David E. Patnaude

David E. Patnaude is a facilities engineer and real property executive with more than 30 years of experience in the strategic management of real estate and facilities. With degrees in architecture and engineering, David currently serves at the director of plant and sustainability/project executive for the Riverdale Country School in Bronx, N.Y.

Articles by David E. Patnaude

• Are you building for more than 25 years?

  Wednesday, March 18, 2015

  I recently had the privilege to present a 75-minute breakout session at the NBOA Annual Conference in Boston where I spoke about the real meaning of "total cost of ownership." I truly enjoy these sessions because I learn a lot during the Q&A and then even more from the people who approach me after the presentation with feedback.

• Time to resharpen that saw? Knowing what you don’t know

  Wednesday, October 08, 2014

  What are the three toughest words for professionals to utter? It's probably not what you're thinking. It's simply, "I don't know." The economics team of Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, authors of "Freakonomics," have studied this idea of how not being able to utter these three simple words actually costs U.S. industry and business millions of dollars annually from people committing big mistakes.

• How to prepare a business case for your facilities initiative

  Monday, September 08, 2014

  ​As facilities engineers and managers, are we expected to be experts in finance? Should we understand as much as our financial officer or chief executive? We know a lot about how to operate a plant, build something, repair equipment, contract for services and the plethora of work and detail that accompanies our job.

• How building commissioning relates to total cost of ownership

  Monday, August 25, 2014

  As facilities professionals, we are often asked to work on projects and tasks that go beyond the day-to-day operation of our facilities. The types of projects and tasks I'm talking about include capital planning, construction project management and long-term master and capital planning.