John Robert Smith
Project Director
John Robert Smith is a Project Director within HGA’s engineering business unit in Ruston, Louisiana. John Robert opens the line of communication between clients, customers, and other stakeholders to get projects completed. With over 12 years in both public and private sectors, he has experience in project management, engineering disciplines, professional development, strategic implementation, and project collaboration across most industrial fields.
Since joining HGA in September of 2011, JR has experience across the energy, specialty chemicals, pulp and paper, and wood products sectors, including frontend engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, and construction projects. JR has deep experience with project management with engineering disciplines, other PMs, and customer engagements. He has worked within a large program of projects for a major pipeline company in multiple roles from project engineering to lead project manager. He worked with a team executing engineering, design, and procurement for over 20 different multi-million-dollar compression facilities from South Texas to the Northeast US. At any given time, the team executed up to six different projects in various stages at a time. JR has successfully led a core group that worked well with our client and the client continued to see the value we brought to the table. This relationship continues today. In addition to this engineering experience, JR has experience in field operations in the oil and gas construction and maintenance services for both upstream and midstream companies. This field experience helps give a real-world view of the design processes HGA goes through which becomes invaluable to ensure projects progress seamlessly through the construction phase.
JR has deep experience in project management and believes that it is very important that the customer understands that we as the consultant take ownership as the project manager. JR partners with clients and wants them to feel like HGA is an extension of their organization, not just an external resource that provides a service. He believes this is key to creating a relationship with your customers that can sustain for many years to come.
Prior to joining HGA, JR worked for a fortune 500 Utility company focusing on electrical distribution design, engineering, project execution, and post-storm restoration efforts.
JR lives in Ruston Louisiana and has been married to his beautiful wife Mandy for 10+ years. They have two children: son Roe (8yo) and daughter Joanna (5yo). JR and his family are members at Trinity United Methodist Church in Ruston. JR enjoys being active, coaching my son’s teams as well as hunting and playing golf with him, and traveling with my family.