. We're in the running again this year.
Wayne Whitzell: Yes, I, and I have no doubt it's every year you guys get it pretty much. Right.
Trena Ellis: We're excited.
Wayne Whitzell: So, so Trena we obviously go way, way back and I wanna talk a little bit about our history and how we met. I tried to get the exact date, but I pinned it around 2007. Does that seem about right to you?
Trena Ellis: sounds, I think completely right. Yep. around our, those classes, yes.
Wayne Whitzell: And you had [00:03:00] already taken your CFM at that point with Tuveson from the chapter. Was he your trainer
Trena Ellis: No, that was actually the catalyst that got me to take the test.
Wayne Whitzell: So for everybody that's listening IFMA Sacramento built a green business operations certificate program for Sacramento State University. And that launched in 2008 and you and I were in the inaugural cohort.
Trena Ellis: Correct. And I think that you are right in the timing because I had, prior to taking that green business ops class at Sac State, took the certified facility manager one or the not certified facility manager, but yeah, certified facility manager at Sac State. And that was where I initially met Kit and where I was introduced to ifma and I had no idea what IFMA was at that time. I didn't know what the CFM was. And so Kit encouraged me to study and sit for the exam. And I passed and then I became a certified facility manager and then took the green business ops classes to push [00:04:00] into LEED and go that direction. And that was where I met you.
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah.
Trena Ellis: Yeah.
Wayne Whitzell: Boy Kit was so influential, wasn't he? He was just about everywhere. And who would've thought you would've you know, you would've thought about your c fm and hear about ifma in a university.
Now I will admit, and I think we both have to cop to this, that we were probably both the people that got in trouble the most in class at the Green Business Operations Program. We sat together and we're like in junior high a lot of days. Making jokes and cracking up.
Trena Ellis: Yes. We were asked to share with the class what we were talking about multiple times.
Wayne Whitzell: And didn't you had, didn't you show up once with I think it was a presentation on an Apple drive and it didn't work and you were, you I remember how
Trena Ellis: Thanks
bringing that up. So what happened was I did my, we were Apple then when I was at PowerSchool in my 21 years back then. We were Apple for about six years during that time. And so I had a Mac and I built my presentation on a Mac, brought the USB in to a pc and none of my [00:05:00] graphics rendered properly.
And the advice you gave me, I remember when I sat back down, was. I can't remember the exact advice, but it was, it's okay. It's okay. Just you did well in just kind of pushing through it, but it was a bit challenging during my presentation when all of the cool graphics I created didn't
Wayne Whitzell: Oh, I could tell that to, that's that I know that. I know now that I know you better. I even appreciate more how that frustrated you and plus the fact that I'm sitting there in the audience giving you the David Schwimmer Ross.
Trena Ellis: Bring it down because I was maybe a little bit upset publicly to the class that it wasn't working because that was something that I remember whenever I'm doing presentations now it, it had to happen for me to be successful at presentations now because I don't ever rely on the presentation any longer. I rely on the knowledge that I am conveying and I don't, you know, rely on what is on my slide.
And [00:06:00] so that had to happen. I had to get upset and I had to learn from it.
Wayne Whitzell: Would you like to share with our listeners what you and I do to each other prior to presentations?
Trena Ellis: I was wondering if you were gonna bring it up. So, I waited. I waited. So what we do, what Wayne and I do, because we do present a lot to different venues and different events and programs, and we, if we are presenting at the same event, we will give each other a word that they have to incorporate into the presentation. And I have given Wayne words like elgas. And I can't even remember the others. I think the alga or did you give me Alga?
