A day in the life of a Senior Facilities Manager for FAS Physical Resources

Meet Matthew.

He may not be your typical idea of a hero, but Matt Stec has chased and apprehended a thief, kept staff and students warm and dry through the toughest winters, rescued people locked out of dorms and offices, and had 82 flushometers replaced on 82 toilets with one phone call.

It’s all in a day’s work for Stec, a senior facilities manager for FAS Physical Resources.

“I’m in charge of everything from the HVAC systems to security, to helping tenants move around, and day-to-day maintenance,” says Stec, who runs 18 Harvard buildings. From small wood-framed houses to the brand-new orange and slate-colored complex straddling Cambridge St. that houses the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), Stec is ultimately responsible for roughly 740,000 square feet of real estate.

“My responsibilities are different for every building,” says Stec, whose office is in Knafel, one of the two new CGIS buildings that have been open for just over a year. “We have 27 classrooms in this building, and we manage that schedule. We also work directly with faculty and staff on logistics for events.”

Stec also handles a daily deluge of calls – and they are never the same.

“That’s what I love about this job,” he says. “The requests can be anything from, ‘Hey, the bathroom down the hall is not working,’ to, ‘We have this big conference, can you help us set it up?’ or, ‘We have a new faculty member, can you renovate his office?’

Stec is not afraid to roll up his sleeves when necessary. More often though, he relies on a huge network of contractors, plumbers, electricians, security guards, technical staff and grounds crews to resolve any issues in his buildings.

Even with such support, Stec is the one who gets the late-night calls when an alarm goes off, or pipes burst in the dead of winter.

While he admits that part of the job may be underappreciated, Stec loves the variety of the post. “I deal with everybody at the University – from custodians and security guards to the deans and faculty,” he says.

The Cleveland native found his niche in the facilities management field while serving in the Navy, stationed in South Weymouth, Mass., as an aviation maintenance manager. After five years, Stec finished college using the GI Bill, and found a job at Lesley College working in facilities. In 1997, he took a post at Harvard, as a superintendent for Leverett House.

“I didn’t know anything about Harvard,” he recalls. “It was a bit of culture shock, but I ended up really liking it here. Dealing with students was pretty interesting – we had a lot of lock-outs and lost keys. Lots of interesting and goofy things.”

Stec took on the management of multiple buildings in 2001 and prepared for the opening of the CGIS complex. When it opened last year, some things might have gone more smoothly, but overall, Stec says tenants seem quite satisfied.

And comfort may well be the greatest of Stec’s achievements in any building.

“The number-one call we get is about room temperature,” Stec says. “If a room is too hot or too cold when people are teaching a class– that’s affecting Harvard’s mission. If they don’t notice that stuff, that means we’re doing our job.”