GUILFORD, Conn., June 12, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sightlines, LLC, a leader in helping academic institutions better manage their facilities and capital investment strategies, has formed a new Member Advisory Panel (MAP) comprised of nine leaders in the higher education facilities management profession.
The Sightlines MAP will meet twice per year in order to advise the company's executives about timely business challenges facing the industry, provide specific insights into the trends affecting higher education facilities leaders and offer feedback on various Sightlines services offerings in development for the market. The kick-off meeting was held on April 30, 2013, at the Sightlines headquarters in Guilford, Conn.
Members of the Sightlines MAP include:
* Lawrence M. Archey, Director of Facilities and Grounds – Hampshire College
* Richard Bigelow, Associate Director & Chief Engineer – Mount Holyoke College
* Paul Breen, Director of Facilities Management and Planning – Mount Holyoke College
* John F. Cannon, Jr., Associate Director, Physical Plant/Planning and Operations – College of the Holy Cross
* Elaine Clark, VP Real Estate, Facilities, Infrastructure Planning – Connecticut State Colleges & Universities
* Juanita Holler, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities & Campus Services – University of Massachusetts Amherst
* Stephen Schafer, Associate Vice President and Controller – Lafayette College
* Maureen Socha, Senior Director of Facilities – Springfield Technical Community College
* Pete Zuraw, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management & Planning – Wellesley College
"We're gratified that so many leading voices in the higher ed facilities profession have agreed to join this advisory panel and look forward to their insights," said David Kadamus, president and chief executive officer of Sightlines. "Our goal is to provide academic facilities management professionals with the tools to optimize the management of their current assets, capital and operating investments. The Sightlines MAP will be a valuable resource to us in the pursuit of this mission and we hope it will also help to advance the profession by fostering greater collaboration among higher ed institutions."
According to Kadamus, the newly formed advisory panel is the first of several initiatives that are part of a "Voice of the Customer" program launched this year by Sightlines. Other planned activities will expand the reach of the program nationally and are expected to include a comprehensive customer satisfaction survey, a live roundtable event, and the creation of interactive online communities that will be enabled when the company launches a new Web site later this year.
"This 'Voice of the Customer' program is designed to make sure we're listening carefully to the opinions of our customers, identifying their greatest challenges and needs, and then delivering to them the kinds of solutions they need in order to do their jobs better and more efficiently," said Kadamus.
About Sightlines
Founded in 2000, Sightlines works with more than 300 academic institutions annually to create its ROPASM (Return-on-Physical-Assets) service, which provides a holistic approach to defining capital needs and provides an independent view of campus performance, reliably benchmarked against peer institutions. Academic institutions use ROPASM to defend budgets, secure additional funds, evaluate new construction, rebalance budgets, assess maintenance backlogs, determine proper staffing and service levels, and successfully present budgets to boards. Last fall, Sightlines was named to the 2012 Inc. 5000 list, an annual report from Inc. Magazine of the fastest growing privately owned businesses in the U.S., for the fourth consecutive year. For more information, please call 203.682.4952, go to www.sightlines.com or email insights@sightlines.com.