Wayne Whitzell: No I think you gave me that and I gave you fruit roll-ups once. I think motorboat was
Trena Ellis: yes. Fruit Rollup was, fruit. Pullup was actually a really tough one 'cause I remember that specifically because I was presenting on the build out that I did for PowerSchool at their headquarters building in Folsom. And it was a 40. [00:07:00] Almost 50,000 square foot build out of two buildings, full gut, full everything, new carpet, paint, wiring, furniture. And I incorporated when I showed the slide of all the old carpet being dug up, out and scraped up, that had been there for 20 years. I said that it represented, it. It was kind of like fruit rollup. It was as dry
Wayne Whitzell: It was great. And you know, and that was a beautiful build out that you did there. And I think that was kind of the first time. I would always talk to fms and hear, to this day you hear fms that are you. Complain rightfully so about sometimes they don't have any control of the design build process or getting a seat at that table.
And I remember I mentioned that to you once and you kind of looked at me like, what are you talking about, Wayne? It was, it didn't even occur to you that you wouldn't have a seat at the table and that this is actually a big thing among fms and I found that very interesting, you and Linda Beset.
Both gave me that reaction because you're like, well, I belong there. That's what FM should be doing. And it's interesting that you just assume that and you are [00:08:00] at every table and you have such tremendous influence on these buildouts. Now let's start with that one that you did in Folsom. There you, I mean, you were involved in.
Everything from the process, sourcing the building lease negotiations, everything. I mean, this is, there's a lot of hats you were wearing for that process. And I mean, talk to me a little bit about all the things that you went through there as, and you were a pretty small FM team at the time, if I remember
Trena Ellis: Oh yeah. Yeah, and that one was my very first project. I had been introduced to smaller projects at Apple, and then when we were Pearson at PowerSchool, I was working with someone from New York who was a project manager doing a project for us in Rancho. I was kind of like the person on the ground here, but I wasn't writing the project then.
But when we got bought by Vista, we were able to obtain, I was able to source that building through CVRE. And get that really phenomenal building in Folsom, right on the river. That one I worked with our brokers. We searched, you know, high and low through Folsom to find a [00:09:00] building.
Found that building got that lease negotiated and signed and then started working on, it was an old video company called VPD and they had really large cubicles, very dated aesthetic. And so I was able to work with designers from furniture, local furniture company and it was the first time doing open plan. And that was a predominantly engineering environment, so a lot of change management had to happen prior to everyone moving in. But I worked with various vendors in Sacramento that I'd built relationships with for many years through other projects and to your point, I was very involved with our C-Suite and my CFO and showing them the design, showing them the different aspects of what we could provide for our staff and headcount. And then, you know, also plan for growth as well in the space.
And I remember I went to the CEO and I showed him the drawings and I said, okay, so this is what we have. And at that time I had six by eight cubes and they [00:10:00] were all lower with glass. But the building architecture itself was just so phenomenal. It was easy to design for an engineering environment, but my CEO at the time said, well, we need to put more people in here.
So, and I had also had my budget number already from the vendors from the furniture vendors. And he says, okay. I want you to bring it down by 500,000 but I also want you to have six by six cubes. And I said, oh, so you want me to come down in cost with my vendors, but have them provide more product?
He said, exactly. Well, I did it, but it was a lot of negotiation. It was. It was a very stressful time, but I was able to get exactly what we needed and I kept our C-suite involved. I kept you know, all of the stakeholders involved, all the leadership. That's the key. And then also getting information from all of the staff that are gonna be sitting in those spaces to ensure.
What we're providing is gonna work for them. And one of the biggest pieces of what we did there was providing sit to stand workstations out. So that was [00:11:00] back in 2016. And it was big back then and it's
still big today because I just did a build out here and at Safe and did the same thing. But the point that I wanna make with all that is yes, kept everyone involved. Stakeholder engagement kept the employees involved, gave update photos, provided information to staff so they understood exactly the timeline and what we were installing and the progress of the construction. But one of the biggest takeaways from that project is vendor relationships. And I'm not making this up. This was close to a 50,000 square foot space. Two buildings that were connected by a breezeway. Full gut renovation with some walls coming down, some walls going up. All new carpet paint, cat six cabling furniture, and brand new furniture everywhere, including an amazing game room and an amazing event room as well. We got permits. And I'm not making this up the week of Thanksgiving and we moved in on February [00:12:00] 4th.
