Gayle Roberts, Engineer & President at Stanley Consultants
"If we brought in as many women as we have men, we could solve so many problems." - Gayle Roberts
She hasn’t even hung pictures on the wall and only a few frames of family members on her desk. For Gayle Roberts, the only female president of an international engineering consulting firm, the reality of a working from a president’s office has not quite set in.
She now directs from the office that once belonged to Richard Stanley, one-time president of Stanley Consultants in Muscatine, Iowa, and the second generation of Stanley men to run the company. Now a woman is filling those shoes. In 2007, Roberts applied and accepted the role, having been chosen by the Stanley Group board of directors. At 50, she would lead the company, represent its mission to the public and travel the world for Stanley Consultants. She was obviously qualified as a licensed engineer in seven states and Puerto Rico. But even now, Roberts is amazed at the power she wields.
In addition to running the firm, Roberts has been using her position at a podium to speak to young women around the Midwest, urging them to follow their interests and curiosity to a job they can truly be passionate about. She did it and so can they.
Science and math made her tick Growing up on a farm in Martelle, Iowa, Roberts loved the opportunity to study her math and science homework. Her parents never discouraged her from the subjects, she said, but jobs for women in math and science were never directly encouraged, either.
“I wasn’t really encouraged to go into engineering, even though I asked about it,” Roberts said about her high school years.
After graduation, she headed to Ames where she would study at Iowa State University, but not the subjects she was interested in. In fact, her first major was home economics.
She continued to take math and science electives, she said, and helped many of the young men on her dormitory floor with their chemistry homework. Her courage had mounted by junior year and she made an official switch to the chemical engineering program. In 1981 she received her chemical engineering bachelor’s degree and 10 years later graduated from St. Ambrose University in Davenport with an MBA.
Roberts said she “literally applied everywhere” across the country and in the Midwest for jobs. She had not expected to stay in Iowa (“I was young and restless,” she said) but soon found herself interviewing with Stanley Consultants.
“Stanley was the only place I interviewed in Iowa. I stayed in Iowa, took the job with Stanley but have traveled tremendously with my job,” she said.
Stanley, in fact, went international in 1956 with an office in Liberia, a very strategic but risky move for a small, family-owned company. The company’s first major international project was in Liberia, where it coordinated the engineering of a power plant. Stanley now operates nine international offices along with 18 domestic locations. Muscatine is the smallest office but home to its roots for the Stanley family. It has been a members-owned operation since 1913 and continues its outreach to environmental, structural and chemical engineering services around the world.
The big transition In 2006, Stanley Consultants needed a new president. Gregs Thomopulos, president from 1986 to 2006, was going to take over as CEO and the company needed someone who would run the day-to-day operation and represent that “face” of Stanley Consultants.
Roberts and a male colleague decided to “toss their hats in the ring,” she said, after a lot of soul-searching on whether or not to apply.
“I had two daughters; I knew the responsibilities were going to be tough. I really had to think hard about making that step,” she said. But one child was graduating from high school and the other already was in college, so she decided the empty nest was reason enough to take up the challenge.
For the president position, applicants had to present a set of goals and outlooks for the company’s future. Roberts made her presentation at 11 a.m. on the day of her presentation, and by 2 p.m. was called back into the board room where Richard Stanley and Gregs Thomopulos awaited. Thomopulos told her she was their pick.
“Your breath really does get taken away,” Roberts said, adding she’s still in disbelief. “I remember moving into Dick [Richard] Stanley’s office and I told him it didn’t feel right just yet. He [Stanley] said, ‘No, this is the right decision.’”
In introducing the first female president of Stanley Consultants to the press, Thomopulos said the board had chosen the “best person for the job, she just happens to be a woman.”
The big chair: being president On the company’s wall of presidents, Roberts’ photo is the only woman among the three other men hanging in expensive frames. Her predecessor, Thomopulos, from Nigeria, started as a lowly summer intern in 1968, and became the first black president of Stanley Consultants.
“Stanley prides itself on diversity,” Roberts said. “I think Gregs as the first black president is much more historic than mine, especially considering the times.”
