Paul Mackay, Chief Information Officer (CIO) with CMC Energy out of our Fort Washington location joined CMC in July 2021. Paul was born in the small town of Rainham within the county of Kent (known as “the garden of England”) about 45 miles south-east of London. After serving in the Royal Air Force, Paul worked at Lloyd’s of London where he met his wife, Chrissy.
After working in England, he moved his family to the United States in 2005 to head up Reinsurance IT globally for Towers Perrin. In 2012, he went back to school at St Joseph’s University in Philadelphia for his Executive MBA.
Life changed again in 2013 for Paul, when Towers Perrin sold the reinsurance business to Jardine Lloyd Thompson, where he worked for a few years. In 2017, he ventured into the world of consultancy for the newly formed Nassau Re. Unfortunately, he was laid off from Nassau as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When he’s not at work, Paul enjoys tinkering with anything mechanical, riding his bike, playing tennis and cleaning his cars, including an old Jaguar that needs tender loving care most of the time.
Before joining CMC, what did you know about energy efficiency or the industry?
Not much to be honest. Obviously, I knew about saving energy with LED light bulbs and insulation but didn’t think much more about it. My interest was sparked this summer when I needed new air-conditioning units at my home. My units were 20 years old and couldn’t cool the house, even when left on all day. I started my research and was surprised by the differences in efficiency and running costs but perhaps the greatest was the rebates being offered to replace old units. It makes complete sense, doesn’t it? Cheaper to not use a kilowatt of energy than to create an additional one.
What attracted you to joining CMC?
When I met with the leadership team it was the passion and enthusiasm that each and every one of them had not just for the industry but for the company and each other. I really liked that. We all spend more time with our work colleagues than our own family and it’s important to me than that time is enjoyable as well as productive. A happy work environment leads to greater productivity and hopefully profits. One of my previous chairman’s motto was “look after your employees first and in turn they will look after your clients.”
What are the biggest opportunities you see in IT at CMC?
There’s so much that technology can do for us today from leveraging the cloud to process automation and machine learning. In my first 100 days as CIO, I intend to complete a review of the entire portfolio and conduct a SWOT analysis to ensure the team’s capabilities, process and applications are aligned to the business goals.
Are there any challenges you can see as the company continues its steady growth?
Making sure the team has “white time” on their calendars to learn, innovate and think about how to continuously make improvements. In this day and age, no one can afford to stand still, everyone is looking at reducing operational costs and disrupting the market. To ensure our success we need to make sure we can meet the demands of new clients, find improved and quicker ways of getting the product to market, onboarding data quicker, finding meaningful insights using the data collected. To do this we need to automate more of the fundamental tasks that consume so much time and look at partners to give a helping hand. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.
What do you do for fun? Do you have any hidden talents or interests?
Ok, not many know this, but I love building Lego models, especially the complex technical sets. My wife has been very generous at Christmas over the last couple of years and doesn’t see me for at least two days as I start the long build process.
Since you received your MBA from St. Joseph’s University, what are some of your favorite activities in or around Philadelphia.
I enjoy going out to eat around the Philadelphia area with friends, Rittenhouse Square being a favorite. Finding a nice pub, sipping on a decent pint and watching the world go by.
Summer is here, and now that states are opening back up, what are you looking forward to doing?
Going back to the United Kingdom to see my friends and family. We usually go back just before the Christmas holidays so hopefully we’ll be able to do that this year.