Wayne Whitzell: Crazy.
Trena Ellis: It's still crazy. And even my GC and my furniture vendors to this day, if I see them, we always talk about, we don't know how we did that. And you know, what it was because those vendors were so committed to me as an FM and , to what we were doing, that they came through like it
Wayne Whitzell: Well, it could have also been, that word got around that you don't want Trena Ellis coming to your office demanding a signature on the permit. What I think is so interesting is, 'cause I was kind of with you along this ride as you were doing all this and then, and watching you and it wasn't very long before you made a pretty big leap from Folsom to Bangalore, India. So I think you built a lot of credibility with this Folsom build and then all of a sudden, next thing you know, trade is going to India. Tell us about
Trena Ellis: wasn't that, quick,
Wayne Whitzell: Well, it seemed
Trena Ellis: lemme tell the story. No, I'm kidding. So, so what happened is PowerSchool, the company that I was with for 21 years prior to coming here, wanted to have a, an A presence in India. [00:13:00] And so we had contractors already in India, about 125. And I helped what worked with our legal team at PowerSchool, along with hr, it, the whole C-suite, everyone to build the India entity which was PowerSchool, India Private Limited. And then, worked to worked with my CBRE brokers, again, sourced them in India. My local guy found a couple guys in India. We shortlisted about seven locations that I pointed out in the area that we wanted to be in Bangalore, and then my CFO and the VP of Finance flew over, looked at the spaces that I had shortlisted and then. We FaceTimed and did a lot of stuff to look at the different spaces, and then we found a space on an eighth floor of a already built out building in a business park and it was literally concrete and fire pipe. There was nothing else in the space subfloor. And I flew over in October of [00:14:00] 2018 or 2017 for just one week, which was a huge mistake because flying to India is a 16 hour flight from SFO to Dubai.
And then from Dubai to Bangalore is four hours. So it's a lot of travel, a lot of jet lag. So I get over there and went straight to the space. And I already had a bunch about five different vendors, you know, lined up to do the build out. And in America I have, you know, lots of relationships with folks.
I have GCs and architects and all the different vendors that it takes to build out a space. Well, in India, I really didn't know anyone, and our CEO at the time told me, Hey, you can't trust people. You've gotta make sure you know the right people in India when you're doing projects. And dealing with vendors. So I listened to his advice and I found these vendors that do full scope work all the way from sourcing the space all the way to property management and custodial at the end. I interviewed about five different companies and I had already walked the space and [00:15:00] as I walked this very long, rectangular space, it was probably about. A 45,000 square foot space. As I'm walking the space in my head, I am designing it and figuring out where everything is gonna go. So later that day, I had interviews with about five different vendors that day, and a couple more the next day. And I told each of them how I had designed it in my head. Well, we then met face to face and only one of those vendors came with drawings. With my ideas already on paper, and it was phenomenal. I was like, whoa. Like you literally took what I had in my head and put it on paper. And so after much negotiation, I chose that vendor. And then I flew back in January of 2018 and we did all of the MEP, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and network design and all of the actual physical design of the space.
Wayne Whitzell: How long were you there that second visit?
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Trena Ellis: Second visit, I got smarter. I did two weeks. So , those two weeks I'm getting to know all the Bestian folks and they're amazing. One of the biggest compliments I ever got. So, hopefully this doesn't sound too braggy,
but one of the biggest compliments I got was first day we do all the design work, right? We are looking at carpet samples and [00:17:00] fabrics and just all of it. We ended up having to go 'cause they had everything designed very ornate and very in India like, so it's like, no, we're bringing California to India, so we're gonna change this up a bit. So we had to go to a fabric store and we brought back more books and it was a full 10 hour day of doing this design.
