Schulich School grad the thrust behind Houston alumni lift-off

By Matthew Fox

Shiva Shenoy, BSc’02, feels his hard work has paid dividends in his career, and as the inaugural president of a newly-established U of C alumni chapter in Houston, he’ll tap into his boundless energy to help galvanize an alumni network that will welcome new grads to the city in the future.

Shenoy has spent most of his career in the U.S. since graduating with his geomatics degree from the Schulich School of Engineering. “There were opportunities to stay in Calgary, but I thought it would be good to leave and gain a different perspective,” he says. Alabama-based Aerotec LLC, which specializes in utility corridor mapping, recruited him on campus and Shenoy lived in the South for two-and-a-half years, working extensively throughout the U.S.

In late 2004, Shenoy was offered a position as a project manager with Houston-based Terrapoint, the world’s largest provider of specialized maps using a remote sensing technology called LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) that employs equipment mounted on trucks, helicopters and airplanes to provide 3D topographical images for a diverse set of clientele and industries. Projects can range from mining in the jungles of Indonesia, to rail construction in Nunavut, to powerline mapping in Washington state.  

It’s allowed Shenoy to work with the technology’s many applications, including flood mapping along the coast of Florida and an analysis of Mt. St. Helens for the U.S. Geological Survey, among other high-profile mapping projects.

“Moving to Houston was a good opportunity to help launch a new office for Terrapoint,” he says, “I learned the day-to-day challenges of the business and after a year became operations manager for our U.S. projects.”

Now armed with the title of Director of Operations, Shenoy coordinates many logistical elements of Terrapoint’s global operations, negotiating aircraft leases and rentals, managing staff at work sites worldwide, liaising with clients, supporting the sales group and keeping his chief executive and chief financial officers updated on operations and revenue targets.

Shenoy is proud to have earned this senior role so early in his career. “I am humbled by the opportunities presented to me—my Schulich degree in such a specialized field helped to establish a foundation,” he says. “I look at some of the challenges on projects I’ve worked on, and they’ve all ended successfully—for the most part when I’ve had to troubleshoot, I’ve enjoyed turning bad situations into positive experiences for our clients.”

In the last couple of years, Shenoy was part of a growing group of U of C alumni wanting to establish an alumni branch in Houston. “Something I’ve always admired about U.S. schools is the way their alumni remain so connected,” he says. “U of C alumni are no less proud of our school, but most Canadian schools don’t have the same kind of networks. But I sense that is starting to change here.”

The Houston alumni chapter was born on March 26 and Shenoy was elected its first president (Avik Dey, BComm’99, is vice-president and Bruce Falkenstein, BSc’80, are treasurer). “I hope the chapter can serve as a foundation so that new grads coming to Houston have an instant network and connections through a shared U of C experience,” Shenoy says.

The U of C alumni database currently shows about 220 alumni living in Houston—if you are a Houston area-base alum, or know someone who is, and don’t think you have updated your contact information recently, please email alumni [at] ucalgary [dot] ca or call 1-877-220-8509 to ensure you are invited to future chapter events.

More information will soon be available on a chapter website. Check www.ucalgary.ca/alumni for more details.