Brian Girard

Background

About Brian Girard

I am motivated by a strong belief in leaving our planet better off than we inherited it; ensuring that future generations can continue to experience and discover its beauty as we so fortunately have. This belief combined with a strong passion for engineering leadership is what drives me to dedicate my time to helping develop and lead high performance engineering teams focused on addressing our global climate change and sustainable energy problems of today. With 14+ years experience in the alternative fuels automotive industry, of which the last 10+ has been spent developing and leading a highly effective engineering team, with a diverse range of skillets and backgrounds, I am staying true to my beliefs and passions every day. When not in the office, you can find me in the garage or at the racetrack (both real and virtual). As the 2016 Evergreen Drift Grassroots Champion, I know what it takes to design & build a championship winning vehicle, run a championship winning team, and perform at my peak (in the drivers seat of course) under immense pressure. Since designing and building my own car wasn't enough, I also designed and built my own racing simulator to tackle off season practice. Since winning the championship I have dedicated my time to giving back by volunteering as a drift instructor and competition judge at various local tracks and events. I have also assisted a few different teams as a dedicated spotter (think "driver's coach/eyes and ears" during competition), and have supported a local group that organizes events and is actively trying to grow the sport at a local track (mission raceway). My experience with high performing teams goes back to my university days where I dedicated 4 years of my extracurricular time to the UofA's Formula SAE team. While on the team I wore multiple hats such as engine team member and vehicle fabrication team lead to list a couple. During my time on the team we progressed year over year from a competition score of 36th overall to eventually attaining 4th overall in the yearly international competition comprising of approximately 80-100 teams (year dependent). A big part of this challenge was not only designing and building a competitive car, but more importantly, setting up the new Junior team members for success when they were to eventually take over the team from the graduating Seniors.