A mechanical engineer and project manager with more than 25 years of experience will assume an expanded role in the management and development of facilities at West Virginia University and its regional campuses.

Randy Hudak has been named the assistant vice president of Facilities Management and will help oversee the resource management, planning, construction, maintenance and training efforts for the unit.

Randy has utilized his expertise and professional manner to make significant departmental changes for the benefit of the employees and WVU ,said Joe Fisher, associate vice president of WVU Facilities and Services.During his tenure, the department and their responsibilities have effectively doubled in size, and he has helped oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in new construction and renovations, the development of several in-house operations and the framework for our sustainability efforts.

Hudak formerly served as director for the unit and said his new role will provide greater support for the Universitys branch campuses.

In addition to departmental oversight of Facilities Management, construction activities, operations and maintenance efforts at the main campus, my role is being expanded to provide oversight at WVU Tech, Jacksons Mill and the Dow property in Charleston, among others,he said.Well be able to provide the regional campuses with more resources to manage daily operations and additional support services to help with planning development, construction issues and management of construction projects.

The Facilities Management unit and its more than 600 employees are responsible for the maintenance, operations and construction of WVU buildings, grounds and roads. In addition, the department is involved with implementing the facilities master plan, coordinates technical and design services, maintains campuswide utilities, oversees recycling efforts and provides custodial services.

In this role, Ill serve as a direct link of contact and provide more resources to our peers,Hudak said.There are specific areas of expertise that we can help the regional campuses with because of the experience our staff has developed from managing large-scale projects on the main campus. Our project managers, engineers and other advisers can serve as a valuable resource in developing their maintenance plans and managing construction projects.

Hudak has worked for United States Steel Corp. and General Motors Corp., and he was a plant engineer and engineering manager with Bayer Diagnostics. He began his career with WVU in 2001 as assistant director for NASA Facility Management and quickly moved into assistant director for WVU s planning, design and construction unit.

Hudak has earned Engineer in Training status and is a Certified Plant Engineer and Certified Manufacturing Maintenance Manager by the Association of Facility Engineering. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

For more information about the WVU Facilities Management unit, visithttp://www.wvu.edu/~facserv/plant/.