Christine Gayron currently serves as President of Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, PC (GdB) based in Melville, New York. The company provides a wide range of geospatial products and services for clients in the Empire State. As part of eSpatiallyNewYork’s continued effort to reach out to the statewide geospatial professions, we were able to meet and have a conversation at the 2019 New York State Association of Licensed Surveyors (NYSAPLS) annual conference.
eSpatiallyNewYork: GdB was created in 2010. The company has made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time and adding a lot of new technologies along the way – GIS, drones, laser scanning, etc. – how is the company making it all happen?
Gayron: I only hire people who are awesome. They are the ones who make it happen. I just bring in the work and create a company culture that makes the employees want to be the best at what we do. I have to credit my partner, Greg de Bruin, for constantly pushing the envelope, and insisting on investing in technology, and Jason Graf, my partner in charge of operations, for putting the technology in everyday use. Greg introduced GIS in the 90’s before I started my career. I actually think my contribution was my ability to run the business and bring work in, creating a revenue stream that would allow us to afford to make the investments. So I grew the company and oversaw things and generated profit, while the technology nerds in the company figured out how to customize software and put new technology into use.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Tell me a little bit about your education. B.S. in Geology – how did you make the jump to surveying?
Gayron: I have a BA in Geology from CUNY Queens College and a minor in secondary education. I thought I was going to be an Earth Science teacher, but a month into student teaching, I realized teaching was not for me. I wasn’t sure what to do. My stepfather saw an ad in the paper for GIS Specialists at an engineering firm called A. James de Bruin & Sons, the predecessor firm to Gayron de Bruin. It was in Bethpage, NY, the next town over from where I live. I had taken one class in GIS in college. The mapping aspect of geology interested me more than the rocks and minerals part, so I applied for an entry level position. I was hired to draft utilities and base maps for utility company conduit design drawings. Then I worked with one of the engineers on the conduit design. I designed hangers to support conduits underneath a couple of bridges over the Long Island Expressway (LIE). I also designed horizontal directional drilling of conduit underneath the LIE. When the conduit design work dried up, I started doing more boundary surveying and control surveys for NYSDOT. I used GIS to plan control networks. At 23 years old, I was managing design survey projects. There was lots of opportunity at the small family owned firm and I was good at seeing what needed to get done. As I approached licensure in 2010, my boss, Greg de Bruin, and I decided to partner and form Gayron de Bruin. It was time for Greg to start planning for retirement and I was the successor.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Early on, traditional surveying and engineering companies were a bit slow embracing GIS technology/software but today this intersection is complete. GdB is part of the ESRI Partner Network and has ArcGIS Online Specialty Did GdB have ESRI capacity from the beginning?
Gayron: We’ve always been an ESRI shop. We saw how ESRI had discounted licenses for schools and government and we knew that was key. As we are geospatial data collectors and data managers we push GIS as a data management tool to our clients. We try to provide this to all of our clients. GIS is just one of the tools in the toolbox. It used to be a hard sell to get clients to use GIS, but ArcGIS Online (AGOL) has made that a lot easier because we can set up the GIS tools, bring the data in, and show them how to view, analyze, and manipulate it.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Are the new/younger generation of surveyors – and engineers – who are just getting into the work force have a broad enough understanding/experience with GIS software?
Gayron: We hire a lot of people right out of college with GIS education. We find that they have a basic understanding of what it can do, but how we use it in surveying and engineering is usually new to them. Most of it is learned along the way. I think this is true of most industries – college gives a basic foundation and only scratches the surface. Getting into the workforce is where the detailed applications and user expertise is developed.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Speaking of data, what has GdB’s experience been in obtaining government data? I see that elevation certificates and tax parcel data are key business components in your space. What’s been your experience in getting this digital data across New York State?
Gayron: Orthoimagery has been very attainable and useful. Parcel data is useful for elevation certificates as you suggested. Tax map line work is valuable for getting an idea of what the parcel layout may look like, but it can be deceiving. We try not to use it on our drawings because we are licensed land surveyors and if we put a line on the drawing, it’s got to be in the right place. We love to see government offices scanning their maps and storing them in a GIS and making them available, but this is still rare.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Drone technology is becoming a geospatial game changer. What’s the GdB read on this evolving technology?
