Shawn Fiske is a 2001 graduate of Ferris State’s Facility Management program, and is the Director of Facilities and Installations at Custer, Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI.  Shawn’s Director duties include overseeing all facility-related activities such as interior construction, furniture installation and reconfigurations.  Additionally, Shawn is charged with the facility management of a variety of Custer offices and warehouses throughout Michigan.

“The prime decision for why I chose Ferris was because of the reputation of the architectural technology program.” Upon completion of the AAS in Architectural Technology, Shawn was drawn to the Facility Management program and its ability to provide career positions in a wide variety of work place settings. Prior to joining Custer, Shawn was the Facility Manager for Dematic, Corp. where he provided management oversight for Dematic’s US portfolio of 1 million square feet of office and manufacturing space.  His duties included project and construction management, lease administration, capital planning, preventative maintenance, and vendor and contract management.  Prior to this, Shawn served as the VP of the FM and Delphi accounts with Jones Lang LaSalle.  In this role, he was responsible for fiscal and operational performances of manufacturing, lab, warehousing and office space.

As a Ferris student, the program’s close-knit community, small class sizes, and personal attention from the instructors was most valued by Shawn.  In addition to gaining both technical and soft skills, the knowledge and expertise he acquired in AutoCAD was instrumental in helping him find his first position as a facility manager. He considers the most valuable thing he learned at Ferris to be AutoCad, and still uses it every day.

His favorite memory from Ferris is meeting his wife.