“I love going into a project and coming up with new or different ways to make it more cost-effective, safer, or just technically better. That’s where I like to live in my world. I like to be an innovator.”

At first glance, it may seem that farming, video games, and automation don’t have much in common. Look again. Each involves achieving goals with limited resources and using strategy to achieve success. Mark McCutcheon is great at all of them.

Growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Mark was exposed to the world of strategic thinking from a young age. As a child, he helped with the family business by working in the fields and helping his Dad repair televisions and arcade video games.

In each of these scenarios, Mark solved complex problems with limited resources. Whether it was a tractor breakdown during harvest or a customer arcade game that needed repair, he had to find strategic solutions out of sheer necessity.<

Today, Mark wears these skills of identifying, troubleshooting, and creatively solving problems as badges of honour. He credits them as the edge that’s made him successful in his 27-year-long automation career.

"I'm definitely proud of my small-town Saskatchewan roots,” Mark says. “Having to fix stuff on the fly — I think adds character in the long term.”

It was his track record of technical knowledge and innovative solutions that earned Mark an invitation to join the True North Solutions team as OT Automation Manager just over a year ago. His first big project was combining the company’s SCADA and Automation groups together and managing both.

Mark was eager to work with the variety of industries True North supports. And, as a big believer in mentorship, he was also excited to impart his knowledge and wisdom to the next generation of innovators — just as his father did for him.

Mark has been a great asset to the True North team. Because of his experiences, he thinks differently and approaches automation and integration projects in a strategic and efficient manner. And his technical knowledge ensures he can easily align with clients' expectations and overall business goals.

In fact, his approach has saved a lot of time and resources over the years. At a past engineering workplace where Mark managed OT for a producer / end user, he was tasked with re-using a project design originally created for another purpose. Using his strategic eye and technical knowledge, he saw an alternative approach for the control panel design and remote I/O distribution — and immediately saved the project 6 million dollars. All it took was looking at it differently.

"I love going into a project and coming up with new or different ways to make it more cost-effective, safer, or just technically better,” says Mark. “That's where I like to live in my world. I like to be an innovator.”

Mark’s strengths in identifying innovative approaches and solutions haven’t gone unnoticed at True North. Recently, the company promoted Mark by creating a new position designed to reflect Mark’s wheelhouse: Director of Solutions. In this new role, he’ll retain his duties as OT Automation Manager but with an added focus on overall innovation and strategy. Mark’s experience will help True North ensure its services and solutions align with clients’ business goals.

With Mark’s affinity for improving existing processes and developing new ones, it’s not surprising that he has big goals in the new role. He’s looking forward to optimizing True North’s core business while further expanding the company’s scope from earlier stages of project development to ongoing client operations, such as maintenance and cybersecurity.

As for any challenges along the way? Mark’s ready for them. Being on the leading-edge is where he’s most comfortable, he says. “I’m always trying to innovate and find new ways to do things better. That’s where I’m most successful in my career.”