Gayron: So drones are all the rave, but they are really just another cool option in the geospatial tool box – a glorified robot camera holder. It’s really the software that connects drone flights to GPS and uses drone photography to create point clouds and 3D surface models that I find impressive. Like other tools such as LiDAR, it is the accurate and precise control that yields accurate 3D models. The software is key in reconciling the data with the ground control.
eSpatiallyNewYork: This is impressive – “GdB is ranked in POB Magazine as one of the top 100 Geospatial firms in the United States.”
POB magazine gathered data in 2015 and 2016 on revenue in the geospatial community. I’m attaching the articles so you can see how they used the data to rank firms. They stopped doing it after 2016, but I’m certain we would rank even higher on the list now!
eSpatiallyNewYork: How does Honeoye Falls, New York fit into the GdB business plan? It’s a long way from your Long Island headquarters!
Honeoye Falls is just outside of Rochester. So we wanted to expand the company and it seemed we had the choice to expand geographically providing the same services or we could expand our range of services to include more civil engineering. We decided to stick with what we are good at and do it farther away. My partner, Jason Graf, LS, found New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) data available online. It listed NYSDOT projects by location and contract budget. He manipulated the data in GIS and created a heat map to see where NYSDOT was spending the most money. The New York City area glowed the brightest, of course. The next “glowiest” cities were Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. With Rochester in the middle of those three cities, it seemed like a place to look into. We had some contacts there and did our research. Within one year of starting to think about a Rochester office, we had the branch office open with 5 employees. 18 months later, we have 11 employees and they are all busy! Scott Smith, LS, the Branch Manager, is building an all-star team upstate. I truly believe that the bringing on the right people drives our success. As we grow, we are putting effort into making our operation more structured and efficient, but as stated above, we only hire people who are awesome, and I want them to feel appreciated for their ideas and contributions.
eSpatiallyNewYork: What are some of GdB’s current larger or unique projects using geospatial technologies?
Power companies are putting out very large corridor projects requiring surveying and mapping of several miles along a proposed power line route. I think these projects are coming about as new forms of energy generation are being developed. They need transmission lines to connect the new power plants, solar panel fields, and wind farms to traditional power grids. We also do large mapping projects for design of infrastructure in New York City. The city’s infrastructure is crumbling and needs upgrading. One of the first steps is mapping the existing conditions. These jobs are always a huge rush.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Considering all of GdB’s business – what is the breakdown between private and business clients?
Most of our work is for government agencies. The breakdown is aboutt 80% government agency work, and 20% private clients.
eSpatiallyNewYork: Tell us about the online teaching you do through GeoLearn?
I met Joe Paiva, the founder of GeoLearn, before I got licensed because I took his review course when I prepped for the Licensed Land Surveyor test, and then I would see him at conferences a couple times per year. Joe is an excellent presenter. Joe knew that I was doing some presentations to professional organizations and he knew that my company was using GIS and other new technologies in Land Surveying – so he asked me to present courses on GIS for GeoLearn. I prepared power point slides just like I would for a live presentation. I flew to GeoLearn’s studio in Kansas City to record them. It’s actually much easier to present this way, because you only have to present 10-15 minutes at a time to create the segments. Being in the studio was a very cool experience!
eSpatiallyNewYork: Work aside, I understand you’re a triathlete and compete in many similar events. What’s next on your calendar?
Last year, I qualified for XTerra World Championship race in Maui. This is an off-road triathlon consisting of an ocean swim, mountain bike, and trail run. Unfortunately, I was injured a couple weeks before the race and didn’t go. This year, I am not signed up for any races, which is an interesting experiment, because I’m still training, but without the pressure of an upcoming race. So I know I’m doing it because I really love it. I usually wake up at 4:30am and train early in the morning. I’m done by 8am in time to get my kids off to school and get to work. I am married to a NY City Firefighter and we have three amazing children, who are very active. Right now, I’m ok with putting my racing career on hold to attend their lacrosse games, concerts, and cheer competitions.
Contact:
Christine Gayron, President
Gayron de Bruin Land Surveying and Engineering, PC
cgayron@gayrondebruin.com