Coming from a family of teachers, it would have been easy for Jim Obermaier to follow his father and sister into the profession, encouraging and empowering students to make the best of their lives and take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them.
However, Obermaier, now area director of Engineering and Facilities for Marriott International, where he oversees 52 properties in Florida and Georgia, took a different course, but with the same results, making a difference in the lives of the staff members he leads.
“I think I got to where I am because there are definitely people that are better techs than me, they’re better at troubleshooting than me, but a lot of times I approach things from a people aspect and that brings out the teacher in me,” Obermaier says.
A successful facility executive blends technical expertise, leadership skills and strategic thinking to thrive in his or her position. An important aspect of leadership is building relationships. One of the keys to Obermaier’s success is connecting with staff on a personal level. With responsibility for more than 50 properties and dozens of employees working at each of them, Obermaier meets a lot of people in his job and tries to make personal connections with as many as possible.
“When you’re at a property, your eight-hour day is filled with meetings, and then you get back to your office and there’s 100 emails to go through,” he says. “They want you to have relationships with your team on top of that. What area is the easiest to cut — stopping and talking to your employees in the hallway for 10 minutes, or knock out 10 emails in that amount of time?”
When faced with that dilemma, Obermaier will choose a conversation if possible. An example of bond building emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was chief engineer at Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora, which he helped open before heading to Florida.
Obermaier’s team was reduced from 60 employees to 16 since the resort was closed to guests. Sensing morale was low, Obermaier started events like air-hockey tournaments to help the staff have some fun during an uncertain time. The contests continued when guests returned to the resort.
“What I saw it do for the team was incredible,” he says.
The ability to connect with others is one of the reasons Marc Blackford hired Obermaier more than 15 years ago. Blackford says Obermaier receives 100 percent scores for employee engagement at every place he works.
“Jim has an amazing gift to connect with others,” says Blackford, the general manager at Hotel Clio in Denver. “He is a man of his word. He builds relationships and trust, which is a wonderful thing with a facilities leader. The combination of his patience and determination present well. He is one of the best leaders I have had the pleasure of working with.”
Jason Gillan, chief engineer of aesthetics at the Gaylord Rockies resort, was hired by Obermaier in 2018 even though he didn’t quite have the resume the hiring team was looking for.
“They offered me a position just because they said I had ‘something’,” Gillan says.
Obermaier took Gillan under his wing, encouraging Gillan to enroll in continuing education classes and take other courses to expand his knowledge base and position himself for any future promotions and raises.
“When he was here, he called me the CIT — the chief in training,” Gillan says of Obermaier.
Even through all the mentorship opportunities, it’s a personal moment that defines their relationship. Gillan contracted a severe case of COVID-19 in 2021. He developed heart problems and was placed on a respirator as he fought for his life. His wife and children were sick as well.
After learning of Gillan’s condition, Obermaier and other team members sent handwritten notes of support and then took care of Gillan’s yard. They pulled weeds, mowed the lawn, whatever was necessary to take one task off the family’s plate.
A few years later, as Gillan got healthy, he returned to competing in jujitsu and in one event won a silver medal. After hearing about Gillan’s journey through jujitsu, Obermaier was so inspired that he signed up for a six-week class himself.
“He completed a six-week course and said he fell in love with it because I showed him how it could translate into his personal life and his career,” Gillan says.
In the early 2000s, the United States Navy adopted the slogan “Accelerate Your Life” as part of its recruiting efforts. The pitch worked for a young Jim Obermaier.
“I’ll always remember that because it was exactly what it did for me,” says Obermaier. “I didn’t really have any direction, was one of those types of kids, and finally decided to join. Accelerate my life is exactly what it did.”
Obermaier was a machinist in the military. Little did he know that another aspect of his military responsibilities would further define his future in facilities.
Obermaier spent four years in the Navy sailing around the world, which meant a lot of time pulling into foreign ports. In addition to his operations and maintenance duties, his ship also hosted parties.
“Our fleet’s mission was to literally go around and throw diplomatic parties,” he says. “It was not a traditional military experience.”
The Navy took Obermaier to 36 countries in four years. The ship’s crew hosted dignitaries, ambassadors and other high-ranking national and international officials.
The experience helped Obermaier prepare for a career as a facility executive in a couple of ways. Not only did it help him learn the intricacies of maintaining and operating important systems, but he also learned about the hospitality industry and the importance of keeping guests happy in a setting that requires 24/7/365 attention.
“It couldn’t have been more perfect for where I ended up, because it’s exactly what I do right now,” Obermaier says. “The expectation of us was that the machine rooms were clean and ready for a tour at any time. If an admiral was in conversation with somebody at one of these parties and they wanted to come down to the boiler room, we better be ready for it.
“That’s the same kind of attitude that I try and drive home to our directors of engineering. We’re not a ship that goes out to sea, but the mechanical room needs to be functioning well and looking clean so that if the general manager wants to bring a guest through at any time it’s inspection ready.”
Obermaier spent most of his years with Marriott in Colorado until he moved to Florida about two years ago and took his current job to be closer to family. His “Welcome to Florida" moment came in the form of a hurricane that arrived about the same time he did.
“I was thrown into the deep end, but my boss guided me through everything to the point where now these last two hurricanes, I felt comfortable,” Obermaier says. “And as a support role, all of our properties have a hurricane preparedness plan that they execute, so it’s checking in with them and making sure you monitor the weather.”
Instead of an office at one of the Marriott properties, Obermaier’s base is a home office in Tequesta, Florida, conveniently located for access to the properties in his area.
“I’m two hours to Miami, two hours to Orlando, a three-hour drive to the Gulf properties and Palm Beach International has like 12 flights a day to Atlanta,” he says. His travel schedule to the properties typically takes him away from home Tuesdays to Thursdays.
Traveling is a change in the job description. Before his current position, Obermaier was solely responsible for one property.
Today, Obermaier studies metrics and pinpoints specific issues that pop up at the sites he oversees. He also helps guide properties through bigger projects like remodeling or expansion that are tougher to conduct because of the 24/7 nature of the hospitality industry.
“A lot of the times we’re looking at what the top three issues are and what we can do to eliminate those,” he says.
While Obermaier works a lot from home, the irony is not lost on him that most facility employees cannot embrace the work-from-home concept. That doesn’t mean he still can’t make a difference — both personally and professionally — with the people he leads.
“It’s definitely a unique position if you’re in facilities,” he says. “You’ve got to work a while to get to this point in your career. I see it as an honor. There’s a lot of trust put in me to know which properties I have to spend time with and visit and get to know and get a handle on.”
Dave Lubach is the executive editor for the facility market. He has more than nine years of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues.
