HPTi - Jacob Weyant
Company: High Performance Technologies, Inc., Reston, Virginia
Company Description: Founded in 1992, High Performance Technology, Inc., designs IT solutions that help our federal customers protect America’s safety and prosperity. Our experts use applied science, performance-based architecture, and systems engineering to help our customers achieve the results they need. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, HPTi has over 240 employees in sites across the country.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Support Staffer
Nomination Title: Jacob Weyant, Associate of Corporate Development, High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi)
1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Jake Weyant joined HPTi in 2003. His scheduled start date was the day after
an unexpected President’s Day blizzard. While most of the DC area was digging
out from the previous day’s storm, Jake drove over 20 miles to the office for
his first day. He arrived just in time to help the only other five people in
the office finish and deliver a government proposal. Jake’s ability to
overcome the unforeseen has been a hallmark of his time at HPTi.
Jake was brought in to help in HPTi’s marketing department, but in a firm of
only 240 people, his role has expanded to include a lot of different tasks.
He might be seen giving a tour of the office to potential college hires,
working through the night on a proposal, or taking pictures for the annual
report—all of this in addition to his writing and corporate development
duties. His ability to problem-solve and talent for remaining unflappable in
the face of pressing deadlines makes him a popular go-to guy in the company.
Line personnel and management will often go to Jake with those tasks that defy
easy classification. His service-oriented work ethic has earned him our
Employee of the Year Award, the company’s Hero Award, and several certificates
of commendation.
One of his duties is to manage our participation in the Supercomputing
Conference, a trade show that attracts several thousand people. Jake
coordinates the logistics for a 400 sq ft booth, develops marketing materials,
and schedules the participation of over a dozen computational scientists and
company executives. It seems that every year there is some malfunctioning
piece of equipment or fire code obstacle to be overcome. Despite the
challenges, Jake always remains positive and finds a way to ensure that our
show is successful. He even managed to laugh about the stressful experiences
in his quarterly column in our company newsletter.
In the past year, HPTi won the Virginia State Productivity and Quality Award
Plaque for Progress in Performance Excellence. Part of the application
process involved a site visit by a half-dozen evaluators. We turned to Jake
to be our liaison with the group. Jake made sure that their every need was
met. After the multi-day visit, the lead evaluator, who had come across the
annual report in his research, noted, “We can see why Jake was your employee
of the year.”
Jake is also our contact with a firm that conducts customer satisfaction
surveys for HPTi. Despite his background in English and marketing, we asked
him to build a database of survey data that could be analyzed in a wide
variety of ways. Jake never balked, but set about finding people in the firm
who could teach him the SQL and database-design skills he needed to accomplish the goal.
In his company awards and recognition, Jake is always noted for smiling
regardless of the situation. It is his infectious attitude that makes Jake
valuable to our team. One co-worker has jokingly called him “HPTi’s morale
officer.”
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Employee of the Year http://www.hpti.com/objects/2005_Annual_Report.pdf
Writing Duties http://www.arl.hpc.mil/Publications/eLink_Spring04/p16_17.html
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Jake Weyant began his professional career with HPTi four years ago. His
education is in marketing and English. He performs many duties in the company
including writing, proposal development, website maintenance, graphics design,
and POC for many of our professional memberships. He also plays on our flag-
football and softball teams. His creativity, ability to learn new tasks,
willingness to tackle any challenge, and capacity to maintain friendly
relationships with so many of his coworkers has made him a great addition to our corporate family.