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you are here: Home >> Join our Team >> People Profiles People ProfilesUrban System's vision is to be the workplace of choice. We know this won't happen by accident so we put tremendous energy into creating an environment where our people are supported, challenged and can thrive. In turn, our people invest their time, energy and creativity in making Urban Systems a great place to work. Over the years we have nurtured a unique culture that attracts and retains some of the best talent in the industry. Find out more about some of these great people by reading the profiles below. Anthony Comazzetto, P.Eng.Christine Mighton, Senior Planning TechnologistGlen Shkurhan, P.Eng.Samantha Ward, P.Eng.
Anthony Comazzetto, P.Eng.
After graduating from high school in Kamloops, he embarked on what ended up being a four year program of study in “snow science”. Anthony’s dedicated research on the subject took him to various ski towns throughout the province where he worked in the evenings and skied during the day. And while he enjoyed this lifestyle immensely, he found his summer employment to be lacking on many levels prompting his return to school at the age of 26.
His pursuit of higher education however, did not unfold as a part of a grand vision, but rather through a series of accidents and circumstances beyond his control. He started out at the Okanagan University College (OUC) in Kelowna where he completed the two year Civil Engineering Technology program with a view to working as a technologist. However, after graduating at the top of his class, Anthony’s instructors encouraged him to continue with his studies by enrolling in the bridging program at Camouson College. Despite having doubts about pursuing an engineering degree, he went ahead and enrolled in Camouson in order to keep his options open. However, it wasn’t long into the program when he learned that deferring acceptance into engineering at UBC wasn’t an option, but rather that he needed to enroll immediately following the bridging program. At this point it seemed that there was no turning back and in 2000 he graduated from UBC with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering.
Shortly after graduation, Anthony began his career with our Kelowna branch where he spent the bulk of his time doing inspection and contract administration on small projects. As someone who would rather “stare at an excavator than a computer”, he continues to focus on construction projects with the scope of his involvement and the scale of the projects themselves growing each year. Since relocating to our Nelson office early in 2005, Anthony has been working on a wide range of engineering construction projects, including an upgrade to the City of Nelson sewage treatment plant, restoration of an eighty year old concrete trestle and installation of a watermain highway crossing. In addition, he works extensively with clients and is helping to deepen and expand our client base in the Kootenays.
When asked what it was about Urban Systems and consulting in general that appeals to him, Anthony says that it is the diversity of project work that keeps him engaged. As someone who by his own admission “gets bored quickly”, he appreciates the flexibility that Urban Systems gives him to pursue his evolving professional interests and goals. At the same time, moving to Nelson together with his long time partner, Shelley, helped him to realize some of his personal goals as well, namely living in a small town amongst like minded people with easy access to all of his favorite outdoor activities. Recently settled in their new home, Anthony and Shelley live an active life that has them mountain biking, kite boarding and climbing in the summer and backcountry skiing in the winter.
As a professional, Anthony’s colleagues characterize him as a friendly, positive, and knowledgeable guy who has excellent judgment and an amazing ability to stay calm under pressure. However, it is his ability to balance a successful career with his personal pursuits that makes him unique and a source of inspiration to many. In addition to being a hard working, capable and respected engineer/consultant, he is also extremely deliberate and committed to living a “whole” life. In the words of a Kelowna colleague, “Anthony makes every minute count”.
And so while Anthony may not have started out with an explicit plan for his career, he has an implicit vision for a particular quality of life that has undoubtedly contributed to his success. He is living proof that a successful career need not come at the expense of a rich and fulfilling personal life.
Christine Mighton, Senior Planning Technologist
After graduating with honors and accumulating numerous scholarships and awards, Christine was ready to take on the work world. Her first job was with an oil and gas company, but after one year she decided to give consulting a try. She joined CEP Consultants where she worked for five years before moving on to UMA Engineering for the next twelve years. A chance meeting in 2000 with an old friend from university led to a position with Walker Newby. Within a year, Christine learned that the small firm had been purchased by Urban Systems and that the entire office would be relocating.
