Originally from the Phillipines, Yanina Seeger has been with the U.S. Army Contracting - Europe for 30 years.
Today, she is one of the local national contracting professionals working for the success of the U.S. military mission in Europe.
Seeger recalls that working in the con-tracting arena wasn't something she expected when marriage first brought her to Germany in 1980.
At the time, Seeger admits, she really didn't know anything about procurement.
It was her proficiency in English, she claims, that helped her secure her a job as a statistical clerk at the Regional Contracting Office in Frankfurt.
Then only a year later and after completing the basic contracting course, Seeger was promoted to purchasing agent.
This was the catalyst that launched her career.
From there, Seeger worked her way up by working on various projects.
"I helped in the award of the Cost-Plus Award Fee type contract for the total base maintenance at Patch Barracks, Stuttgart -- the first CPAF in Europe," she said.
After a succession of contract procure-ments such as the first guard services contract and the aerial surveillance contract in Bosnia, Seeger made her mark in the contracting world.
In 1995, Seeger received the contracting officer warrant after completing the Level III Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act certification.
Seeger said that over the years, she has weathered many changes and has learned to adapt to them.
"From manual to computer, from special-ized contracting to jack-of-all-trades, from separate pre-award/post-award to cradle to grave, telegraph to fax machines and emails, from paper to paperless, etc. Changes never stop," she noted. "We are still learning and adapting. We are sharing and teaching what we have learned."
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