And we ended up, you know, I had carpet samples, shock carpet samples from here. From our space in Folsom I had different fabric colors that I knew I was gonna use and so we found everything and got it done. that evening, the project manager guy says to me. Hey, tomorrow we're gonna be doing MEP and network design.
I'm gonna need your guys from America on the phone. I was like, my guys from America. And he goes, yeah. He goes, because we're gonna be doing a mechanical, electrical, plumbing and network. And I said, I'm good. I won't need any of my guys from America. And he was like, what? And I said, I'm good. I said, if I have to call someone, I will, but I don't think I'll, so the next day, three guys. Introduce mechanical three. You guys introduce electrical. We [00:18:00] went through the whole thing all day long, another 10 hour day long day, and I was kind of, you know, working through each of them and said, look, you know, we don't do like, do it like this in America, so you're gonna have to educate me on why you're doing it this way.
There were some things that I. Relented and allowed, but there were some things I was like, no, we're not doing it that way. Let's do it this way and this is why. And we did that through the whole MEP and networking process. We got to the end of the day and the project manager guy just sat back in his chair and he goes, he's just like, just flabbergasted.
And I said, what is wrong? Are you okay? He goes, I just can't believe how much you know about everything. And I was like, well, I told you I didn't need my guys from America. So he's like, we're not used to dealing with someone like you that knows facilities all the way through. And so it was a huge compliment and I've never forgotten that moment.
So it was
Wayne Whitzell: That's the OGFM archetype, right? It's someone that sits, and I think it was Chip. Keith at a world workplace said that fms are the [00:19:00] decathletes of the business world, and we do so many different things and to, for you to have all of this knowledge. I mean, mechanical design side as well as nuts and bolts, o and m on top of all that as well as.
The psychology of interacting with people. It really, it, you know, this is what it, being in this career a long time and leaning into it and learning from your vendor partners. Learning from the education's provided by orgs, like I fma puts you in this position where eventually, you know, and this carries over and you've told me many stories in your day to day in your current job where you know, you.
I guess the way the phrase I like to use is though age has taken away my ability to read a book up close. It's giving me the ability to see things a mile away,
Trena Ellis: Ooh,
I like that. And I think that's the thing is you walk into these things and you see what the GCs are doing, and you instantly can play out the secondary, tertiary, quaternary ripple effects of this choice.
Wayne Whitzell: You know, this is not what you want do. This is how it should go. And that experience is just amazing to, to have that. And I think IFMA has, you know, probably been a [00:20:00] big help in that for you. You know, talk about, you know, your IFMA journey and your IFMA experience and maybe how that's fed into the skillsets and your tool belt.
Trena Ellis: Oh, a hundred percent. And you know, I told that story, but the precursor to that is absolutely, I would not know the things that I know had it not been the education and the networking and the exposure to all of those different types of vendors that provide services. And, you know, over the years I worked to, you know, hire a lot of vendors through ifma because I would go to an event and go, oh. I need that, you know, oh I need that. Or I loved the fact that I didn't know what I didn't know and then I was, oh, okay, I should implement this. And it was huge. And I, my career wouldn't be where it is today. I wouldn't have the knowledge I have of vendor management and the way to engage and do the things that I do without ifma and the networking aspect of, and I'm not just trying to brag 'cause you've got a logo on your shirt. I'm just telling you that it's the truth. I would not be where I'm today.
Wayne Whitzell: you see this logo? I went old school for this.
Trena Ellis: [00:21:00] I'm
Wayne Whitzell: This is the IFMA Sacramento shirt from 2009, 7, 8, 9. Somewhere in there. Yeah, I went
old
Trena Ellis: should have, I shoulda have displayed my ifma. I have a couple of IFMA awards
Wayne Whitzell: Yes you do.
Trena Ellis: here. Yes.
the engagement is huge, the networking aspect. And then, you know, not to mention the fusions and the world workplaces and all of the educational aspects of what you learn there.
