ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Jan. 20, 2015) -- Researchers and engineers are welcoming a new leader as Michael Abaie assumes his role as director of engineering at the at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
The first clue to his leadership style may be seen on his bookshelf; nestled amongst books with titles such as "Applied Thermodynamics" and "Mechanical and Design Engineering," is "7 Habits of Highly Effective People." This impression is reinforced by the successive leadership positions he has held before arriving at ECBC.
"My experiences have taught me that an effective leader takes a team approach in order to accomplish the mission and at the same time allows the members of the team to be free-thinkers and respecting them as individuals," he said. "Communication is the key, and I err on the side of sharing too much information."
His first taste of leadership, and his first experiences with ECBC, came in 1997 after leaving private industry to return to government service with the Naval Service Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia.
As a program manager for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, he was working with smoke and obscurants, which led directly to ECBC.
"It was immediately obvious to me when I met with ECBC, that that's where all the expertise was located. When ECBC spoke, everyone listened," he said.
His contact with ECBC was just starting. After a little over a year with the non-lethal weapons division, a program manager position for the Navy with the Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Division at Dahlgren became available. The Navy team at Dahlgren was working closely with ECBC on the Joint Biological Remote Early Warning System. He continued to be impressed by ECBC.
"I remember having a problem and I turned to ECBC subject matter experts for assistance," he said. "Within four months, they had a simple solution that was to the point and effective. I applauded the design. In fact, I recall saying it was brilliant."
In 2003, Abaie was selected as the Deputy Joint Program Manager for Collective Protection under the newly formed Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense. Abaie established a team of experts from across the services to manage the various programs within the JPM ColPro portfolio. All the programs under the newly formed JPM were supported by ECBC technical personnel.
"In fact, more than half the organization consisted of ECBC matrixed personnel, and I was extremely impressed with the professionalism and the in-depth knowledge that ECBC experts had about carbon filtration and ColPro technologies," he said.
In 2008, Abaie was selected as the JPM for ColPro and continued to work closely with the same ECBC team.
Abaie's career took another leap in 2010 when JPEO reorganized to place collective protection, individual protection and decontamination into a single JPM called Protection. At the same time, the Office of the Secretary of Defense was expanding the medical side of Chemical, Biological Defense Program, and Abaie was selected to lead a White House initiative at JPEO as the JPM for Medical Countermeasure Advanced Development and Manufacturing. The DoD needed a manufacturing capability that could rapidly produce MCMs to meet the new threats; Abaie assembled a team of experts who stood up a facility that could rapidly produce vaccines and prophylactic treatments using new technologies.
As the lead of the White House initiative, Abaie had to interface with a lot of different stakeholders.
"I learned to really listen to all of the stakeholders to find out what they really wanted," he said. "This allowed me create win-win solutions. Consensus isn't getting everything you want; it's getting most of what you want and being able to live without some things that you could not get. I was able to do that because I pulled together a good team that could contribute different perspectives and think creatively while staying focused on the task."
Abaie's leadship skills and drive for increasingly complex challenges was noticed within JPEO, and in 2013, he was selected as the product support manager for the Joint Portfolio at JPEO to address the high cost of sustaining chemical and biological equipment.
Using his experience, Abaie crafted a strategy that addressed the needs of the services while cutting costs. This strategy is in the process of being implemented.
Abaie said he has always seen change as opportunity. He comes to the ECBC Engineering Directorate at a time of organizational change.
"The breadth of knowledge possessed by the Engineering Directorate's personnel and their 'can do' spirit is incredible," he said. "During our current fiscally constrained environment I am fully confident that we, as a team, can address the evolving threat and seize upon the opportunities to grow and further flourish as a national asset. I know the leadership at JPEO and the JPMs well, and I will ensure that the Engineering Directorate will work closely with them, helping them determine their strategic direction in this changing fiscal environment. My goal is to position the Engineering Directorate to be part of their solution."
Leadership can benefit a family as much as a technology and science organization, and Abaie has spread his love of soccer wife of 29 years, and his 24-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. He played soccer in high school in Teaneck, New Jersey, and he started his children playing soccer at age five. They both went on to play soccer at the collegiate level.
Abaieis also a firm believer in the importance of personal fitness. At a previous job, when Abaie was younger, he would bicycle 11 miles each way to work and back plus do ten push-ups and ten sit-ups in his office every hour. These days, he exercises an hour a day.
"My wife and I will go for a five mile walk, or bike for about 15 to 20 miles, or I will circuit train with a jump rope or dumbbells in my basement in bad weather," he said. "I encourage everyone who works for me to have a good work/family balance in their lives; Happy at home, happy at work."
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The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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