• My Zone Careers

Feeding the drive for independence

- 2022-09-02 00:00:00

In search of liberty and more independence, founder and CEO of ENGCO Consulting Engineers and Project Managers, Alexandre Frederico, established the multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm in 2015 in the heart of the capital city of Windhoek after.
Born and bred in the northern mining town of Tsumeb, the fervent father of three holds three holds a national diploma from the Polytechnic of Namibia as well as a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a university in Cape Town, South Africa.
With former experience as a department manager at Telecom and a principal engineer at Conselect Engineering from 2012 until 2015, Frederico decided to spread his wings and venture into the entrepreneurial sphere of engineering, spear-heading a team of five permanent and two temporary employees.

A GENTLE GIANT
“Alexandre is a strong-headed leader that always seems to able to connect with his employees. Despite being one’s boss, he is very understanding and gentle. Working with him is a quite pleasant, as he does not demand for your respect, but seems to graciously earn it because he respects us as his employees as well,” said Rosalia Mwashekele, the company administrator who has been employed at the ENGCO Consulting Engineers for the past six years. She further explained that Frederico influence has allowed her to grow as an individual in the workplace both personally and professionally.
Furthermore, the company has made remarkable strides despite its magnitude upon being hit by the global pandemic, recording zero retrenchments. “Mr. Frederico is a great leader as well as a fun-loving person, creating a healthy balance for the work environment,” said ENGCO Consulting Engineers and Project Managers' civil structural engineer, Sanyambe Lukubwe.

A DREAM AND IT’S CHALLENGES
“What inspired me to establish ENGCO – which is a play on words short for engineering consultants- was the drive to become independent, achieve a little bit more in life and to obviously eventually become successful. As for challenges, back in 2015 when we were facing the recession, there was some strong competition in the market so trying to convince stakeholders to believe in me as the driving force of the company as well as in the company itself. That was not very easy, however all it takes is one person to believe in your vision in order to get the ball rolling because from that one person’s belief you can yield excellent result to use a premise for future persuasion and that is how one keeps on growing,” Frederico explained.
Moreover, the affable Frederico is sure to count his amidst the craze of running a business and counts his mother, as well as his two daughters and son twice when doing so. “My biggest motivators has been the Lord, because he gives us strength daily to overcome difficult tasks followed by my mother who has always supported me, as well as my children since they look up to me and that encourages me to keep on pushing,” he furthered.

THE BUILD UP TO SUCCESS
Juggling the tasks of being a full-time dad and employer, Frederico’s days start with preparing his children for school followed by taking time out to exercise before heading to the office and tackling the days’ tasks. “Typically, whenever I have internet connection as well as my laptop with me, I have my office with me since we don’t necessarily spend the whole day at the office,” Frederico jokingly stated.
A dream that started with the vision and expertise of one man has grown to become a reality that houses range of skilled and educated engineers that have assisted in the completion of several projects over the past seven years. “My greatest accomplishment has been overcoming adversity. Sometimes you face challenges in life, where you have your back against the wall wondering how you will navigate a particular situation. I believe that every challenge that you successfully conquer enables you to have a stronger will and also gives you more confidence to be able to take on the next challenge or hurdle that can and most probably be thrown in one’s way,” the engineer turned entrepreneur explained.