Thomopulos sees the gaps for encouragement for females to take part in math and science as early as elementary school, where math and science are sociologically imprinted to be subjects for boys, he said. He hopes promotion of skills starting at the middle school level can repair the damages done to the gender gaps in engineering.
“We definitely have no choice. The industry demands it,” Thomopulos said. “We need more women, more minorities, too, to fill the jobs needed.”
Even though Stanley Consultants prides itself on the diversity of their presidents--a black man and a woman--Thomopulos hopes to see a growth in minorities and women, either starting at the high school level or by recruiting and encouraging higher education at community colleges and vocational schools.
Gayle Roberts at the helm Roberts still consults past president Richard Stanley for advice in the position such as how to deal with a difficult member or client, or what tough decision to make that may break a negotiation, and Thomopulos is always available for help as well.
But Roberts’ position and the trust from her male colleagues is not a growing trend. The 2008 Iowa Gender Wage and Equity Study by Iowa Workforce Development reveals even lower number for women in engineering in relation to promotions. An estimated 7 percent of engineering managers are women in the state of Iowa and nationally only 6 percent of women occupied positions as CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, chairs and vice chairs in 2002.
Roberts travels internationally and domestically to lead her teams in the 27 offices around the world. Locally she serves as a voice to young women and appears as a guest speaker, such as she did in late February for the Quad-City chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. In travels to the Middle East, Roberts is often the only woman in the room but introduced by her overseas representatives as “the boss.”
“It’s a very lonely job and it’s a job you live 24 hours a day,” Roberts said. “I just always wanted to be challenged. It was a progression of having opportunities available. You have to raise your hand; things don’t always come your way.”
At the SWE meeting, Roberts took questions from women in attendance from all different backgrounds, some representing John Deere, Army Corps of Engineers, Alcoa and Stanley Group. Many women asked how she balanced the decision of her family with being president.
“When I took this job [an earlier position in the 1990s], someone said to me, ‘You’ll be traveling a lot for this job. Can you be away from your family for long,’ and I thought ‘They would never ask a man that question,’” she said.
During the meeting, a member of audience asked Roberts how a small, Iowa town like Muscatine could possibly attract young, fresh talent to their company--male or female. An Iowa native herself, Roberts answered with gusto.
“I think we undersell ourselves as Iowans or small-town people,” Roberts said. “We have a lot to offer. The opportunities are there, even in a down market [economy].”
As a woman in engineering, a field dominated by men, Roberts is confident she won’t be such a minority in the future. Thomopulos agrees, and has already seen an increase at the college level for women in chemical, environmental and biomedical engineering. Structural, electrical and mechanical engineering--such as architecture and factory or industrial engineering--however, are significantly lower.
Only 20 percent of females are in architecture and engineering, according to the 2008 Iowa Gender Wage Equity Study. Women in engineering bachelor’s programs increased dramatically since 1966, but still has not peaked higher than 20 percent, according to the American Institute of Physics. It has since dropped off.
“There is a huge, huge shortage of women and minorities in engineering. It’s considered too serious, too square,” Thomopulos said frankly. “I think trying to promote programs at the high school and college level--educating people about what engineers do-- would help encourage that increase. People do not know what engineers do.”
To put it simply, engineers solve problems, Roberts said. Environmental concerns have become especially important with the effort to conserve energy and live a greener lifestyle, and she said environmental engineers could find personal triumphs entering the field now.
“If we brought in as many women as we have men, we could solve so many problems,” Roberts said.
The rough climb to the top Even though Roberts stands as a pinnacle of success in engineering and is asked by young engineers how to “become president,” it has not been an easy road. At the SWE meeting, she openly admits she’s had men tell her she would not succeed, although she avoids discussing it further.
“We’ve all had to face discrimination we don’t deserve,” she said, leaning on a table with her arms crossed. “You just have to have the confidence to get through it. I have to think about power in a positive way, and how can I use that power in a positive way.”
When an audience member asks about her mentors, Roberts responds, “Just guys. There’s always someone you can go to,” Roberts said. “But the ACEC [American Council of Engineering Consultants] is still the good ol’ boys.”
Roberts admits she left Stanley for a “short time” in the 1980s when the recession was at its height. She wasn’t doing much work because of the economic downturn and the work she was doing--on roadways and street lights, she said--was not rewarding enough. She wanted to get back into chemical engineering and did a few years later when she returned. She was later promoted to business leader in 2003, responsible for strengthening business relations in educational and health care markets nationwide.
