The portrait of the month: who is Vassil?

[FirdousKhan]

Hello everybody,

Every month discover a member of the Exchange Community.

This month we have interviewed Vassil. He kindly answered our questions below.

He is a community member since 2011, where he demonstrates his expertise in EcoStruxure Building. Let’s learn more about this EcoXpert Master.

Question n°1 : Can you present yourself to the members: where are you from? What is your position in your company? What are your hobbies?

         Vassil: “Hey, these are three questions, not one?

i. Originally, I come from Sofia, Bulgaria, but many years ago I moved with my family to Toronto, Canada which is my home now.

ii. My professional carrier in controls started back in Bulgaria as a Heating Controls Technician when I was responsible for maintaining basic controls of oil burners and steam/hot water boilers. That is when I fell in love with controls even though back then I didn’t have the required education and skills. I really liked traveling to different places (job sites), interacting with different people and personalities, solving challenging tasks and thus learning the controls business.

iii. After settling in Toronto, I underwent English language classes and a higher education in HVAC and Energy Management. Few years later I accepted a Controls Technologist position in TACanada, that later in 2016 was acquired by Convergint Technologies.  Now, I hold Engineering/Integration Specialist position and I am responsible for Canada nationwide projects engineering, programming, and troubleshooting.
Also, I am actively helping our Convergint BAS technical support team as well as our sales colleagues with projects estimâtes.

iv. In my spare time, besides exploring the Exchange Communities?, I read a lot of books. Primarily, sci-fi and fantasy. As a teen, when I first read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur Clarke, my mind was simply blown away!
Reading books is not just my hobby, it is a necessity for me. I read before bedtime and I go nowhere without my Kobo eReader, which holds tons of books in both English and Bulgarian. Also, I enjoy listening to my all-time favourite band Pink Floyd and some relaxing jazz on the radio when stuck in a traffic jam.

Last but not least, I like traveling with my family to different parts of the globe learning and experiencing different cultures and histories.”

Question n°2: How the Exchange Community is useful for your business/commitment? How the Exchange Community is useful for your position / job?

           Vassil: “The Exchange Community is part of my daily professional life. From locating required software and product specification sheets to finding answers on the Knowledge Base when trying to resolve a problem, to learning in advance from others shared struggle experience, tips and tricks. Some of the solutions or example code libraries I have seen or provided on the Community, I later used on projects of our own as needed. Also, there were few business opportunities over the years.”

Question n°3: How would you define your experience in the Exchange Community?

         Vassil: “The Exchange Community is not only a fountain of a shared knowledge and experience that helps improving your current skills, but a place where you can “meet” others, have fun, and make a lot of friends that you look forward meeting in person, hopefully “one of these days” over a cup of hot coffee (or a glass of cold beer?) ”

Question n°4: Can you share with us your recommendation or advice for the community members?

        Vassil: “Often, when encountering an issue with some of the Schneider products, we all get frustrated, especially when under the heat from our customers or trying to fit within the project’s deadlines and budjet. Please stay positive and post your problems/questions cool headed. Constructive criticism accompanied with a well laid out use case will guarantee a serious attention and/or quicker resolution rather than just bashing the product. If absolutely urgent, please open a ticket with your designated Schneider Electric Product Support (PSS).
Also, there are no silly questions. If in doubt, ask!

Your answer is probably just few minutes away instead of banging your head against the wall for hours or days.
Finally, share your ideas for R&D to consider and solutions for others to benefit, improve, and provide in turn useful feedback.”

Question n°5: According to you, which quotes describe best the Exchange Community?

          Vassil: “From Google search, I liked the following two as most applicable in this case:

 “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members”. Coretta Scott King

“Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.” Dorothy Height.”

Question n° 6: To conclude, who do you want to salute or thanks in this community?

            Vassil: “Well, I would equally salute all active Community members, the Exchange Organizers Team and Administrators, Product Support Engineers, and Product R&D. However, I should mention @DavidFisher for his tireless background work and @Benji for the incredible number of solutions and tools contributed to this Community as well as my wife Eleonora M. for her understanding and support throughout the late night and weekend hours I've been devoting on the Exchange Community. Thank You All !!!”

Thanks again @Vassil  for your time and for your involvement in the community.

You can often come across him in this forums: EcoStruxure Building Operation and TAC Vista. 

Please don’t hesitate to give him a like or leave him a comment below!

Management and Animation Team of Exchange Community

Firdous

[Jean_Commeignes]

Hello Vassil, 

I discovered in your interview many surprising sides you hid us in Barcelona EXCH event for Innovation Summit!

And I can now understand how much we owe Eleonora M, to have you so actively involved in Community!

See  u soon

jean

[DavidFisher]

Thanks, @Vassil for the kind words and for animating several communities over so many years!

[Benji]

Hey @Vassil. Honored to be mentioned here... You were around and driving collaboration before I was even out of school. You're definitely an example to follow, and I'm thrilled we finally got the opportunity to meet IRL in Barcelona! 🙂

Until next time, and until then - see you around here 🙂

[jingli_an_conve]

Awesome! @Vassil

[alex_bordin_con]

Hey @Vassil  Excellent portrayal of what the Exchange is all about.  

[TanyaM]

Bravo Vasko !

[d_temple]

Great article and I enjoyed reading it.  Congrats Vassil.  I appreciate the help you've given and others in this community as well.

[jpbonnafoux]

@Vassil nice to read from you after having met in Barcelona! See you soon in Toronto hopefully!

[stephen_todd_co]

Vassil as always you contribute to both the Schneider Community as well as the Convergint Nation !

Making a Daily Difference to both Companies !

Great job and over the 15+ years I've worked with you I have learned to expect nothing but greatness !

Looking forward to the future ( maybe you have seen it already in the SCI-FI books )