Page 79 - 914INC - Q2 - 2013

THE FACILITATOR
Olivia Ecker, 22
Facilities Coordinator, Communications, at Regener
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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Plains resident Olivia Ecker is a shining example of ho
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Ecker interned in Tarrytown-based biopharmaceu
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company Regernon’s Corporate Communications De
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for 11 months in 2010 and 2011 while double-majorin
Communications and Political Science at Manhattanv
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o a part-time paid position in August 2011. After graduating that
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College. Her spitfire attitude helped spin that internship p
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December, Ecker was promoted to full-time communications liai- son within the Facilities Department, subgroups of which run the gamut from engineering, maintenance, and administration to space planning, AV, and environmental health and safety.
Her passion was evident on day one. “I was the person with her hand up and saying, ‘I want that opportunity,’” Ecker recalls. “So, while I was helping Corporate
Communications, I was also writing content for different departments, helping with a party in
another department, and saying, ‘Wait a min- ute—there’s another opportunity here.’” That gung-ho attitude drives Ecker
to regularly pull 12-hour days. “Olivia’s insatiable desire to make things happen
makes her a perfect fit on the fast- paced facilities team,” attests Joanne
Deyo, vice president of facilities. One of Ecker’s major successes
has been developing a new digital signage program that communi- cates content about everything from training seminars to work
with the community for both visi- tors and the nearly 2,000 employees
at Regeneron’s three sites. (The other two are in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and Rensselaer, New York.)
Speaking of success, she expanded the firm’s 2012 Earth Day into a much bigger
event than 2011’s—which had a few pre- sentations and a giveaway—by organizing a
green vendor show, arranging green tours throughout the company, and connecting the event to the company’s spring fling
party. Ecker has also led many Regeneron in the Community initiatives (the firm’s volunteer steering committee), including
assisting the launch of R-Unit, a program that provides support to an Army Civil Affairs Unit stationed in Iraq, sending
them off with a farewell barbecue, col- lecting goods (cellphones, clothing, non-
perishable food, etc.), and fundraising for them.
“There is nothing I do daily that, when I am finished, I don’t ask, ‘How
can I do that better the next time?’ I’m always looking at where the next
step is, what I can do next, how I can improve.”
—Jenny Higgons
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Q2 2013