It’s been five years since Christine and her talented colleagues joined Urban Systems and it’s difficult to imagine the branch without them. As a senior planning technologist Christine works primarily in land development area assisting the senior planners in serving their clients. It is a fast paced and demanding industry, but Christine loves a challenge so she is well suited to the demands of her work which includes leadership and coordination of the technical team, provision of mapping and presentation materials, processing development applications, and communication with clients with respect to projects and potential of marketing graphics.
At the same time, Christine is one of those people that can’t be overlooked when a culture based initiative is being launched. A naturally warm and caring person, she believes deeply in the importance of creating a positive and happy work environment and has served on various committees to ensure that the spirit of community thrives in the Calgary branch.
We talk about how it’s everyone’s job to make sure Urban Systems is a great place to work and Christine is a shining example of someone who does more than her part - she works extremely hard, does excellent work and in the words of her colleague Roberto Binda, is “a joy to be around”. What more could we ask!
Glen Shkurhan, P.Eng.
Born and raised in the lower mainland of BC, Glen was your typical dirt biking, ball hockey playing kid who liked to watch heavy machinery and see things get built. When it came time to attend post secondary school, he was drawn to the practical orientation of the Civil and Structural Engineering diploma program at BCIT. However, mid-way through the program, with strong encouragement from one of his BCIT instructors, he concluded that in order to fulfill his career aspirations he would need to take the next step and complete an engineering degree. With this decision, upon completion of his diploma in 1989, he packed his bags and headed for Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario to work as a technologist for a year prior to re-entering school. Concurrently, he applied and was accepted to the University of Waterloo - widely reputed as one of Canada’s finest engineering schools.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Glen made a very deliberate decision around 2002 to shift his focus from serving primarily as a technical specialist, to working more in the area of general municipal engineering. He felt this shift was necessary to better understand and service municipal government clients, and therefore strengthen his independence. Although he continues to focus quite heavily on stormwater related issues, design and construction of stormwater works and watercourse stabilization, he enjoys the complexity and variety associated with serving as a “municipal problem solver” for his clients. Helping people by developing pragmatic and effective solutions to their problems is something Glen takes very seriously and something for which he has tremendous passion. And while the variables and issues associated with fixing a problem are typically more complicated than those associated with the design of new infrastructure, he finds the former to be more interesting and gratifying.
One such example is the Duprez Ravine project in White Rock. It was in June of 1999 when a record setting storm caused a debris flow in Duprez Ravine that clogged a major stormwater inlet and resulted in extensive flooding of a portion of the typically picturesque Marine Drive tourist strip along the ocean front. As the project manager and lead engineer, Glen led a team of specialists and ex-UBC academic in developing an innovative and ultimately effective solution to deal with a complex, challenging and high profile problem. And although he admits to having ‘lost a lot of sleep’ on this one, Glen’s efforts did not go unnoticed; early in 2005 he and his team were recognized with a CEBC Award of Merit for engineering excellence.
Now as a partner in Urban Systems, Glen can’t imagine himself anywhere else. Although the pace can be intense and the responsibilities consuming at times, he thrives on the variety of projects, communities, people and opportunities that are available to him through consulting, and finds that Urban Systems provides the flexibility that he needs to formulate his own balance between the technical, administrative and management aspects of his career.
On the home front, Glen and his wife, Cheryl, try to balance career commitments with personal pursuits. Aside from golf, curling, and other fitness activities, they continually dedicate effort to the landscaping of their property which has become their private oasis. But now that their yard is well established and largely in “maintenance mode” , he is focusing more of his attention on building fine furniture, and tinkering with and showing his 1967 Firebird that he spent over 2 years and countless hours fully restoring.
Whether in work or in life, our past CEO Gord Petersen sums it up by saying that, “Glen is someone of tremendous character who you can always count on to do what he says he is going to do regardless of the circumstances.” And while he could have his pick of companies with whom to work, Glen has made a very conscious choice to build his career with Urban Systems. We feel lucky to have him and according to Glen, he is proud of his association with Urban Systems. We’re glad the feeling is mutual!
Samantha Ward, P.Eng.
