Troy Mefferd:  

Life My career has come full circle and I am back in the Middle East, where it all began. Update (02 Apr 05) - Well, I just returned from my second stint of several years back in the Middle East, including Jordan, Dubai (Just Love Dubai..What an amazing place), Iraq and finally Afganistan. It did not hurt my feelings none, not to go back to Saudi Arabia this time. I'm the project exec. for the next four years on a $650 MM (plus) project back in the US on the East Coast, with the company wanting me to go back south of the border after that. Update (12 Feb 07) - Completed my part of the Washington, D.C. project, and have now moved to Seoul, South Korea, for a $20 Billion USD, 10 year project, which could go to 15 years with the real estate options. I'm the VP of Project Management, with a staff of Korean and American Korean professionals. Great project, great team, and I am having a great time, and feeling more challenged and professionally fulfilled than any other time in my career! Update (16 May 08) - Received an offer I couldn't refuse. We are all packed up again, and heading to Cairo, Egypt. I have accepted a Project Director's position for a large, 5-year, mixed use development project on the East Side (sometimes called, "New" Cairo). This is a 1500 acre development, out of a 20,000 acre parcel of land, this Dubai based Developer has purchased. Starting to look towards retirement. I took a 30 day vacation during December in Dominican Republic, and looked very seriously at business opportunities there (Here's a scary thought - for those of you that might know what I'm talking about.... I was a coin's flip away from a Christmas vacation in Thailand, ON THE BEACH, during Christmas of 2004. Another one of life's little twists, because I would have been on those same beaches on 24 Dec 04. I know that my number will be called one of these years). Given a choice, it would have to be DR, Guatemala (a lot of good and bad memories from there), Mexico or Peru. I've tried to make it back for every one of the High School class reunions, but work, weather, women or war have gotten in the way, every single time. However, I have to say, that I've spent so many years in the Jungles and the Deserts of the world, that I really have been aching for many years, to enjoy the peace of the Western Mountains once again. Update (12 Feb 07) - Going to try to come home to see the family for the first time in 17 years, late Spring of '08! Update (16 May 08) - Went home to see the family for two weeks. We hit San Francisco/Monterey, then Arlington, VA, and then Roseburg, OR. This was the first time back in Douglas County since 1990, and the first time my wife had ever met my family. We paid for my daughter, her husband and their new baby boy to come down from Vancouver, BC, Canada. A great time was had by all. Update (01 May 09) OK, don't laugh when I say this, but I accepted another promotion, pay raise and a transfer, to "beautiful" Nigeria (I hope I don't get too many emails over that one!) The Cairo project folded up as a result of the Dubai Stock Market Crash of August of last year (I have a real story behind that one if anyone wants to hear it). The company assigned me to a nice 6 month project on the Alexandria coastline (but it is was still based in Maadi, Cairo). Once it was completed and just as I thought we might actually have to take a short sabbatical due to the rough market conditions, but then at the last moment the company comes to me with another one of the offers which cannot be refused (Ok, so I am in the saving for retirement mode, after all). Anyway, this one is a 30,000 acre Industrial City, located in the far South East corner of Nigeria on the coast. To be honest it is about 1/2 mangrove swamps at the moment, and "IF" everything falls into place along the way, could be a 15 year project (that would also potentially make it my largest project to date, although we are still completing the Concept Master Plan and have not yet estimated the total value of development (think Jubail, Yanbu or Jeddah, and you will get the rough idea). Update (05 Mar 12) Its been quite a while since I was back here. We are still in Nigeria, although why we made it the last two years here is beyond me, as the original project was on hold for that entire time. However, after a huge BD drive across 2010 and 2011, that old, original project is signing back up to move forward finally, and we actually have won two others which are very similar. We are set up for a very wild ride over the next three years, and are building furiously on our new office building complex, as we will have real challenges having enough space to put all of the new hires. On the domestic front, and after over 6 years as "construction gypsies" without an actual home of our own anywhere in the world (only living in company quarters), we finally bought in Houston, Texas last month (after the 3rd try to get to closing). The original home in Malta we were "going" to buy fell through back then as the bank required life insurance on me, and none was available for someone working in Nigeria, and then our last unsuccessful try in Houston hit another financing snag due to our living and making our living overseas (don't remember the precise citation). So finally after that, we simply decided to buy cash, and that finally worked just fine, with the real estate closing only taking less than one hour. The wife stayed back for two weeks to work with the contractors, an...Expand for more