Today, we're shining a spotlight on one of the unsung hero behind the scenes – the wizard who makes the tech magic happen! Meet Eric Walker, the man behind the curtain, our go-to guy for all things IT.

As an Infrastructure Engineer, solving the trickiest tech troubles to keep our systems running smoothly, Eric is the wizard who ensures that we can work our magic every day. A journey from cramped quarters to having a room to spare – Eric has been with Tranztec through it all for over a decade! Remember the days of the old office, packed in like sardines? Fast forward to today, and Eric has witnessed and contributed to the incredible growth and evolution of Tranztec.

But Eric's story goes beyond office space. During the challenges of the past couple of years, Eric decided to turn adversity into opportunity. He embraced self-improvement with gusto! Not only did he level up his fitness game, but he also nourished his mind. Every morning, you'd find him diving into the wisdom of different books, growing his knowledge and perspective. And the plot twist? Eric didn't just upgrade his physical and mental well-being; he found love amidst the chaos. How, you ask? Well, you'll have to read on

To provide an insider's perspective, we turned to Tim Velasquez, our Manager of SRE. Here's what he had to share about his talented colleague:

"Eric has a fantastic personality, is dedicated to his craft, and always has a helping hand when others are in need. I appreciate how you go above and beyond."

Join us in celebrating Eric's achievements and in looking forward to many more successes together at Tranztec.

Tranztec:
What is your job title and how long have you been here?

Eric Walker:
I'm an infrastructure engineer at Tranztec. I've been at Tranztec for about nine or 10 years now. I want to say it's about 10 now.

Tranztec:
I think you already passed 10 Honestly, you were here a little bit before me and I just passed 10.

Eric Walker:
Well, you know time flies when you're having fun and I really enjoy it; doesn't surprise me.

Tranztec:
What does an infrastructure engineer at Tranztec entail? What is your day to day look like?

Eric Walker:
So, I always liked using computers as a kid. I was very interested in it. And I kind of got out of it a bit. When I first started working, I worked in a steel factory but around 1998 I got my first computer and I loved it. And I loved fixing it and making it work because if anyone knows computers, you know they break and things don't work and who knows why and I kind of thought Well, it'd be nice to get paid for doing this. I do enjoy doing it. So I went back to school. I got a few certifications. And I applied for a job and it was an upgrade project at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Ann Arbor. But once that was done, the company that I worked for didn't have anything else for me in the area. And so I inevitably went back to work at the steel factory where I was at before for about a year. Then I had a cousin who went to the same school that I did and got the same certifications and was working at Owens Corning world headquarters in downtown Toledo and got me a job there. I kind of progress through a couple of different companies, including the Sunoco refinery in Oregon, Ohio and the Swanton school system before starting a job at Tranztec, which was mostly support Computer Support. It's very similar to what I'm doing now. But we had dedicated customers in the area that we would get certain trouble tickets for and then I would contact and resolve all of their issues. That's kind of it in a nutshell.

Tranztec:
Just out of curiosity sake. What did you do at the steel plant?

Eric Walker:
Oh, I would cut down the steel sheets that would come in on a shear, they call it a shear. And eventually I was working on a machine that would slit the big coils of steel like you might see on the trucks on the expressway. Then they would unwrap go through the machine and slip them into different sizes and at the other end which was where I would work. They would roll it all back up into Oh however many new coils that it's loaded up into and my job was to kind of watch the surface as it went by and if there's any defects, I was to report them and possibly stop the line if we had to. And once they were all rolled up. I would wrap metal banding around them to hold them in place and hold them down so they wouldn't unravel and then push them off of the line and write the information of what it was and what customer it was on the outside of the steel itself and then hand that off to the guys that were on the forklifts and they would get it ready for the trucks to ship them out.

Tranztec:
Gotcha, very cool. So what part of your job currently do you enjoy the most?

Eric Walker:
I enjoy making things work. I mean I know that is kind of a broad term but that, in my opinion encompasses fixing things that don't work as well as implementing new technologies, such as we'll say security and making things more secure in the environment. I just really enjoy also automation, making things just kind of work on their own. I guess it'd be a really simple form of artificial intelligence but batch files and scripting that you would normally have to do yourself, click here, click there. But now, intelligently, you can make certain things happen on a schedule you could say so; I really enjoy that as well.

Tranztec:
Is there something that you would like to do internally that you are not doing currently? What does the future look like here for Eric? If you got your wish.