“I never thought any different. I never thought there were any challenges directly related to my gender,” Roberts said. “I acted appropriately, dressed appropriately. Always set the bar high for yourself and it doesn’t attract discrimination.” Roberts repeated this mantra at the SWE meeting and made a point to the women in attendance: “In my mind, if you don’t make gender an issue, it’s not an issue.”
Moving forward: Community service and strong messages Now that Roberts has become the recognizable face of Stanley Consultants, she feels she can put herself in the position to take part in the community. For the 100th anniversary, she hopes to put together a community event, open to the public, to celebrate Stanley Consultant’s long history and tradition of engineering excellence.
Roberts also reaches out to youth and students to look at the opportunities in engineering. Confidence is the most important thing to encourage in young people, she said, especially girls when it comes to math and science.
“You can do whatever you want to do, but you just have to believe in yourself,” Roberts said. “As far as advice, make a difference. I truly believe everybody has to be out there with an idea that what they’re doing is something that makes a difference. I never seemed to have the confidence when I was younger. I think that hinders a lot of people from doing what they want to do. It’s really about being there, you need to be active. You can’t just sit back.”
Now, she said, it’s time to put issues into perspective. In November 2008, Roberts was awarded the Iowa Women’s Foundation 50 Percent Solution Award and the 2008 Iowa Women of Innovation award for the Large Company Innovation and Leadership category. Thumbing through the brochure of other winners, Roberts said she feels “humbled” to be part of such a group of women.
“I’ve realized I need to do more, in my position, I can be doing more to promote women,” she said. “I think it’s incumbent on me to do more to promote to get women in our industry. It just made me realized I can do more, I need to do more. I’m at the point in my life where it’s all about giving back now.”
Sacrifices and struggles in exchange for power In a small conference room at the Iowa City Stanley Consultants office on a chilly morning, Roberts looks out the window as she realizes what has, and has not, fallen by the wayside since she assumed the role as president of the company two years ago.
“I’m not running right now and I need to carve that time back out,” she said, gazing out at the Iowa winter. “I’ve lost this time since I’ve been president, of running, and I’ve really dropped off.”
One thing that hasn’t fallen behind is her time devoted to her family: husband, Stan, and two daughters Kelsey, 18, and Lindsey, 19. She and Stan enjoy traveling, wine tasting and cozy nights in their Muscatine home in their downtime. Her 91-year-old mother recently moved back into her home and said her mother’s presence has “put things into perspective.”
“My mother always taught me to be present when you’re present,” Roberts said. “So I try to leave my work worries at work and only think about home and family when I’m home.”
That doesn’t always work, she said. She wakes up in the middle of the night with worries of the company or a new client more than twice a week. When she started her role as president, Thomopulos told her she needed to have “thicker skin.” At the SWE meeting, she told the women in attendance that “it’s OK to worry, cry and be concerned.”
“I’m making decisions that will change people’s lives,” Roberts said. “I don’t have to have tough skin. It’s normal to be afraid and to worry.”
She admits she is an all-around worrier. She is concerned about everything, especially her daughters. When Lindsey was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and needed surgery, Roberts urged her to take a semester off to recuperate. Lindsey refused. “I just look at her and think, ‘What strength do you have, girl,’ ” Roberts said in disbelief. “I look up to my girls now, I can learn from them.”
Robert’s confidence has never been full-throttle either, and the uphill battle to get where she is did not come without a few scars. After divorcing her first husband, Roberts said, she was a single-mother for nearly 10 years but managed to continue full-time work and provide childcare for her two growing daughters.
“All I had was work and what I needed to be a good mom, nothing else,” she said. “You never really have balance, even if you say you have balance. The best thing you can do is be present when you’re present.”
Though she admits she didn’t “breed engineers” (Kelsey is an art student in Colorado, Lindsey a pre-medical student at The University of Iowa), Roberts remembers a moment of pride after she and her daughters visited a fellow chemical engineer and his family.
Later that night, as she was tucking them into bed, one daughter said, “Mommy, I thought only girls could be engineers.”