And it is just,
Wayne Whitzell: I think we'd be remiss though if we didn't talk specifically with you about the personal relationships that we have at ifma. And I try to explain to folks sometimes who might be in organizations which are perhaps not quite, I call us huggy. A huggy organization. and I know some people that, you know, each person has their own personality type and so forth.
But I mean that both support wise, physical wise, everything we, there's a love here in, in among this, and I think Sacramento, one of the things that always. Resonated with me about that chapter, and that's really the chapter where I blossomed. Okay. It was my second IFMA chapter [00:22:00] and it started with a hug from the former president, Cynthia Smith.
And from there it just, you know, it ne that chapter never let go of me. And it was it was a very important thing for me to notice that. Oftentimes people would come to chapter programs and meetings regardless of what the program was about, because they just wanted to see their friends and they wanted to connect that way on a human level.
And I think that was something very special that the Sacramento chapter had. You would notice, we go to World Workplace, if there was a lone person, we would just grab that person, bring 'em in, and put whatever swag we were carrying with us on here. You're one of us now. And,
Trena Ellis: Bag is a perfect example of
that. Amber went to World Workplace alone by herself and Sacramento picked her up and never let go.
Yeah.
literally. 'cause she's
Wayne Whitzell: And I think you've been a, an inspirational leader because you led through a very tough time in this chapter. And to back terms to, to support us through that which shall not be mentioned in, in, in recent years. But you. But you now, it's not just ifma that, that you [00:23:00] have gotten involved with.
There's some pretty cool organizations that sister organizations and other other organizations. Talk, talk to me about, you know, the development zones and the crime stoppers and the other organizations that you're involved in.
Trena Ellis: Sure. At my prior company when I was at PowerSchool, I left PowerSchool in 21 and came to save credit union. And I had always managed office buildings and that office and environment. And coming to a credit union was you know, we have a very, I have an amazing team at safe. Everyone is so talented.
I have administrators, facilities, administrators. I have a couple of facility managers, a technical facility manager that reports to me. They're all phenomenal and I could not be happier with the team that I inherited. And when I came here, we have a large headquarters building which is about a hundred thousand square feet.
So that's, you know, a beast to manage itself. We had about 20 branches. We've closed some and we're building new ones. So, right now we have 17. And I did not realize, I've always managed [00:24:00] physical security. But I didn't realize physical security to the degree that I do now.
And because I. Was only managing physical security for office buildings. I knew I had to refine that skillset. So I got involved with crime Stoppers here locally in Sacramento. The Sacramento Chapter of Crime Stoppers and Crime Stoppers. I'm on the executive board, I am now the treasurer. I was the secretary for about three years.
I am now the treasurer of that organization and basically. We sit once a month and go over all of the different crime that's happening in Sacramento. And I sit in a room with about 45 to 50 different jurisdictions of law enforcement in Sacramento, including FBI, parole, probation, postal service sheriff, every jurisdiction of police and sheriff. And we talk about some of the, tips that have come in, and any of those tips that lead to an arrest, if they do lead to an arrest, we vote as a team and that person who put [00:25:00] that tip in, if that tip leads, because that tip led to an arrest, we vote up to $1,000 to award that individual anonymously. let's say it was for a murder and that person can gave some information to, to help officers find this individual. They, and it's not on conviction, it's on
arrest. So we vote. For that one it would definitely be at the cap of a thousand dollars. And then we take, you know, input from officers in the room that may have been involved in that case. And of course everyone has to sign an NDA in that meeting. I just have to preface that.