Eric Walker:
Oh yeah, that's a good question. Well, it wouldn't look a whole lot different, to be honest with you. I do really like what I'm doing. The people that I work with are all great. I like keeping up with the security advancements that we have in place and I think probably more getting into the security related side of it and basically keeping the bad guys out.

Tranztec:
Yeah, I know you kind of were a driving force for some of that stuff. Even before we had like a, you know, a high level of structure. Like with the pi-hole, you know, the things like that. I know, you were kind of one of the original driving factors to this kind of stuff.

Eric Walker:
Yeah, absolutely. It almost seems like good guys versus bad guys kind of scenario and keeping up with you know, the mousetrap. So to speak. But yeah, I really like it.

Tranztec:
So like when you were a little did the majority of your toys get lost to you destroying them by taking them apart?

Eric Walker:
Yeah. There are some memories of we'll say a toy that was supposed to have lights on it would light up and make sound, but the darn light wouldn't work anymore. So I would take it apart and just look for something that seemed out of place or were burned up or something. And one time in particular, I didn't really find anything wrong with this toy and I don't know what else to do with it. So I put it all back together and the lights worked now. And it's that kind of a feeling a good feeling of fixing something that really drives me forward and I just like that. I'm sure that has a lot to do with why I do what I do now.

Tranztec: Sure. Can you tell us a little bit more about your family?

Eric Walker:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I have two kids. Back in 1996, I had my daughter Alexis. And in 98 I had my son Cody. And through the years just raising them; they're really good kids. My daughter has started her own business and has been for a while now. She does nails and owns her own salon. And at this point in time is currently in Puerto Rico on a vacation. She is almost constantly on some sort of a vacation with her friends. My son is in the military. And he is just stationed up here at the Toledo airport with the National Guard. He's full time stationed out there. He just made spec sergeant. So I'm pretty darn proud of him. He bought his second house now. He's out in point place and has access to a dock on the river and it's just a super nice house in a really nice neighborhood and I couldn't be more proud of both of them. They're just doing really good and they've always been really good kids. I'm very lucky.

Tranztec:
So where were you born? Were you born in this area?

Eric Walker:
Yes. in 1972. I was born at Toledo hospital and I was born too early. My lungs were not fully developed and they had to fly in an experimental machine to basically save my life. And I got a write up in the paper that my mom still has somewhere that just basically says that, hey, we save this baby's life, you know, with this machine that they had to wait until the doctors said there is no chance that this baby is going to survive. Because I mean, it was it was just an experimental thing that was so new. So they put me on it and save my life. And yeah, here I am.

Tranztec:
Nice. I suppose with that success there must it must have made it past experimentation.

Eric Walker:
Yes, yes it did. They use it all the time now. I don't know what the heck it's called. But yeah, they use it all the time.

Tranztec:
Fascinating! Do you have anything offhand that you think would be surprising or you know, something we don’t know about Eric? Give us an Eric secret.

Eric Walker:
Oh, probably that I know martial arts. Well, I know. Aikido specifically. was always well, I never knew what it was called. But I somehow I knew that there was a certain style of martial arts that kind of used the opponent's force of movement against them and wasn't so much hurt somebody and put them in the hospital style.

Tranztec:
How long have you been into that?

Eric Walker:
Oh, man. I started when did I start? I want to say I first started about two years ago. And I really like how it takes a stance of observe how things are, whatever they are, don't try to change it so much. But use it against them kind of thing. Which applies to so many things in life as well. Sometimes it's just easier to recognize the situation and say, Okay, this seems bad. I'm labeling it as being bad. But could it be a good thing? How can I use this to my advantage or learn from it? And yeah, that's, that's why I like it so much.

Tranztec:
Very interesting. So what was the catalyst that got you to do that? Was it just something you were always interested in wanted to do? Like, you're almost speaking of it religiously to some degree? Was it the philosophy about the cause that made you want to learn this?

Eric Walker:
Well, it's really quite opposite of my nature. It wasn't something that I had always been thinking about. Or that I always wanted to do. I wanted to kind of add another skill. I don't want to say like, self improvement, but maybe a little bit, something like that. But at the end of the day, I went through probably a couple years, where I guess I was kind of in a self improvement phase. With the covid lock down at that time and we really weren’t in a social setting I just kind of sat at my house and didn’t do much of anything. I had a couple friends who would post on social media that they were drinking more than they ever have. I have never been a person to go down the negative path. So I developed a routine in the mornings I would get up and exercise, when the gyms were open I would go to the gym. I would also read a couple chapters of a certain book. I actually read quite a few books in the process now. I wasn’t really watching TV at the time but I would throw on some YouTube videos about finance to relationships. I think the catalyst you were referring to be a girl who in particular who I really wanted to be with and I think the world of. I was trying to better myself in her eyes and ultimately snatch her away. Which, I absolutely did and I am still currently with her. She is the girl of my dreams. I would say to get with her is the best thing to ever happen to me.

