2017 Women in Building Services: Stacie Alexiou, WATT + FLUX An LED Inspire Company

Name:  K.A. Stacie Alexiou

Title: CEO, Managing Director

Company Name: WATT + FLUX An LED Inspire Company               

Years in real estate: 20

What real estate associations or organizations are you a member of? WBC, USGBC, Association of Energy Engineers, Urban Green Council; Certified B Corp.; Certified WBE NYC | NYS | MTA | PANYNJ | FEDERAL WOSB; WBE – Women Owned Business Enterprise

How have you navigated obstacles to achieve success in your career?

I have had the honor of working as a Merchant Marine engineering officer aboard ship  designing engineering systems and managing them for government and private secure sites; managing the install, and commissioning of, the mechanical electrical construction  during the rebuild of three of the Towers at The World Trade Center site; and operating an energy efficiency company I founded to remove 10 million pounds of greenhouse gases from facilities while utilizing U.S. made products to achieve our goals in engineering building  energy efficiency.

Being aware of the big picture while placing importance on the details that make up the big picture. I think there is definitely an art to accounting for the smooth logistics of how the smaller pieces perform and cumulatively make up the big picture while keeping safety, workmanship and schedule on track. Being aware of the variables that can derail you and anticipating what, where and when those variable can present themselves before they do in each project equation. This  is our best approach to anticipating and flexibly adjusting to ensure the planned outcome is reached. You don’t reach you goal because you planned it. That’s just the first step. You reach it because you safe guard it along the way from getting derailed.  Aside from strong experience in leadership roles, I credit challenges in life as being our best asset to build threshold and drive. When I started this business I spent about 5 months in a wheel chair and another 5 months recovering from two femur and labrum surgeries on my hip. A year later we landed a 56 Acre site contract saving 130,000 a year for a significant client, followed by a 14 building site saving our client 150,000 per year through our work. We removed 6.9 Million lbs of green house gases over a 3 year time period saving about a million dollars for our clients each year cumiliatively. I can definitely say sense of humor and attitude are great ingredients to resiliency…aswell as a wonderful family.

How do you play your strengths to your advantage in your career?

Unrelenting forward motion, positive attitude and caring for your team. Focus often and early on solutions, not blame. Provide the best tools, resources and training for your team and invest in each other…daily. Make progress every day and move your coordinates forward.. don’t get thrown by a big picture, be aware of the order of magnitude, but keep one foot in front of the other. Keeping a strong sense of humor should not be underestimated. I think people want to like their environment and the people they interact with. Its important we recognize the positives of our teams achievements and make eachother accountable for areas that need polish.  I believe a positive attitude is etiquette we should maintain for eachother professionally regardless of conditions and personalities. Frustration and poor attitude doesn’t accomplished anything but deter progress.  We measure morning and afternoon progress so we can be highly accountable to the efforts made and the variables that affect them. We believe we are what we measure. Being accountable helps us to recognize our team for constantly moving the needle forward and identify what obstacles may be present so we can continually design around them. When we come to an unanticipated gap or challenge we move quickly to a solution. Wasting time on the issue should be limited to understanding how it happened so you can keep it from repeating.

What trends are you seeing so far this year? 

Private owners are pursuing building efficiency at a higher rate as they are seeing the high yield in savings that is difficult to attain in other building capital expenditure projects. We are seeing more building owners utilize the positioning and savings of LED conversion projects to offset much needed mechanical upgrade projects such as boiler and AC repairs that have far longer payback cycles.

What do you do for fun?

I really enjoy the personalities of my team I have onboard in the company and the impactful work we get to perform together. I love the ocean, traveling through it, paddle boarding on top of it or swimming in it! I am Greek, we come from an Island called Aegina, where I have many cousins and spend time soaking up my adorable, wonderful and hysterical family. I am very close with my family and fiancé, so any adventure with them warms my heart and keeps me laughing.