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Challenge Seeker
When Kahn needed someone to run its operations and business development in Mexico, Gar Hoplamazian, PE, said he would do it. When the engineer who handled geotechnical matters left the department, Gar stepped up. When the firm needed expertise in demolition, Gar volunteered for the role. When a series of disaster recovery jobs arose, Gar became the firm’s leader in disaster recovery. “Along the way, I’ve found myself the guy who picks up everything that’s not traditional,” says Gar, the firm’s Senior Vice President and Treasurer. He has become Kahn’s all-around player, the get-it-done engineer who’s good at just about everything. A deep sense of duty motivates him, a sense he expresses with a simple phrase: “You don’t run from work.” more...
A native of Detroit, he graduated from the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, where he also earned master’s degrees in both civil and mechanical engineering. (He picked up a master’s degree in business administration at Michigan, too.) His work in geotechnical matters—the application of earth science to the design and construction of foundations—is typical of the jobs Gar has taken on. “We had a guy doing it; he left the department; so I volunteered to take it on,” he says. “I felt it was important that somebody step up. I thought, ‘Well, this needs to be done. I’m going to volunteer for it.’” His wide-ranging expertise has given him engineering credits on a remarkably diverse range of projects, from parking structures and factories to libraries and hospitals – even the restoration of the delicate, glass-enclosed Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Detroit’s Belle Isle. Lately, he’s been spending a lot of time overseeing Kahn’s projects in Mexico. “It’s the challenge of something new,” Gar says. “I’m definitely not afraid of a challenge.”
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