Matt Guilanins ’99 is a self-described American Dad, a damn good construction manager, a lover of everything mechanical, and always bored and looking for the next project. He was bitten by the automotive bug in his teens with the purchase of his first car, a ’77 Scout, with a Chevy engine he swapped in. Matt has that rare ability to look at an engine or piece of mechanical equipment, know how to take it apart, fix it, and put it back together again. He has taught himself to master complex software programs. He excelled as a maintenance officer and Heavy Tank Repair Platoon Leader. He restores cars and is a Ford Bronco expert. He even has a YouTube Fix It Channel with 14,000 followers called “Matt’s Garage.” He rebuilds; He fixes; He repairs; He advises; He multi-tasks; He’s a one-man commercial construction project manager…and he is very competent at what he does. Matt’s breadth of experience is as wide ranging as the states and countries where he has lived and worked. This is a remarkable story and one you will find fascinating to read.
In 1996, a CMC ROTC cadet friend David Strachan ‘98 encouraged Matt to attend a weekend mini-training exercise held at Camp Pendleton. He loved the program: running the obstacle course, practicing drills, and participating in field leadership reaction problems. At the end of the weekend, he was given a CMC ROTC Challenge Coin that he still has in his desk. He was hooked and signed up to start ROTC in his sophomore year. As luck would have it, there were a few scholarships still available. Matt received the scholarship and entered the ROTC program as a sophomore. At the awards banquet in his senior year, Matt was recognized as the “Top Cadet in the Battalion.” He was also selected as “Cadet of the Year in Los Angeles County.” His automotive experience made him a natural for the Ordinance Branch, but upon graduation there was a delay before he could attend the Officer Basic Course, so the Army had him make recruiting presentations at high schools and community colleges in the Los Angeles area. “It was fun being in uniform and talking with young people,” admitted Matt, “I was surprised and pleased...the Army actually paid me to do this work!”
Then in December 1999, Matt drove cross-country heading for Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, MD for his Basic Ordinance Officer Training Course. The trip was one of the first times he had left the Southern California area. Along the way, he stopped at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, ostensibly to get a look at the prison and get a shave and a haircut before entering active duty. The barbershop was actually inside the prison, and Matt was attended to by a burly inmate who argued loudly with another inmate barber while he shaved him. He spoke not a word, paid a charge of $1.50 and went on his way!
After four months of training, Matt was assigned back to the west coast and headed for Fort Irwin in San Bernadino County. This time he took the northern route across the United States visiting Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood in South Dakota and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. He had heard about a beer that could only be obtained in Montana called “Moose Drool” and had to try some. Upon arrival at the brewery, he learned that the company had just started to ship bottles throughout the US, and they could not sell him a six pack, but they could give him “Growlers” or gallon jugs. Matt put two Growlers in his truck and continued his western adventure.
His job at Ft. Irwin as Heavy Tank Maintenance Officer was to manage the maintenance of heavy track vehicles used to train visiting mechanized divisions coming to Ft. Irwin to conduct war games. One of the first visiting units was a National Guard unit from Montana. Matt quickly established a great rapport with the visitors by offering them some Moose Drool from his Growler stash. The Montana visitors were truly astounded at this young lieutenant’s resourcefulness.
The vehicle maintenance Matt was responsible for consisted of two fleets of vehicles (“Blue and Gold”) used by the visiting units in war game training to battle the home team aggressors. The aggressors dressed in Russian garb and drove vehicles made to look like Russian vehicles. The “rented” Blue and Gold fleet received very rough treatment. Matt relished his work, loved his job, and dug right in with the men in his platoon. He got his hands dirty and took seriously the responsibility of keeping the Humvees, M1A1 Abrams Tanks, and Bradley Fighting Vehicles running smoothly. One of the soldiers in his platoon was not getting along well with the rest of the men and Matt, anticipating future problems, took the man under his wing. They worked together to rebuild a turbine engine and after completion both Matt and the soldier won respect and creds from the men in the platoon. When the engine tested it registered at 103% of capacity on the engine dyno.
Matt was also good at managing the supply chain aspect of his job. When he first took over, many of the vehicles had been redlined for 60 to 90 days with some that had not been operational for over a year. After three months that number was reduced to less than 30. On one occasion when briefing the Battalion Executive Officer, he gave such a thorough and detailed presentation that the Colonel stopped the briefing to tell the other officers that “they needed to learn to brief the way that Lieutenant G. did.”
After 3 ½ years at Ft. Irwin, Matt was ready for a change. He thought about staying in the Army but knew that his future was going to be outside the military. He left the Army in 2003 and took a job in Commercial Construction Management building residential homes, apartments, and condominiums in the Santa Monica area. He went to night school at USC earning both MBA and master's degrees.