Tranztec:
Really awesome. That is very fantastic to hear. Goal achieved

Eric Walker:
It was quite a driving force. Let me tell you, mission accomplished and we couldn’t be happier. So yeah, it's pretty cool.

Tranztec:
Fantastic. That was emotionally charged. Thank you for sharing that.

Tranztec:
Are you musically inclined? Maybe in a band?

Eric Walker:
Totally. I've been in a couple bands now. I started playing the guitar. Gosh, if I remember right, anyway, it was my junior year in high school. So you know back in the stone age's. My dad bought me a guitar for my birthday and I just started learning some of my favorite songs on one string, but I loved playing it so much. It didn't matter so much to me that I was good at it, but this that I could spit something out. As years go on I've been in different bands, with different groups of friends. But I am not currently in a band. I have learned about 13 or so songs that I could play on an acoustic guitar and sit around the fire at a campsite and just kind of play a few songs and yeah, entertain everybody. I think that's, that's more like what I'm into now at this point in my life, as opposed to what I was before which was really like a heavy metal, really distortion driven, kind of a fast-paced band.

Tranztec:
So you guys were playing like Metallica or that kind of stuff.

Eric Walker:
A lot of the bands I played in really didn't want to play cover songs. They looked down on that and they wanted to play originals. I disagreed and so I wasn't super happy about it. But I know when I go out to a club if there's a band playing all originals, I don't know what the heck the song is. But when they play something that I know, oh, man, all right, I'm into this. I really enjoy it more and it just made sense to me. You know, why not? Why not play cover songs? I mean, whatever. But the last band that I was in, and I was probably in the longest. We played older songs, primarily love songs. That could be on the piano maybe and we sped them up and played them on distorted rock guitar. And I mean, everybody knew them already. But they were a little more fast paced, and it was just very, very fun things from Elvis. The Beatles, to Sinead O'Connor’s Nothing Compares to You. I mean, it was really, really fun.

Tranztec:
What do you play? Lead guitar? Rhythm guitar? What's your style?

Eric Walker:
Both, actually.

Tranztec:
Do you have a favorite song? Like a go to song to play? Like we're doing Tranztec talent show what do you play?

Tranztec:
You know that the only answer is Wonder Wall.

Eric Walker:
*laughs* No. Hmm a go to song that is a good one you know, I think it depends really on the audience or the situation man.

Tranztec:
When you picked up that guitar for the first time for your girlfriend, what was the song you played?

Eric Walker:
Yeah.

Tranztec:
Well that's that song.

Eric Walker:
It was Been Waiting For A Girl Like You by Foreigner which normally doesn't get played on the guitar, but I learned how to do it on the guitar. I played that and sung it for and yeah, along with a couple other ones. But yeah, kind of blew her mind with that one.

Tranztec:
certified “A” right there.

Eric Walker:
Oh dear. Yes, absolutely.

Tranztec:
We'll switch back to Tranztec for a minute.

Eric Walker:
Cool.

Tranztec:
Do you have a favorite memory at Tranztec?

Eric Walker:
Oh, wow. This is going to seem a little strange, but just bear with me here because I really enjoy when, as a group. We've gotten together and accomplished something really huge. Okay, that sounds great. But the last time that we really did that, that is kind of monumental in my mind, was something that we'll call the “incident”. Now, that's really kind of a negative type of thing, I guess. But at the end of the day, it's really nice working with a group of individuals who are very talented, and know what they're doing with a definite plan in place. And everything just locked together and worked very well with a very positive outcome in the end.

Tranztec:
Yeah. That was a very difficult time. For sure. But yeah, that's a great answer. I see what you're saying like, have you know, to pick that is seems weird, but yeah, no, I totally get that you know? You just expect Oh, Christmas or certainly everyone says Christmas. But that's a great answer.

Eric Walker:
Thanks. Yeah, kind of weird times now.. I mean, for me, I'm used to being well, for the longest time everybody being in the building. And then you know, new times ahead now almost nobody's in the building. It's like, wow, okay.

Tranztec:
Yeah. I mean, when we were in the other building, we were packed in like sardines.

Eric Walker:
Totally.

Tranztec:
Eric's spot was right up front.

Eric Walker:
Yeah, and I mean, I was like in an open area with two other people right there next to me and not so much really an office or even a cubicle.

