Meet Paul Baluch,
a Civil, Structural and Architectural Technical Director in our Minerals, Metals & Life Sciences team based in Vancouver, Canada. Paul arrived in Canada in 1988 as a political refugee from communist Czechoslovakia and has worked at Wood for 33 years. He thrives on leading multiple concurrent projects and finding new solutions to complex and unique challenges, also making time to run marathons, becoming a Six Star Marathon Finisher in April 2023.
Getting started
As an aspiring civil engineer, I had no future in my country. A couple of years after graduating university I reached a plateau. I was not a communist party member and therefore I could not grow professionally. This is hard to comprehend unless you grew up and lived in such a society.
Canada was a natural choice as my wife’s sister had emigrated here. Another reason was that while finishing my university studies, I heard many good things of a Canadian company working on the modernization of the Ruzomberok pulp and paper mill in Slovakia, H.A. Simons, and dreamed that one day I could work there. This became a reality, and 33 years later I am still working for the same firm. We might have changed name a few times and evolved the business, but it is still a great company.
Challenges and achievements
I have been involved in mining site development my whole life and the beauty is that each site is different. I have completed hundreds of projects, but no two sites are ever the same. I look forward to new projects as I know there will be new challenges, and I never cease to be excited by tackling them.
My first project stands out, because it was a first one and rather large. Still struggling with my English, I was thrown into a megaproject – the $700 million modernisation of the Celgar Pulp and Paper Mill in Castlegar, British Columbia. It was an incredible learning experience; I still vividly remember the learnings, challenges, and helping hand of my mentors. I grew very quickly, becoming a Civil Lead after only six months, leading a group of almost a dozen Civil designers. This was the era of transitioning from manual drafting into CAD, but computers were still scarce and most calculations, writing reports, and specifications, were done by hand. The project was a huge success, and the feeling of accomplishment was incredible. This is what makes you come to work, day after day.
Over the years I have worked on projects across Canada, but also in the US, China, Argentina, Russia, Mexico, Portugal, New Zealand, South America, and Greenland.
Our business is very dynamic, requiring us to react quickly to sudden changes, shift gears, prioritise; this adds to the excitement. I am particularly proud of a small project back in 2015 to build and commission an effluent retention pond in less than three months. An almost impossible task but we achieved it and earned the client’s appreciation. We have secured many further projects with the client and introduced new and very effective technologies. This initial, small, and successful project has led to a workload in our office approaching one million engineering hours today.
Six star journey
I have always been competitive, challenging myself to new heights. In my early teenage years, I was an avid road cyclist, later I won three motorcycle national championships, and in my early 20s I switched to car racing and became a national champion, again!
Once my sons grew up, I had time for myself, so I entered some road running races. Even though I’ve always been into sports, I was never a runner. In early 2017, I got the idea to run a marathon. At that time, I was just running a few shorter local races for fun. I registered for the Berlin marathon nine months before race day. My training was sparse to say the least, but I completed the race and became hooked!
In 2018, I completed the Chicago and New York marathons, each with a personal best time. Then I heard of the Six Star Medal awarded when you complete all six world major marathons. At that point I started training, and it showed up; in Tokyo I almost beat the 5-hour mark.
I secured my spot in 2020 London Marathon, traditionally held in April, but due to the pandemic, was postponed until October 2022. While waiting to run in London, I struggled to figure out how to enter the Boston Marathon to complete my goal.
The only way is to meet very tough qualifying times or run for a charity. I could not possibly see how I could improve enough to qualify, but during the pandemic I increased my training, and on some virtual marathons I came very close to the qualifying time. The added benefit is that I lost almost 40 pounds and improved my health dramatically.
In summer 2022 I registered for a Boston Qualifier race in Washington State, and I managed to beat my age group qualifying time by exactly 10 minutes, finishing the marathon at 3:55:00. I was in, and the rest is history!
Be fantastic
It may sound like a cliché, but it is true: work hard, play hard. Strike a balance and it will make you better on both sides. My colleagues call me Mr Fantastic because I always enthusiastically answer ‘fantastic’ to the standard ‘how are you?’ elevator question. Having a positive outlook not only makes me feel better, but positively influences people around me. Many colleagues have said I have been an inspiration to them, and this is the greatest reward I could ask for.
Discover more about how Wood’s deep expertise and forward thinking helps clients responsibly provide the minerals and metals needs for a sustainable future