True Talk with Christian Schacher 💬

We caught up with one of our longest-standing team members, who also happens to be the newest addition to our Denver office. We asked Christian to look back on his history with True North and tell us what he’s looking forward to in the future.

Here’s what he had to say:

🆀: What do you enjoy most about your role at True North?

🅰: My role involves wearing many hats, but there are definitely a couple things that I take the most pride and satisfaction in. On the team management side, I really enjoy helping team members’ career development goals by getting them into the right opportunities to demonstrate and grow their skills. 90 percent of our skills in this industry are developed on the job, so it’s important to have the right opportunities to hone them. On the project side of things, I enjoy developing technical execution plans and methodologies that help show value and difference for our customers.

🆀: Outside of work, what are your favorite activities or interests?

🅰: Most of my hobbies, my wife and I actually enjoy together. Activities like golf, recreational hockey, snowboarding, water skiing, home renovations — although, she usually leaves me be during renovations because I can get grumpy when things aren’t going well!

🆀: In your opinion, what sets True North apart as a company? 

🅰: It’s difficult to think of just one thing.  From an internal perspective, I’d have to say it’s our commitment to office culture. Everyone is treated like family and we’ve worked hard to create a workplace where everyone can contribute and be heard. From an external perspective, our commitment to quality. Our motto that we’ll never let a customer fail has to be one of the things I feel most proud of.

🆀: Since joining True North, what significant changes have you seen?

🅰: Since I’ve joined? Pretty much everything! I started in 2007 back when True North was just a few owners and a few programmers (and the owners were programmers too). The biggest change I’ve seen is how we’ve matured as a company—in everything from our top tier safety program to our project management and execution professionalism. We started out as a small group of PLC and SCADA programmers. We’ve experienced tremendous growth and expansion into other offerings, such as: electrical engineering, IT/OT digital infrastructure, DCS, measurement, functional safety, integrated completions and commissioning, as well as field E&I services. Throughout all this growth, one thing that’s never changed here is the feeling of family.

🆀: What motivated you to accept a position in Denver?

🅰: My wife and I enjoy travelling and exploring new places. The idea of picking up and moving somewhere else has always been at the back of our minds. When the opportunity came up, it was a pretty easy decision. Most of all though, our Denver office is at the same stage the Calgary office was about 10 years ago — standing on the edge of explosive growth. Being part of that energy and excitement is something I was fortunate enough to experience in Calgary. And now, I feel very fortunate that I can experience it all over again here in Denver.