In the first of what will become a series of blog posts about Atlas Facilities Maintenance, we’ll be taking the opportunity to introduce the company, its history, values and also meet the leadership team. We hope that you enjoy this and the others to follow.
The Atlas Story
The Atlas story dates back to 1995, with the founding of Cleaner Image Maintenance, Inc (CIM). This company was founded as a full-service commercial facilities maintenance company. 25 years later Atlas is still thriving and delivering value to all of our stakeholders: customers, employees, and all of our partners.
While we are still focusing on providing facilities maintenance services, the level of expertise, sophistication, breadth of services, and geographic reach is far greater than it ever was in the past. This is in large part due to a change of ownership that took place in May of 2013 and the merger with another successful regional competitor called Orion Corporate Services, Inc. Under new ownership the two companies were then rebranded as Atlas Facilities Maintenance, Inc in 2014, which started a new period of growth and development in the company’s life.
In 2020 the management team was expanded due to the company’s growth. So, even though the Atlas brand is relatively new, the company’s history and commitment to delivering outstanding service to its clients can be traced back over a quarter of a century.
What Atlas Is and Is Not
Rather than saying what Atlas is, we want to first tell you what Atlas is not. Atlas is not your typical local janitorial company. "Why?" you ask. Well, that’s because Atlas owners didn’t just accidentally fall into this business or started the company due to lack of opportunity elsewhere. Atlas was born when the founders were consistently unsatisfied with the services that they were receiving from janitorial companies in the high-rise offices of their global investment firm and after giving multiple vendors a try, realized that, as the old adage goes, "if you want something done right, you have got to do it yourself." Thus, Atlas was born out of a need and a desire to deliver a level of service that would be instantly noticeable to anyone who had ever hired a janitorial company.
We are not in a sexy business, one might say. However, we believe that we are in the best business of all: the people business. Our customers rely on us and we rely on our entire team, from the management to the cleaning technicians in the field, to deliver a seamless solution, a service that doesn’t just provide a sense of cleanliness, but one of safety, serenity, health, and peace of mind. We pride ourselves on never backing down from a challenge. No job is too large or too small.
We are a 21st Century-type company that utilizes the latest technology to ensure that our customers can truly feel confident in that their premises are not just spotless, but are truly disinfected and safe for their customers and their employees to occupy. This is especially important during the time of the global pandemic. We are a performance-based organization that puts the following principles above profitability:
People
Quality
Service
Everything we do comes back to serving these objectives. When it comes to People, we are highly selective with who we hire, but once a person joins our team, they become part of our extended family. As for Quality, we usually hold ourselves to much higher standards than our customers do, and identify any gaps or faults long before our customers would even notice anything. And as for Service, our corporate Guarantee says it all: “if you are not satisfied with what we do for ANY reason, we will either fix it within 12 hours or that service is free!”
Our guiding principle is embedded in the company name. In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who was responsible for bearing the weight of the heavens on his shoulders, just as we believe our company and our people are responsible for bearing the burden of our customers’ worlds, their entire buildings and everything within them.
But there is another, more important reason why the company bears this name, which has to do with the novel Atlas Shrugged, penned by Ayn Rand in 1957, which had a profound impact on the company founders and who espoused the philosophical principles described in the book and by Ayn Rand herself. Her philosophy "in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." This statement perfectly describes the "Atlas Way": we view our work as a noble and productive activity that MUST always create value for our customers through all tasks and commitments that we take on.
2020: A New Beginning
2020 has been a year of challenges all across the globe, with COVID-19 impacting everything from the global economy to the health and wellness of individuals. These are undoubtedly some of the most precarious and uncertain times to navigate. But, the Atlas team believes that every challenge is just a disguised opportunity, a chance to use creative problem-solving to generate solutions for those in need, and an opportunity to evolve and grow, both as a business and as individuals.
So, with that as our guiding principle, we have expanded our senior leadership team to tackle the problems of 2020 head on and to position the company for growth in 2021. While some of the people on the team have been with the company for many years, others are new, and we wanted to re-introduce the entire Atlas line-up as part of this particular blog post.
Alexander Aginsky - President and Chief Executive Officer
Alexander has overseen the growth of Atlas from its acquisition. As the driving force behind the Atlas vision and direction, he has steered the organization through uncharted waters to the place where it is today.
A serial entrepreneur, investor, and seasoned executive with decades of experience, numerous successful ventures and multiple exits on his track record, Alexander has been involved in industries ranging from FinTech and hospitality to commercial real estate and investment banking. He led companies in both B2B and B2C arenas, including his most recent venture, a real estate crowdfunding start-up he founded, which culminated with a sale to a public REIT.
Prior to that he managed a complex commercial real estate portfolio of assets for global investors including the development of two major hotels. Alexander has also advised high-profile private companies in the U.S. and abroad on multi-million dollar debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, new market entries and other cross-border business transactions.
Mr Aginsky holds an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management and is a graduate of the OPM Program at Harvard Business School.
Mohammed A. Ali - Chief Operations Officer
Mohammed brings 18+ years in senior roles and will provide the tactical leadership for Atlas as it grows and develops in the future, while ensuring that we continue to support our current clients and our most important resource: our staff.
Nicole DeCicco - VP Business Development
Nicole arrives with a track record of success in both business development and working in the healthcare industry. As a registered nurse, her focus is on growing Atlas’ business, and specifically supporting the COVID-19-related needs of our clients.
Maurice Frye - Business Development Manager
With over 30 years’ experience working in marketing, business development and customer service, Moe aims to go above and beyond to grow a business and provide outstanding customer service. He will also be focusing on growing Atlas’ client base in the years ahead through identifying unmet needs in the market and providing the Atlas suite of services to customers that are looking for a “one-stop-shop” solution.
Shiloh Kennedy - Controller
Shiloh is an experienced accountant, who takes pride in her work and ability to juggle multiple objectives. She is responsible for ensuring that our employees get paid on time and that we are honoring our commitments to all of our vendors and providing correct billing to our customers.
Osiel Estrada - Senior Operations Manager
Osiel has over 30 years of experience in the operations and maintenance industry across the Americas. He brings a commitment to customer care and wide project management experience to this role.
He has managed and served a number of high-profile customers based in the local area, including Providence Health & Services, Nike, Comcast and Portland International Airport (named the #1 airport in the country for seven consecutive years by Travel + Leisure magazine).
Sergey Gubin - Operations Manager, Oregon
Sergey is a long-term member of the Atlas team and provides all operational support for staff and clients across Oregon and Southwest Washington. He is particularly well-regarded for his customer service and the very personal way he supports the needs of our clients.
Lucas Reese - Operations Manager, Washington
Lucas fulfils the same role as Sergey for our clients and staff in Washington State. He places great importance on, and gets a lot of personal satisfaction from the day-to-day interactions with our numerous employees in the field and our customers across the whole state.
Mark T. Tindle - Brand & Marketing Coordinator
Mark’s focus is on building Atlas’ presence through delivering marketing strategies and ensuring that the organization’s branding is consistently delivered. With a background across several industries, Mark is enjoying applying his skills to the new challenges of this sector.
All of the members of Team Atlas are proud to work for you and honorably represent this company and its values. To all our clients, current and future, we wish you a very happy holiday season and send you our best wishes for 2021.
I hope that you enjoyed the first blog of our new series. Keep a look out for our next one, where I’ll be focusing on the many different services which Atlas can offer to you and your organization.
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