But yes, so we can't talk about things that happen out inside that room. But what happens is that individual will anonymously, they'll call back into the call center in Canada and they will get the fact that they received a thousand dollars and then they will. Make up their own code word. And that code word is they can take that code word into two of our safe credit union branches, one of two of our safe credit union branches, and they just have to say the code word and the money is provided to them with no questions asked.[00:26:00]
So that's how safe is involved. But all of the relationships that I've built through that association through Crime Stoppers helps me when I'm dealing with real true crime
at our branches. And we have skimming devices. We have ATMs trying to be, you know, folks trying to, you know, lots of the bad guys are always trying to one up and come up with something
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah. You know, I think I think with all the things that you do and the experience you've gotten both leading. The organizations you worked for, but also leading and herding the cats that can sometimes be Anma component. You really have such a wide array of skillset, but you're also, I've noticed a change in you over the years.
It's, and you've always been a doer and you're always somebody. What's kind of funny when I watch you around people sometimes, it's kinda like the story of the project manager in India. Is that people look at you and they might not know the depth of knowledge that you have. You can go granular.
I mean, I mean, I, you can go microscopic with people in facilities and talk about the most inane, you know, [00:27:00] topics all the way to moving up to complex strategy, moving from a doer to a delegator. And I've seen that growth in you over these years. And I think that you know, this is why.
Game recognizes game. And I think a lot of leaders see that and they say, we need to get her on our board. She needs to come over here because she's got that capability. And it opens up a lot of other avenues. But I think the other thing too is someone with your level of talent and ability can get so many people pulling on you for your time and for your skills and your efforts.
You know, talk to me a little bit about what it's like and maybe put in your mind that there might be someone out there that. A young fm and she wants to know what is it like to move from a local FM into maybe an executive role. Like when you go from FM to maybe director to vp, which you are now, what are a few tidbits or say or just pull back the veil and say, here's what's different and here's what you should be practicing or getting to know.
Trena Ellis: Such a great question. So when I went from, and this was, you know, [00:28:00] a learning. Learning steps here is I, like you said, always a doer. Love to get things done and have something to look at and see it finished. So when I was at PowerSchool and I got, I was a facility manager and I, you know, advocated for myself, I didn't just get handed a director position.
I pushed for it and I actually think I. Because you've always been my mentor. I reached out to you for advice on how to obtain and what I needed to say and the things I needed to do to get that. And so I used my resources, got advice from you and others to push to prove to them that I deserved this director position. I got the position, but the hardest part of that, I was already working in that role. But I really wasn't delegating and allowing my team to do the things, you know, I wasn't teaching and cultivating because I wanted to still do. And you really have to let that go. And I think I probably talked to you about that as well.
And one of the things I came up with is it just came to [00:29:00]me one day and I thought whenever there is a director in a movie, that director is sitting in a chair that says director, and they're just directing and they still have to do things, but majority of the time they're directing. And so that's how I started to picture myself as in a director chair, teaching and guiding and doing it that way.
There was still a lot of things I still did, of course, but it helped me kind of visualize. What a director really should be. I've never not been a doer. I mean, even as a vice president, I'm definitely a doer, but I have an amazingly capable team here that I allow them to do their jobs. But, and then when I got the I worked in that director role for. A couple of years. And then I I was able to do the project in India. I did a big build out in New York on Manhattan, which was an amazing project. I got to do a large project in Roanoke, Virginia. And I say [00:30:00] I, I mean we, because me and my facility team that was in those areas of New York and in, roanoke in India. 'Cause Raja Ramu is my guy in India and he's still there and he's doing a, an amazing job and he's a perfect example of that. Guiding and mentoring is, I went over, I hired Raja. He's an amazing person, an amazing, soul very smart. And he did the first buildup. He was my guy on the ground from America. 'Cause what we did is in January, I didn't finish that story. We did all the design. I manage that project remotely with Raja on the ground until. May flew back for three weeks at the end of May of 2018 and we finished the job and finished the project and so the next project that we did in India, 'cause we did another space, I just let Raja run it and I didn't even fly over. I just did it all remotely and let Raja run with it and it was amazing. Of course, I guided and, you know, did some stuff, but, and then after I left [00:31:00] PowerSchool they just did, I had negotiated two or three floors in an adjacent building and we were eventually gonna move those two spaces to one. And they just last, I think last year, just did that build out and Raja ran it, I'm pretty sure,
along with some facility folks here in, in Sacramento, but, or in Folsom. But yeah, so, anyways, I think I went off
Wayne Whitzell: no, I think you, you summed that up really well. Is it? You went in that first one. Iteration with that first build out was you were there intimately involved at the most, you know, basic levels. And then the second one you developed that trust you built. You built that with someone.
