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Father’s Day | My #EngineeringDad is so cool and so warm
Father’s Day falls on the third Sunday of June - a father’s love is as warm as the sunshine in June. There is a group of #EngineeringDads who have worked in the engineering and construction industry for a long time and are doing a super ‘cool’ job. Back home, being with their lovely family members, these dads are quite different than in the offices - they convert their roles into warm dads! Let us get to know some of them through two warm #EngineeringDad stories.
Mark Stephens
Principal Architect & Subject Matter Expert
Mark has been with Exyte in China for over 11 years. He is managing the Architects and Structural team and gets involved in the design of most of the large and complex projects.
Mark lives in Shanghai with his wife Candice and their two kids, Daphne who is 6, and Hunter who is 5. They also have a dog called “Coffee”.
“My Children think of me as being very busy.”
Mark is also a global Subject Matter Expert for Laboratory and Pharmaceutical Facility Design. For this role, he supports international projects and is typically involved in 4 to 5 overseas projects at the same time.
“Daphne and Hunter mainly think of me as being very busy! Lots of long days at work and teleconference meetings with overseas offices at night.” said Mark.
Spirit passed to the next generation
Daphne and Hunter enjoy visiting Mark’s office to see him at work occasionally. They enjoy seeing the various building designs and ideas, and sometimes they try to help when Mark is working on the home computer. They particularly enjoy seeing the 3D models and movies. They know that Exyte’s job is to help clients to produce computer chips and medicines to make people’s lives better!
It is always wonderful arriving home
They are a very busy family. Mark and Candice are busily engaged in their work activities. Daphne and Hunter go to an international school in Pudong and enjoy extra weekend classes for painting, robot building, roller blading, and science lessons.
No matter how busy or tired, Mark tries to regularly spend time with his kids
“It is always wonderful arriving home after work, because first our dog Coffee will run to see me, then Daphne (who is the fastest runner) gives me a big hug, and then Hunter gives me a big hug.”
Xuefeng Zhou
Senior Project Manager
Starting as a Process Engineer, Xuefeng has been working with Exyte for 20 years. Now he is a Senior Project Manager and is working on a high-tech project in Wuhan, China.
Xuefeng has two kids Jessie Zhou (周思宸), 12 years old, is the elder sister, showing great interest in language, reading, music/piano, swimming and ice skating. Zeen Zhou (周泽恩), 10 years old, is the younger boyand loves sports like soccer, swimming, and ice skating very much as well as robots and lego. In his opinion, playing the violin is boring.
A math teacher, a playmate, and a magician!
”My kids know I am an engineer and always busy with projects far away from home,“ said Xuefeng, ”I hope my kids are having a happy childhood although their dad can’t accompany them every week, every month, even every year, but we know we are together in our hearts.”
As the senior project manager of one of the leading semiconductor projects, Xuefeng has to stick to his post with the project team to ensure the smooth operation of the construction. Now he video chats with his family three or four times every week, sharing a lot about daily life, studying, work, and expressing how much they miss and love each other.
From the views of his kids, Xuefeng is a good math teacher, he can always figure out the fifth grade math problems with permutations and combinations. Sometimes he is also a magician, showing magic tricks. When staying at home, Xuefeng is also a good playmate to his kids. They like playing card games together, like 24 points and UNO.
Recently, the project team led by Xuefeng was awarded the ‘Excellent Performance Team’ by a client. Xuefeng owed all the success to the support from all of the family members of the project team.