Carmelina Borsellino, BEng 86, is vice-president and chief engineer at FM Global, a commercial property-insurance company she has worked at since graduating from Concordia.
She was hired shortly after graduating as a field engineer, evaluating clients’ facilities to asses risk and provide loss prevention solutions.
“FM Global is an insurance company with a unique capability called engineering. We don’t use actuaries,” she explains. After years of shuttling between Montreal and the firm’s Rhode Island head office, she relocated permanently in 2018 when she was promoted to the top engineering job. In her role, she sets the strategic direction of the research-based engineering.
Borsellino has a kind of decisive and focussed demeanour that’s unsurprising considering her profession. Building engineering appealed to her because it wasn’t as general as civil engineering. “I figured it would better hone my skills and knowledge; it’s more concentrated on a subject,” she says. Math and science were always her strong suits; a classic high achiever, she acknowledges the beginning of her engineering education was challenging.
“I’ve always gotten good marks, but I had to change the way I studied. That first semester was tough and unusual for me, but then I adjusted,” she says. She remembers receiving an A+ on a numerical analysis assignment. A fellow classmate expressed surprise that she, a woman, achieved that grade. Though there weren’t many women in engineering, it’s the only incident she can recall when her gender was ever brought up. “I never felt out of place in engineering.”
Borsellino (right) and fellow building engineering classmate Linda Kenworthy at a bridge-building competition during their student days at Concordia.