After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Geography 18 years ago at East Carolina University, Sean Hawley travelled the country for eight years as a consultant before joining Greenville Utilities. Sean has now been with GUC for 10 years and is currently a Systems Analyst IV.

Throughout his years here, Sean has held several different titles which all involved working with our Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS provides our operating departments with tools for mapping, data analysis, and utility management. Examples include enhancing maps with customer information, weather, rights-of-ways, and field data (like the location of a fire hydrant or transformer) as well as having the ability to better inform customers on the status of service orders or outages – just to name a few.

Several years ago, a GIS Data Services Group (GDS) was formed under IT, and Sean now oversees this group of five employees. “Coordinating what were previously separate work efforts by each operating department now allows us to avoid duplications and better serve our customers and our employees,” said Sean. “As a combined team, we have been able to establish better standards and tracking of work to ensure our GIS is healthier, and we have a better understanding of what is expected of the team.”

Sean and the GDS team also work closely with IT’s mobile application development team. They support the data and web infrastructure that supplies the mobile applications with GIS information. “It takes a real team effort to support a GIS mobile app in the field,” said Sean. “In addition to the spatial components, there are network requirements, server infrastructure, GIS databases, web services, and the mobile app. This requires all sections of IT to work together.”

Shortly after joining GUC, Sean decided to go back to school for his Master’s degree. Using our tuition assistance program, he completed his Master of Arts in Geography at East Carolina University. “I honestly fell into Geography because I had an A in the class my freshman year,” he joked.

Sean said his favorite part about the job is staying up-to-date with technology and having the ability to work daily with the four different utilities at GUC. “We are always evaluating and upgrading GIS tools. Our job is to provide the spatial information that GUC employees need to do their jobs in an easy-to-use fashion. There are exciting changes coming to GIS that will open many doors for our employees.”

Originally from Swansboro, NC, Sean now lives in Walstonburg with his wife Crystal, and their two kids, daughter Parker (10) and son Vann (6), also known as “mini Vann.” His family also takes care of his mom, Ellen, who lives on their property in an apartment they built for her. Sean enjoys his family time and stays busy coaching Parker’s traveling soccer team. Sean grew up playing soccer, and was a student athlete on the ECU soccer team.

Sean also enjoys raising his Treeing Walker Coonhounds and competing in field trial competitions, which is competitive raccoon hunting. “I’ve worked with hundreds of dogs because I am real picky, but I have been lucky to own a few good ones,” he said. “The last few years I’ve slowed down with competitions so that I can focus more on our kids.”

Favorites:

Movies - Braveheart & Road to Predition
Snack - Jelly Belly's
Team - Carolina Panther's & Arsenal