Base Office: South Burlington, VT
Email: astier@hallam-ics.com
Process Control and Plant Automation
I came to Hallam-ICS in 1997 purely by chance. I arrived in Burlington from the New York City area by way of California, the Panama Canal and North Carolina. I grew up in New York City and after graduating from SUNY Stony Brook on Long Island, I desired some new experiences, so I took a job as an Automation Engineer in San Francisco. I got my share of new experiences working on a wide variety of projects all over the west coast and Hawaii. Soon after arriving in San Francisco, I fell in love with sailing and the notion of long distance cruising. I bought a 37 foot sailboat and after five years living at a marina, paying off the boat and planning our trip, we set off down the coast to Mexico. After two years living at anchor in Mexico and Central American we returned to the U.S. east coast and decided to settle down to start a family. We sold the boat in Wilmington NC, bought a pickup truck and headed north with all our belongings in search of a new home and a new job. After two years of tropical living on the open water, life in a hectic northeast city was a very unappealing proposition so I looked towards smaller cities offering open space and an outdoor lifestyle. While working with a headhunter to line up interviews, I was informed of a job opening at an engineering firm in Burlington Vermont. It was not our intention to come this far north but we thought we might as well see what this remote place on the lake had to offer. Our visit to this beautiful area combined with a welcoming interview process that included enthusiastic support for family and a work-life balance sold me on Hallam-ICS and Burlington as our new home. Our first of two daughters followed one year later. Now, nineteen years later, my oldest daughter is preparing to head to San Diego, California for college and her own new experiences.
