Drew Stolee

by Pam Chamberlain, submitted 2011

When asked what his job title is, Drew Stolee laughs. "I have so many jobs, the titles wouldn't all fit onto a business card," he says.

Drew works in a corner office with a mountain view in a downtown Calgary office tower. This is his thirteenth year with Chevron Canada Resources, a division of one of the world's leading energy companies. A member of the Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure and Planning team, Drew's roles include database architect, systems analyst, project manager, programmer, and data centre coordinator.

In his day-to-day work, Drew manages servers and databases for a host of internal departments, helps developers support their applications, and writes tools to maintain "mountains" of geological data. "Eighty percent of IT work is in the background, keeping things running and offering support," he explains. "So I especially look forward to projects that give me the chance to build something new or learn about another facet of the business."

For example, when a colleague pointed out an opportunity to improve the company's process for tracking royalty information, Drew was called on to write software that tied together financial data with land lease and well production data. The chance to pull together sets of business data that, while related, were not previously connected, was an exciting challenge. "Although everything done in an IT department is in aid of a business goal, sometimes we can feel a bit isolated," he says. "In this case, I wasn't just in the background. There was clear and immediate business impact of the work."

The recent expansion of Chevron's St. John's office provided Drew with an opportunity to travel to Newfoundland. As the project manager responsible for assessing and meeting the technology needs of the expanding office, he worked with colleagues in St. John's and Calgary to provide everything from geotechnical workstations to conference room equipment and software. "I love technology and shopping," Drew jokes, "and the expansion of our office in St. John's required a fair bit of both."

Despite his fascination with technology, Drew's interest in work is not all computer-related. "I work with an exceptionally talented team, so going to work is fun," he says, emphasizing that there is no aspect of his job he does alone. He adds that while Augustana promoted the development of critical thinking skills and gave him a broad knowledge base, he carried away something more from the Camrose campus. "It's the value of community-koinonia-that underlies the Augustana experience," he says. "Even in IT, it's the people and relationships which are most important."

Drew's commitment to community extends beyond the IT team. He's the department's representative on Chevron's safety committee and the coordinator of the company's curling league-just a few more roles to add to the list.