Tranztec:
Everyone who walked by, I mean, you had to deal with the foot traffic and everything.

Eric Walker:
Oh, yeah, absolutely. “Hey, I don't know but I need something and I don't know who to go to.” So they would ask me.

Tranztec:
Goes with your helpful nature though.

Eric Walker:
We when we onboard new people, I mean, one of the things I'll tell them before I kind of send them off into the world is like, Hey, if you have any questions about who knows what, let me be your first person because I've been here a while and I kind of know most of the time who that question should get directed to if I can't answer it myself.

Tranztec:
We really need like an official welcoming committee and like you with some other people on there. Because we were actually just talking about that earlier in a different meeting. So just made me think of it.

Eric Walker:
Oh, cool. Yeah, that'd be cool.

Tranztec:
I mean, you're already a huge part of the onboarding process with getting them set up. You're talking to these people more than we are a lot of times.

Eric Walker:
Oh, yeah. And just recently, I documented the majority of that process, I'd say 99% of it. But every once in a while, we'll get a question from one of the newer people, such as, Oh, I heard that we have last pass for instance, and I'll go oh, I didn't set up last pass yet. You know, and add it to the you know, add to the darn list, but you know, you'll have that.

Tranztec:
What are some bucket list items for Eric?

Eric Walker:
I would LOVE to see the Great Pyramids in Egypt. And I'd also like to go to Hawaii. But the Great Pyramids. I mean, that's like the last of the wonders of the world that's still standing. And I would really love to walk around inside of thee Great Pyramid itself. But yeah, that would be very cool.

Tranztec:
Is there something that goes with that? I mean, like in terms of like, do you enjoy the Egyptian civilization or is it just because it's a world wonder? Have you traveled the world and seen everything else? And that's the last play. What causes you to say that particular thing?

Eric Walker:
Oh, I think it starts with music. That sort of Egyptian style of progression of notes. That is somewhat unmistakable, and kind of caught my ear many, many years ago, but that was neat. I think that put me on the path to being interested in, you know, Egyptian types of things. But then the fact of those pyramids being such a mystery in today's day and age is interesting to me, Along with the fact that this huge amount of knowledge of how it was built, was lost. And it's easy to think, today that our generations are progressively getting smarter. But wait a minute, they seem to have built this so many 1000s of years ago, and we don't know how I mean that that intrigues me.

Tranztec:
Yeah, that's interesting. So do you secretly really think it's a battery? Don't you?

Eric Walker:
No clue. It almost just seems like this rock structure with this random halls and openings and rooms that don't really make sense to me and most of which is not even a room but just, I guess rock or at least inaccessible. It's really quite a mystery to me. I have no clue.

Tranztec:
Aliens.

Eric Walker:
That's kind of the easy answer, really, but whatever.

Tranztec:
That's the easy answer for Eric. It is quite remarkable. When they do the science stuff on it, and they go like it's really doesn't seem possible that it could have been done by humans, because I just saw one earlier. Where there's this huge like, obelisk over there where it's, it's laying on the ground, it was being built. It was cut out of one thing of granite. And it's like the question is how were they planning on lifting it right like even we don't have the technology really to do some of those things.

Eric Walker:
Yeah, exactly. There's no you know, the composition of it isn't found in that area. Like they had to bring it there from someplace else. Like how did all this happen? But they knew; they evidently knew a lot.

Tranztec:
Yeah, I think we get we get so much of our, you know, they talk about like how there was clocks, like intricate clocks and stuff that they find now in like China and stuff, but the whole our entire history books are written from a European perspective, and you don't realize the technologies that existed that may have just been lost the time.

Eric Walker:
Well, yeah, absolutely. I think that's something that that really interests me as well. Like there's a device that they found in a sunken ship that they dated like thousands and thousands of years old. Yeah. Then they didn't really know what it did, but they didn't want to take it apart because it was so corroded. They would have destroyed it. And then later, we have like the technology to kind of, I don't know if it's X rays that's been around for a while, but somehow scan the inside of this thing and see all the gears and found that this is actually a device that maps the planets in the movement of our solar system, and can like predict where planets are going to be at any certain time. As well as eclipses. And like, wow, they actually not only did they just think about that kind of stuff or even know about it, but somebody was smart enough to build a device that would show that.

Tranztec:
Have you traveled much? You talked about you're wanting to see the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Have you been out of the country, Eric?

