- Celebrating Mother’s Day
- McKinstry’s Collette Duck on Celebrating Mother’s Day
McKinstry’s Collette Duck on Celebrating Mother’s Day
I’m the director of business operations for McKinstry Viridis. In this role, I get to wear many different hats, all in service to helping us chart a course for our growing piece of the McKinstry business. I manage business reporting and communications with our Board of Directors and capital partner, oversee our legal and financial risk, and work across our team and others to make sure we have systems and processes in place so that our team members have what they need to be successful.
Our people are the number one source of joy for me in this role. We have built a team with an incredible amount of talent and drive that are out there every day making this dream of a Southeast Energy & Technical Services business and National Energy as a Service business a reality. Enabling their success and helping make it easier for them to do their jobs gives me a lot of energy. I’ve always thrived when working on tough problems, coming up with creative solutions and helping make sense out of chaos. I get to do that in spades, no two days are the same and every day we are solving challenges and introducing clients across the country to the unique value McKinstry delivers. The way this team comes together to support each other and ensure exceptional results for our customers is inspiring.
My husband Joel and I have been married for 22 years and have a three-year-old daughter, Violet. We moved back to Texas after almost 20 years in the PNW when my daughter was born. Here we get to be closer to both of our parents and our large extended family, which includes six of Violet’s cousins, two of whom are within a couple of months of her age.
Life is busy and we are all moving too fast. Like most holidays, Mother’s Day gives us an excuse to slow down and reflect on something important in our lives. Mothers are instrumental in molding us into the people we are, and the day allows us to acknowledge that and show appreciation to those closest to us. It’s a much-needed reminder in the hustle and bustle of life about what’s important.
My mother has taught me how to be strong, resilient and driven to find solutions rather than give up when things are hard. She thinks I am capable of anything and has given me the confidence to pursue my passions and live the life I want. She is a creative person that brought lots of art, crafts, music and color to my childhood and that has shaped the way I see the world and the things I love.
You can do well by doing good and don’t have to sacrifice personally to succeed. Whether it’s my daughter or anyone peeking into the life and culture at McKinstry, I hope they see that we are ethical, caring and focused on doing good in our communities, for our clients and for our people. No business is perfect, but I think we demonstrate pretty well that business doesn’t have to be soul-sacrificing and impersonal to be successful, you just have to be willing to put in the work and work together to make it a supportive, caring and purpose-driven enterprise.
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