Meet Eric Lorenzen

Eric Lorenzen isn’t just about managing facilities—he’s about building trust, fostering collaboration, and making things better for everyone. As associate vice president for Facilities Management Engineering, he brings over 20 years of expertise in plant operations and facilities management. His leadership is shaped by the perseverance and strong family bonds his parents instilled in him. “My mom and dad demonstrated incredible perseverance and kept strong family bonds despite facing challenges. They set a great example for me and my family to follow,” he shares. For Eric, every challenge presents an opportunity, and no matter the adversity, he looks for the silver lining—not just for himself, but for his team and the broader community. His commitment to people and progress makes him an invaluable leader. See what else Eric has to say!

Do you have any hidden talents?

I make a pretty mean chocolate chip cookie! I’m also creative when making Sunday morning pancakes- apple compote, nutella with banana, blueberry compote, the works.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

An Air Force pilot.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Patience is a virtue. I would really try to reinforce that to my younger self. There are so many challenges that occur at the speed of life. You can’t necessarily wish things away, so try to understand the current situation that you’re in and let things develop as they should. Be your best self, and try not to have any regrets. You won’t know what those regrets could be until decisions are made and actions are taken. It’s important to try to remain patient and let things develop as they should. I heard a great anecdote about, " Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair... It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere."

What superpower would you choose for yourself?

Invisibility or the ability to change into an animal. My favorite animal is a dog.  I especially love larger dogs. German Shepards and Huskies are among my favorite dog breeds.

How would you describe yourself in one word? Why?

Positive. Regardless of how much adversity you face, you always have to find the silver lining and make things work not only for your environment but also for those around you. In Facilities Management a lot of your work is judged by your finished product, but a lot of that work is done behind the scenes—it’s infrastructure, it’s elevators, it’s pipes lining walls, it’s electrifying the walls, it’s areas and places that people never get to see, and everything that we do as a team requires collaborative effort and has an impact on all of our campus community. We try to make sure that message gets trickled down to everyone who is working with us because if we can make a positive impact on the campus community, we can hopefully help their treatment, their research, their studies—all of the things that they’re trying to do—in an indirect way. I try to bring a positive approach to see what we can do and how we can make it better.

What’s something that people would be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve never seen any of the Godfather movies. Braveheart is my favorite movie. I love all of the Star Wars movies. I love epic movies and sci-fi. I enjoy films with defined conflict and creative solutions. Game of Thrones was awesome- that kind of stuff. I’m a Yankees fan, a Jets fan, and a Rangers fan. I’m a New Yorker through and through (even though I live in Jersey now).

What’s a project of yours that you’re particularly proud of?

I opened up the Evelyn Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center. It was the first endeavor Facilities Management took with this type of staffing profile where I had licensed refrigeration machine operators performing outside of the scope of just doing the refrigeration work. We did cross-training where they did a little bit of electrical troubleshooting, carpentry, painting, and plumbing. They even understood fire response. They were truly building engineers rather than refrigeration machine operators. That was the first time we had ever done something like that, and I had to develop and create the plan. There was a lot of support from the organization to make it successful. I did that for around 6 years and maintained the same team throughout that entire time span. We complimented each other really well, and everyone had a learning curve, including me. We had our individual learning curves, and then we also had to learn about each other. That was probably the biggest hurdle—developing the interpersonal relationships with one another as we grew together. There was a lot of communication, and there were lots of opportunities that allowed us to get better acquainted with one another while we all grew as individuals.