Eric Walker:
Oh, not really. I mean, I've been to Canada, not far into Canada and it's been so long. I can't really remember where I went. But I can say that I have been to Canada. But yeah, mostly in the United States. So yeah, I've been to like Florida. A couple of times. Myrtle Beach. I've been to California. I went to Oh, what did that Disney Land? Which Disney World would have been better. Disneyland is kind of like this archaic old version of what Disney the Disney Park was back in who knows what 1940 or something? But I've been to Dallas, Texas. I've been to the Alamo. I checked that out. When my son graduated from the military. That's where his base was. And Hmm, I think that's I think that's about it.

Tranztec:
So, you know, you’re obviously into history and tech, do you do a lot of reading? Is that a hobby?

Eric Walker:
Oh yeah. and it never really used to be. But for a span of about two years or so it, it was a regular thing that I would do every single day is kind of pick up a book and read something that can better my life in some way or make it easier, like Oh, time management skills or one in particular, I hope I don't mess up the title here, but the 12 Habits of Highly Effective People, rings a bell. I want to do things the right way the first time around basically and I see in my life and I see with other people, you know, you do something that's not quite the right way and you got to go back and clean up what you did and do it over again. And it just seems like if there's a better way, you know, why wouldn't you do that? So I like books like that. As opposed to like entertainment.

Tranztec:
Yeah, I agree. Self Help books are always in for me, if I meant to learn something at the end I'm fully on board but I usually just go to YouTube and watch it instead of read it.

Eric Walker:
Yeah, that's a lot easier and quicker to

Tranztec:
Do you like the Marvel movies Eric?

Eric Walker:
I do. Yes. I like the Marvel movies. Okay. I liked the older style Marvel movies, but I think they're getting a little off track nowadays actually.

Tranztec:
Yeah, they tried to be to universally liked instead of staying true to the comics. If you could have any superpower, what would you want?

Eric Walker:
I'd want to fly.

Tranztec:
He didn't you have to skip a beat.

Eric Walker:
No, not at all. And there have been some rare occasions when I've had Oh, what do they call those dreams? And I'm forgetting the name of the type of dream that you have. But where you realize that you're dreaming while you're dreaming?

Tranztec:
Lucid dreaming.

Eric Walker:
Thank you. Lucid dreams when I've had them I immediately realize hey, I can fly. And almost always I start flying. You know, you can think of like, if you can do anything and you know you're in a dream and I decide to just you know, fly.

Tranztec:
Eric kinda does have that Clark Kent vibe.

Tranztec:
Yeah. I remember I was in the office. And he looks over me. He goes, I'm going to go for a walk. Like oh, okay, cool. Like, that's fine. He comes back after I don't know indeterminate amount of time. he was like "yeah, I went five miles".

Eric Walker:
wow, I probably went three and a half. That takes an hour. That's good for you.

Tranztec:
Are you still doing all your exercise yet or have you slowed down to normal human amount?

Eric Walker:
I have slowed down to normal human amounts. Oh, well, I was in my prime, I guess I was hitting the gym every single day. And on Sundays every week, I would jog at the park and eventually got up to jogging. 10 miles. Without breaking it down into a walk but just you know, not running don't get me wrong, but like a jog, but got up to 10 miles dude.

Tranztec:
That’s amazing.

Eric Walker:
I agree. I'm kind of proud of it.

Tranztec:
Would you have any advice to someone that like wants to join Tranztec or speaking to someone who was a prospective new employee?

Eric Walker:
I would probably say to be genuine, like whatever you're doing. I mean, Tranztec is a group of individuals. We're all down to earth. Kinda like a kind of like a family here. There's no need to be afraid of saying the wrong thing. More, not admitting to a mistake for example, just be genuine.

Tranztec:
Is there something that you feel would be interesting to let people know that we didn't ask you about being or talked about that is in front of your mind?

Eric Walker:
Wow. Honestly, I feel like we've talked a lot about what would have been the answer to that question. Yeah, I don't know. I've sung a couple praises already about myself. I think that's about it, man.

Tranztec:
We definitely want to tell you thanks. And congrats. You were there on what was like a short list that got created at the beginning of when we started this project. And you have been on it basically from the beginning. So just, you know, your attitude and your work ethic and everything about you just makes Tranztec a better place to be in my opinion. So just congrats overall. You deserve the accolades and a lot more than you get.

Eric Walker:
Wow, thanks, buddy.

Tranztec:
No, thank YOU Eric.

Tranztec has made a donation to - St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund: This nonprofit organization provides assistance to truck drivers who are suffering from illness or injury. The fund offers financial assistance, wellness programs, and support services to help drivers get back on their feet.