In 2007 he married the love of his life, Nandita, who was originally from Philadelphia, PA. They were married first in Pasadena (in the same church seen in “Wedding Crashers”), then flew to Kolkata, India to participate in a three-day second wedding ceremony with Nandita’s extended family. They were accompanied by family and friends from the US, including his CMC ROTC friends, Josh Walter ‘01 and his wife Marisa Pearlman ’98.
A position became available in India (unrelated to Nandita and the wedding) to build athlete housing for the Commonwealth Games (like the Olympics but for the British Commonwealth Countries). After a year of intense work, the global financial crisis ended the project, and he returned to the US unemployed and with a pregnant wife. He took a position with Ernst & Young to manage subcontracts for a $12 billion construction project for MGM in City Center, Las Vegas. Commuting weekly from Los Angeles, he was responsible for negotiating changes to a $1 billion electrical contract. One of the many project structures went south fast after building 23 of 46 stories of “The Harmon Tower.” Faulty construction methods were discovered, and his work turned toward supporting the impending litigation. The side of the Tower was used as a giant billboard and was eventually demolished. But Matt had taught himself a sophisticated software scheduling program and was the only person who knew how to access, use, and update the database. His job security was guaranteed, and he acquired tremendous knowledge of mega project contract negotiation and scheduling.
In 2012 Matt was contacted by a Canadian company responsible for developing a $9 Billion potash mine. They hired him to consult and evaluate the status of the project. After six months of investigation, he reported to the owners that the company was a billion dollars over budget and one year behind schedule. That prediction ended Matt’s employment. His prediction ended up being not just correct, but overly conservative.
Matt’s next stop on the consulting trail with Ernst and Young took him to Perth, Australia in 2012 to consult on Iron Ore Mining contracts. He arrived just as the market crashed, and another project ended abruptly but the family enjoyed beautiful parks and beaches while Matt worked on a large hospital reconfiguration.
In December 2013, he, and Nandita and their two children relocated to Guatemala where Matt worked as the Business Manager to build a 300-Megawatt Powerplant, the largest in Central America. From the beginning Matt and the project were embroiled in controversy when the Chinese company that was responsible for construction was terminated from the project on the very day Matt arrived in country. Then followed two years of turmoil as the Chinese company refused to accept the termination and took many controversial actions to disrupt and litigate the project. Matt found himself flying to China to secure the subcontracts for the project, getting to see Wuhan, Beijing, and the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi’an. Ultimately, the Power Plant was built and the Chinese contractor lost their claim in international arbitration - another litigation Matt supported. Matt defines this period in his life as “the most interesting, important, stressful and intense of his life.”
Returning to the US in 2016, Matt went to work for SNC-Lavalin a company based in Montreal but with a power plant construction division in Seattle (formerly an Enron branch). The branch was responsible for building two 750-Megawatt power plants in Maryland. Moving to Seattle, Matt became their Prime Contract Manager. He found the work stressful but he stayed through the completion of the project and decided to return to consulting on commercial projects. After another four years of establishing himself in the Seattle area, he took the plunge and decided to focus full-time on his own consulting company “Falcon & Fern” named after the origin meanings of his children’s names, Niobe and Gavin. He has built a successful consulting practice with a stable of loyal clients.
This is the work Matt loves, and he has been extremely successful at developing the trust and relationships that bring referrals to his doorstep. He is a one man show and hires specific talent to help him as needed. He is rightly proud of the projects he is managing: a new high school, a new middle school, additions to a high school and an elementary school, a retail wine village, and a golf course maintenance facility. He admits he must be extraordinarily efficient to multi-task so many projects but takes immense pride in the trust his clients have in him. His style imparts a feeling of security and knowledge founded on extensive personal experience. He knows what is best for his clients, how to solve their problems, and successfully manage each phase of the work. He often offers them the opportunity to hire or consult with another project manager but always receives the same response: “Absolutely not, you are the man we want for our building.”
When asked to provide the Life Lessons he has brought from his military and civilian experience, Matt volunteered the following:
- Choose your spouse wisely. It is the most important decision of your life. “Mine was always ready for an adventure and always had my back in every career decision!”
- Seek and accept every strange opportunity that nobody else wants to take when you are young. It will keep your life interesting, and you will stay on the learning curve.
- The leadership one learns in the military sets us apart. The business world talks about leadership but is terrible at it. Military training gives you a leg up.
- When stress creeps into your life, and it will, show it out the same door as it came in. Stress response is entirely within your control.