Lalit Agarwal relates to the “No two days are alike” sentiment that most facilities professionals are familiar with. It makes reporting to work each day engaging and a new challenge. “If my job were without challenges, it would get boring, and my daily engagement would suffer.”
During his two-plus decades of experience in facilities, Agarwal has had the experience of working with teams that “sometimes suffered from a stagnant mindset.” He relished the challenge of nudging the work culture to a growth mindset, desiring to strive for continuous, more effective service delivery. “It is not enough that the train stays on track and moves forward; I want to make sure that it arrives at the station on time, with the least amount of fuel consumed, while providing the most comfort to the riders,” he said.
Lalit Agarwal, APPA’s President & CEO, August 28, 2024.
Agarwal’s leadership style was one of the many things that stood out to the various stakeholder groups and played a role in him becoming APPA’s new CEO and president, said Dave Irvin, APPA board chair. Irvin noted that the experiences Agarwal brought to the table checked off a list of qualities “in ways that other strong finalists didn’t: experience in facilities, expertise in budgeting, and working with folks collaboratively. He knows our industry, our profession, our organization, and is imaginative and forward-thinking.”
Finding Facilities
Lalit Agarwal, 47, grew up in Hyderabad, a city in the south-central region of India. He pursued his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at his hometown engineering college, which is affiliated with Osmania University.
With a desire for specialized learning, Agarwal moved to the United States to pursue a master’s degree. He received a work-study assistantship from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), which provided a tuition waiver and stipend. He moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1998. At the time, the small town comprising only about a quarter million people was quite different from Hyderabad’s bustling urban environment of over five million people.
“Going from a place where you were always bumping into people to a town where the population was so low took some time to get used to. And the culture was also very different,” Agarwal said. Initially, he stayed in touch with a close-knit community of people who had taken “a similar journey.” Agarwal’s energy, ambition, and ability to navigate new settings landed him an opportunity to work on a project with the facilities department at UNL. “I had no idea how much effort it took to care for the campus infrastructure,” he said. “It was an eye-opening experience.”
After completing the coursework for his master’s degree, Agarwal secured a full-time role with the controls division of the facilities department at UNL. “They were working on something unique,” he said, referring to the in-house building automation system (BAS) the school built in the early 1980s. The project included designing and developing all software and embedded hardware, as well as manufacturing the needed parts on-site. This technology controls HVAC and lighting equipment on campus.
“To my knowledge, UNL is the only campus that was building its BAS in-house. That was an interesting opportunity, and I said ‘yes.’ It was my first introduction to facilities.” He spent the next decade with that group developing technology.
APPA Advocate
Agarwal discovered APPA in 2012. After attending APPA’s Supervisor Toolkit training, he said, “I was hooked.” A believer in life-long learning, he said, “There was so much value in learning the technical aspects of my job. The interpersonal and other soft skills technical trades take for granted. We rely on each other to accomplish the goals of our institutions and cannot do it all by ourselves. Honing both technical and non-technical skills is paramount to be more effective in the service delivery for our institutions.”
“He had tremendous experience in facilities and came up through the ranks, and credits APPA for the rise. He knows APPA because he has lived it.”
In the following years, Agarwal participated in the Leadership Academy (Academy) and the Institute for Facilities Management (IFM). “These were game changers and completely altered my perspective,” he said. This aspect of Agarwal appealed to Irvin, who said, “He had tremendous experience in facilities and came up through the ranks, and credits APPA for the rise. He knows APPA because he has lived it.”
Giving Back
Not one to be satisfied as a beneficiary, Agarwal was compelled to reciprocate and soon began teaching at the IFM. He currently serves as a faculty member and associate dean of the energy and utilities core area of the IFM.
Agarwal is a longtime APPA faculty member and associate dean of the Energy and Utilities core area of the Institute.
“The more I give back, the more I benefit,” he said. “I experience immense personal satisfaction whenever I can share my knowledge and experiences benefitting others in the facilities profession. I also learn a lot from those in the class each time I teach. This peer-to-peer learning differentiates APPA’s professional development programs.”
By the end of his tenure at UNL in early 2022, Agarwal served as the executive director of university operations, overseeing multiple facilities departments. He had honed his skills in leadership, strategic planning, financial management, community building, advocacy, technology and energy management, and professional development.
Ready for a new challenge and one that engaged more deeply in his passion for energy and technology, Agarwal left the university in early 2022 to work in the private sector. He accepted the role of vice president of energy management and sustainability for EnergyCAP, LLC, an organization that creates software solutions for energy and sustainability professionals. Many of the customers of EnergyCAP are also APPA members serving professionals in K-12 and higher education facilities. Agarwal continued engagement with industry professionals in this new role, albeit through a new lens.
Vim and Vision
APPA is at an inflection point, a “unique moment in time,” Irvin said. “There’s a change in leadership, changes on the board, but if we can take advantage of the changes, it allows us to figure out what APPA can be and how we can be most successful for members and the profession in the next five, 10, 20 years. You don’t get that opportunity very often.”
Educational organizations and the facilities profession also face many challenges, ranging from staffing issues, a fast-approaching enrollment cliff, technology revolutionized by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and aggressive sustainability and decarbonization goals. In meeting those challenges, Agarwal believes APPA will play a vital role in creating and delivering various professional development programs to “serve those coming into the workforce to achieve the right mindset and get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
Adapting the Industry
“The membership will inform our future decisions,” he said. “The profession is morphing, and we typically won’t be able to rely on a single answer. We will need to adapt as the industry adapts.”
He is energetic and plans to hit the ground running by setting up a listening tour at the regional conferences. “The membership will inform our future decisions,” he said. “The profession is morphing, and we typically won’t be able to rely on a single answer. We will need to adapt as the industry adapts.”
At each conference and with each regional board of directors, Agarwal will host office hours where members can share “ideas and excitement.” Agarwal will also set up virtual office hours later in the fall for those who can’t make the in-person meetings. “I want to give APPA members every opportunity to talk directly to me and help me understand their needs,” he said. “APPA has such a strong brand and programming and is primed to deliver solutions for members.”
Irvin said Agarwal is the right person to help shepherd the organization through this “unique moment.” When the board faced a surprise resignation at the top, “we didn’t envision the sequence of events, but we were prepared,” Irvin said. “APPA’s best days are ahead of it. Together, with Lalit, our board leaders, and our membership, we can move forward in ways that can be fun and exciting.”
Stacey Freed is a freelance writer based in Pittsford, NY. She can be reached at [email protected].
