UVic Online Director Garry Sagert is working to improve the UVic experience for students, faculty and staff one meeting at a time. Much of Garry’s day is occupied by these meetings, including IT Governance committees, meetings about specific UVON initiatives, and discussions with auditors. While these meetings are varied, they all hold common themes of problem-solving and strategizing.
As a student at UVic in the 90’s, Garry honed his problem-solving skills working at the Computer Help Desk. He eventually graduated UVic with a Master’s in Theoretical Computer Science. While he enjoyed researching and writing papers on theories, Garry felt something was missing. Even after a successful day of theorizing, “the world didn’t seem any different the day after,” he says. But that changed when he was hired with University Systems as a full-time employee in 1999. He was now able to apply his knowledge practically have an immediate impact on the experience of students, faculty, and staff.
There are many reasons for Garry to love his job. He enjoys feeling as though his work has “a positive impact on people’s lives” as he continually works to improve the experience students, faculty, and staff have at UVic. He also loves watching employees that report to him grow. Finally, the exceptional teamwork demonstrated by University Systems make coming to work every day a joy.
Garry has worked on a number of projects with University Systems, but the most memorable is Project Nova, a four-year and $20 million effort to replace the legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, including applications for Finance, Payroll, and Student Records. Garry says the project, which ran from 2004 to 2008, was “challenging in pretty much every way” and required not just strong technical skills, but also skills in collaboration and change management. Despite the challenges, the end result was extremely rewarding.
There is never a shortage of new projects for Garry to work on. Currently, he is the portfolio manager for a project to create a new mobile application for UVic. The application will allow students to register for classes and check their grades using mobile devices, among other features.
Outside of work, Garry embraces a more rural life. He and his wife own a hobby farm near Elk Lake where they keep horses. Garry is also an accomplished sailor; his sailing team, which includes several other UVic staff members and students, won the 2015 Swiftsure Juan de Fuca Race, and won four out of nine legs of the 2015 Van Isle 360.
Even in his youth, Garry was an adept problem-solver; he once participated in the Okanagan College Spaghetti Bridge Contest and built a one-meter long and 1.5lb spaghetti bridge that supported 225lbs for 10 seconds. His bridge was so impressive, he placed third in the “World Open Heavy-Weight” category, behind a professional engineer.
While the problem-solving Garry does now isn’t pasta-related, the skills he has picked up over his lifetime have been instrumental in building his career. And those skills have to be more than just technical expertise; working in a management role means focusing on the needs of clients and stakeholders. It’s important to be able to “see the world through other people’s eyes,” Garry says. And though it may seem nearly impossible to see through the eyes of over 21,000 students and 4,000 employees, Garry manages to do just that every day.