You invested that, and they, you knew they would reach out to you if they reached something a stumbling block or an issue they needed to reach out to you for. You had regular check-ins and you developed that executive skillset and persona, and you did it. And I know it's tough for some folks, especially, you know, people like you who know how to do the thing.
And you delegate the thing to someone else. It can be difficult, but I don't know. I just really think that you know, a lot of, whether you know it or not, a lot of folks in our chapter look up to you. And if [00:32:00] they don't look up to your know you, they respect you. At least they, you carry that air about you.
And I think that started maybe this is a good place, you know, to close out here is when I first came to your facility there at Pearson, every time I would come over to visit you, you exemplified what I found to be the quintessential telltale sign of a good fm. When you walked around, everybody knew your name, you knew everybody else's name, and there was comedy and jokes going on.
Hey, can I get that chair replaced? I mean, all the little things that you would hear along a walk, but you could tell that you. Were flowing with you, your. Your lifeblood was flowing through that facility. It was intimately related there. And only FMS I walk with that, kind of have that even in a large facility where there's some kind of interplay or the MBW.
Right. Managed by walking. And that's something that you've always brought to you. There was, that's one of the consistent things through all those changes that you were there and you were the arbiter of the culture and the protector of the culture, I should say, throughout all that.
And that's something that you've also [00:33:00] done at at ifma at our chapter. As well, something you should be, you know, thanked for and and respected for all the years of service you've done there. So, so listen you and I are both, you know, from around the same era. We like the same music, we like the same kind of things and everything, so I.
We're looking down at this younger generation, so if we leave to today, here, right now. And what would you say to, let's say a young lady who's considering getting into fm or maybe she's a coordinator, and wondering if, you know, she wants to continue with this field, what would, you know, let's close out with, what advice would you give to her to inspire her or to guide her?
Trena Ellis: I think number one and I use this a lot when I'm talking to groups, is talking about that networking and engagement and finding an association like ifma that. Will help you. Again, learn what you don't know, because there's just so much to know in facilities that you're not gonna know it all when you're first starting out.
I mean, my career started out at a property [00:34:00] management company and has, now transcended into, being a vice president, but none of that would happen if I would not have engaged and networked.
another thing that I always taught my staff is whenever a vendor comes to the building to fix something, you always watch what they're doing and ask questions. 'cause I don't know, like I talked about that MEP example, I don't know how to fix an air conditioner. But I know how to speak to whatever the problem is, to, you know, talk to the vendor to say, this is what you know is happening and this is what I think it might be.
Then they will tell me yes or no, that's what the problem is. So I don't know how to fix these, all of the electrical and networking and all of that stuff, but I know how to speak to it to be able to you know, convey what the problem is to get to a solution and troubleshoot.
And I learned that from all of the vendor engagement, and that's the key I think, is vendor
Wayne Whitzell: No. Woman or man is an island, right?
Trena Ellis: Right.
Wayne Whitzell: Huh. Well, well, Trena, this has been a blast catching up with you and doing this as you know, I consider you more [00:35:00] than just a local fm. You're a really good friend of mine. And I'm both proud and all, and just great to to know you as a human being.
So, thank you for everything you've done for our industry in particular for ifma.
Trena Ellis: Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It was great, and I adore you as well.
Wayne Whitzell: All right, everyone. Thanks again for joining us on Connected fm. We'll see you next time.
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