Speaker: Roy Slack, Director, Cementation Americas
Briefly describe the work you do and the goals you have accomplished that led to you achieving this award.
Roy Slack: My name is Roy slack and I'm a professional engineer, mining engineer, and my career has been involved in building mines as a mine contractor and founder and former president of Cementation Americas and now board member. When it comes to this award, this recognition, the things that led me to achieving this award has certainly been my involvement in CIM. Through chairing a local branch, through to co-chairing conferences and ultimately my role as CIM president– it's certainly been an experience where I've given back to the industry, but what I also recognize is how much CIM has given to me. The great opportunities, meeting so many people, learning so much about our industry, and for that I'm hugely appreciative.
What does it mean to be recognized for the work you have done?
Roy Slack: Volunteer work is so important in our industry, in any industry and in our society. And it's work that people give of their time freely because of something they believe in. And the external recognition of that, I think is very important. And this award is great. but we also have to remember, there's so many people contributing in so many ways. And whenever we have the chance, I think we need to recognize them and say thank you for the hard work they're doing. CIM is driven by volunteers. The majority of people involved in CIM are volunteers and they donate their time and their knowledge. And that's what makes CIM great and that's what makes this industry great.
How do you hope to see the industry build upon your work?
Roy Slack: The concept of One CIM is very important To the future of CIM and to the future of our industry I believe. And the concept of One CIM is very simple: It's all of us working together–branches, societies, committees, CM national and affiliated organizations– all working together to help make our industry better. Whether that's through knowledge sharing, that's through networking, that's through encouraging young people to join our industry, all these things are critically important to the future of our industry and I hope I've played some small part in that and I will continue to do that because I believe in it, but I really want to see industry collaborate and join together and work together to make mining a better industry, a greater industry in many ways. And I think there's lots of opportunities to do that.
What words of encouragement would you give to those earlier in their careers, also looking to improve best practices in their field?
Roy Slack: I think the concept of networking at times is misunderstood and people seem to picture it as something that you do with regard to marketing. But really networking is much more than that, connecting with people in the industry can certainly help you when it comes to marketing. But collaboration, sharing of knowledge, all these things that CIM is foundational for are very important to anyone in our industry. And certainly young people can benefit so much from mentorship, from networking, from collaborating and that's what I would encourage young people to do when they're trying to improve our industry, when they're trying to work to make things better. You can't do it alone, so you need to collaborate, you need to work with other people, you need to work with other companies and with an industry to make substantial differences. So get out there and meet people, establish a personal network and learn, learn about the challenges, learn about the things that are happening in our industry. And once you do that you will find that there are all kinds of ways you can contribute
.png)