Heather Seymour describes herself as a tomboy. She grew up in Plainville, CT, playing with her younger brother and all the boys in the neighborhood, since there weren’t any girls near by. Their days were spent riding bikes, playing football and army.  When she wasn’t with the boys, she was drawing.  By the 5th grade, she was making floor plans for her fantasy house. The house is still a vision, but those early days in Plainville laid the foundation for a very real career in construction.

Still one of the boys in high school, she chose drafting as an elective in one of the first schools in the US to have multi-stations of Auto-cad. She designed a house and built a model in her senior year, the only female student in the school to take all four years of drafting.

Heather enrolled in Wentworth’s architecture program and got her associate degree in architectural engineering. She loved designing - figuring out space and proportion - but when one of her classes visited a construction site, a whole new world opened up.  She switched majors and graduated with a BA in Construction Management.

After graduation, Heather joined Bowdoin as an assistant project manager and estimator. Later, at E. Colburn Construction she worked as both an assistant project manager and estimator. When Lee Kennedy acquired the firm, Heather spent seven more years working as an estimator. 

Exploring the urge to move on, Heather connected with Jim Stadler. It took just one visit to Commodore’s office for Heather to know she’d found what she was looking for. The time was right to make the move.

In May, 2005, Heather joined Commodore.

Why Estimating?
On the first day of my first job I was put in the estimating department. I loved it. It’s unusual to find what you like to do on day one. That early in my career, being an APM seemed a little too confrontational for me. I thought, everyone likes the estimator, right? But by my next job I was able to be the estimator on the project, and had also developed enough confidence to be the APM, too.  It was great to participate in both sides of the job. To this day, I still love being in the field, seeing in real life what I’ve been building on paper. 

Did you have a role model in your early days as a woman in the construction industry?
One of my first bosses was a woman. She was tough as nails, but feminine, too. It was a great experience for me to watch her work. There weren’t nearly as many women in construction when I first got involved, as there are now. Back then, it seemed to me there were predominantly two types of construction career women-the rough type or the pink hardhat type. Beth was neither of those. She was a regular person. She struck an incredible balance. She always got things done and stood her ground. She was really smart. She could be one of the guys, and be her own woman, too. Thirteen years ago, that was a rare breed, but now not so much. And I’d like to think I’m one of the new breed.

What do you love about your job?
I’ve been here four and a half years and the honeymoon isn’t over yet! I still love coming to work and love what I do. As an Estimator, I work with practically everyone in the company. That’s a lot of talented people who challenge me to do what I do better. And the work/life balance is perfect for me here. I’ve never had a problem making it to my daughters’ school or to a doctor’s appointment – it’s a performance culture but it’s a culture that accommodates life, too and that makes me more productive as an employee and as a Mom.

What’s your family life like?
My husband and I both work in the construction industry.  It’s really nice to be able to talk about a tough day or a great day at work and have your spouse actually get it.  We have two daughters – Paige is seven and Shayla is nine. Both girls have my sense of humor and I just love hanging out with them as a family. We also have a dog. My husband and I didn’t have any problem agreeing that we wanted to have children…but the only way I got him to agree to having dogs was to name them after tools – Hilti and her sister, Makita. Makita is no longer with us. We take a lot of vacations as a family. We have the National Parks passport. Our goal is to eventually get stamps from all the national parks. We love the West - Jackson Hole, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. We love skiing, although I’m now officially the slowest of the four of us. We’re going to the Grand Canyon next year. Someday I could see myself living out West.

What advice do you give your girls?
I tell them to stand their ground – to stand up for themselves and for their friends. I think the best advice I give them is through my actions as much as through my words. They see me go to work everyday to a job I love. They see me managing family life and a career and that’s what’s helping them develop their own work ethic and sense of responsibility.

What achievement are you most proud of?
I lost over 100 pounds and I’ve been at my goal weight for more than a year now. It started when disaster struck just before my brother’s wedding. I had to wear a strapless black dress. The image of that motivated me to start doing something to look better, so I started exercising and eating right. It didn’t take long to start seeing results and my new habits became more about being healthy. My exercise routine consisted of walking, but eventually that got to be too slow, so I started running.  At first I didn’t run much faster than I walked, but eventually my pace increased and that created all new goals. I worked up to running a half marathon. This year I’ll run over 24 Hours in charity races to join Commodore’s 24 Hour club. I’ll probably use the three extra vacation days I get to run in more races!

What’s the most shocking thing you’ve ever done?
I’m pretty much a nerd. The weight loss thing is big for me. I was on the track team in high school but I couldn’t run so I threw shot put and javelin. Now, being able to get the whole breathing and running thing figured out is something I never thought I’d be able to do.

What are you afraid of?
I’m deathly afraid of bear attacks. We saw a grizzly bear in Yellowstone, just hundreds of feet away. I’m terrified of being attacked, but not so terrified that the first thing I did was jump out of the car to take a picture! Even though I’m petrified of them, I get excited to see them. I even have bear bells in my purse to alert near-by bears that a human snack is on the way.

What makes you laugh?
Foolish movies…Austin Powers, Tommy Boy. My kids - their sense of humor and the things they say out of nowhere. My seven year old told me the other day that she was planning to go to college online…specifically the University of Phoenix…she said it was in an effort to save me money.

What do you want to do that you haven’t done yet?
Go to Alaska and Hawaii. Life is good. I usually end up doing everything I want to do.

What’s the first thing you think of when you wake-up?
The snooze button. I can hit it exactly five more times and still be on schedule. I’ve got getting up down to a science.

What would be the title of your biography?
Confessions of a Shopaholic.