Born and raised in Unionville, Ontario, Sam always knew that she would attend university, but given her wide range of academic interests, deciding what to take would be a different matter altogether. In her final year of high school she applied to programs in both architecture and geography, in addition to exploring the possibility of studying interior design in the southern United States where her brother was living at the time. Somewhere along the line, the civil engineering program at Queen’s University captured her attention and after some last minute scrambling to acquire the necessary science credits, she was accepted into the program. Throughout her education, Sam’s interest in geography (planning and urban design specifically) persisted to the point that in her fourth year, she applied and was accepted into a Masters of Planning program, also at Queen’s. However, anticipating the need for a break from school she deferred on her acceptance and in 2000 graduated with an honors B.A.Sc. in civil engineering (environmental option).
Her initial work experience came with a consulting firm out of Markham, Ontario with whom she had worked as a summer student for several years. From the beginning, she found consulting to be well aligned with her interests and strengths, but determined that in order to gain sufficient design and construction experience she would need to change employers. At the same time, she was experiencing some shifts in her personal life having fallen for a young engineer (and future husband, Scott) who was exploring the possibility of relocating to Vancouver to complete his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering. In a dramatic move, that was in Sam’s words both “scary and uncharacteristic”, the couple quit their respective jobs, moved across the country with no money, no furniture and no job prospects!
Not long after her arrival in Vancouver in the fall of 2001, Sam was snapped up by the Stormwater Management team in our Richmond office. To begin with, she focused on projects involving hydrologic/hydraulic modeling as part of infrastructure assessments for clients. This grew into more detailed and complete technical assessments, as well as report writing, interaction with internal/external clients and eventually project management of small to mid sized projects. During this time Sam demonstrated great passion for stormwater work and consulting in general, as well as a tremendous commitment to the values and ideals of Urban Systems. Today she is considered “an enormous asset to the Stormwater Management group” who is moving into project management in a more significant way, while continuing to serve as a resource to her colleagues within the areas of Integrated Stormwater Management Planning (ISWM) and Low Impact Development (LID).
One of Sam’s career highlights thus far was being on the award winning Duprez Ravine Stormwater Bypass project team. She was involved in the project from the beginning, through initial assessment and route selection, to meeting with the client, to detailed design of the proposed works and doing some inspection during the construction. It was a challenging project and according to Sam she was “trusted with a great deal of responsibility, especially considering my experience level”. In addition to it being a growth experience for Sam, it also reinforced the depth of her capabilities in the eyes of her colleagues and clients alike.
So suffice it to say it has been a busy six years. In addition to moving across the country, getting married, and receiving her P. Eng. designation, Sam has also found the time to reignite one of her passions – playing the flute. She dusted off her instrument recently, joined a local concert band and is back on stage after more than 10 years. And while Sam may not characterize herself as a big risk taker, it would appear that her ability to thrive in Urban Systems is closely linked with her appetite for personal and professional challenge, and her willingness to step into the unknown from time to time. |
Anthony possesses a great love of adventure and the outdoors, and it is this passion that has shaped many of the decisions he has made with respect to his career. 
Christine grew up in a close knit family in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where much of her time was spent at the family summer home. It was here that she learned to play tennis and water ski eventually becoming a passionate competitor in both sports. At the age of 18 she headed off to Mount Royal College in Calgary to study Interior Design. She graduated with her diploma in the early 80’s when the Alberta economy was in a depression and interior design opportunities were in short supply. Rather than wait around for things to improve, Christine headed back to school beginning with a year in the faculty of Urban Design at the University of Calgary. She felt it was a good fit and so immediately enrolled in a two year Community and Regional Planning program. 
At Urban Systems, we strongly encourage our people to take ownership of their careers in order to create the kinds of opportunities that challenge and excite them. Glen Shkurhan is someone who has taken this credo to heart and as a result is doing the kind of cutting edge engineering work that gets him fired up and keeps him in high demand with clients and colleagues alike. 
The success that Samantha has found at Urban Systems demonstrates how those with diverse interests and strengths can thrive in a multi-disciplinary consulting environment such as ours.