Heather McCoy, Manager of our Sales and Marketing Programs.

I hate to disappoint you but I never do any meshing. The title of this piece should really be, “I’m Heather and This Is How I Help You Mesh.”

I have a degree from Trinity University in San Antonio and spent several years in various office administrator jobs in Fort Worth. I came to Pointwise in the summer of 1998 as a temporary administrative assistant. Pointwise was looking for someone to answer the phone and clean up its customer files and I needed a part-time job. I ended up spending more and more time at the office finding more projects to tackle. They finally gave up and hired me full time in January of 1999.

• Location: Fort Worth
• Current position: Manager, Sales and Marketing Programs
• Current computer: Dell XPS 8500 Windows 7
• One word that best describes how you work: Purposely

What software or tools do you use every day?

Sage CRM and MS Outlook for interacting with our customers. I generate sales quotations and invoices with QuickBooks. And, I use Asana for managing our marketing and distribution projects.

What does your workspace look like?

Heather’s current workspace.

I am lucky enough to have an office with a window and great big desk with plenty of room for my two computer monitors and my project files. My desk has been with me since I came to work at Pointwise 16 years ago. I also have two comfy chairs that came from my grandmother’s house. They are not pretty but I find that people will sometimes come in my office to visit just to sit in the chairs.

What are you currently working on?

I am working on a mix of things right now. I am overseeing a series of projects that will streamline some of our customer relationship management tasks. Most of these projects are invisible to our customers but they help make us more organized and efficient. I am also coordinating our 2015 Pointwise Distributors’ Meeting and all the activities surrounding it. And I am working on a customer insight project for our marketing team.

What would you say is your specialty at Pointwise?

One of the things I like to do is make Pointwise better at serving its customers and distributors. But I also want to make it easier on my colleagues to do their job effectively without hurting the timeliness or quality of the services we provide. I am always looking for ways to make everyone’s life a little easier. I am lucky to have been at Pointwise long enough that I know a little bit about a lot of things so I can see the big picture and connect the dots between customers, sales, marketing, support, and distribution.

Any tips, tricks, or advice for our users?

Participate in one of Pointwise’s training classes in our Fort Worth office, attend a Let’s Talking Meshing Workshop, or attend the Pointwise User Group Meeting in 2016. The training at these events will give you that edge you need to efficiently and effectively use Pointwise. Not only will you learn a few tips and tricks along the way, but we also get to meet you and you will experience some of our great Texas hospitality.

What project are you most proud of and why?

This is a tough one. I think the project that I am the most proud of and has had the broadest reach and the most impact was organizing the first Gridgen User Group Meeting in 2004. Before that, Pointwise had hosted small, brief Gridgen user gatherings at industry conferences. However, we had never hosted a multi-day event focusing on Gridgen and meshing topics in our hometown of Fort Worth. I had been to other CFD software user group meetings and had hosted a couple of successful Pointwise Distributor Meetings. I knew we could do it. So, I went to the Pointwise owners told them that it was time to try hosting our own user group meeting. They agreed and 11 years later, we are still hosting regular user group meetings. We changed the name in 2008 to the Pointwise User Group Meeting.

Have you recently read any books or articles we should know about?

There are two books I recently finished that are worth reading. Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is excellent and has some great World War II aviation history. Working at Pointwise has given me an appreciation for the history of aerospace and I loved reading about what it was like to fly during the war in the Pacific arena. I also recently read, Red Hope, written by John Dreese, my colleague and a senior engineer on Pointwise’s Technical Support Team. Not only is it a compelling story but I actually understood some of the subtle engineering humor.

Do you plan on attending any conferences or workshops this year?

Since the AIAA Aviation conference is in Dallas this year, I will be there helping out with the Let’s Talk Meshing Workshop we are hosting on Sunday, 21 June. I will also be at the VINAS User Conference in October and at the European Let’s Talk Meshing Workshop we are hosting in November in Stuttgart, Germany.

What do you do when you’re not surrounded by engineers making meshes?

I love to work out. I mainly run, swim and do Pilates. Right now I am training to run the Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon on April 26. (You should join me. This run commemorates the Oklahoma City bombing that happened 20 years ago this month.) Running gets me outside in the fresh air and helps me decompress. Plus, I enjoy eating. I really need to run to counterbalance all the eating I do.

What is some of the best advice you’ve received?

My father was the Manager of Administrative Services at the Oklahoma City Zoo for many years and while I don’t remember any specific advice he gave me, he instilled in me the importance of hard work, being dependable and always, always providing a good customer experience no matter what.

If you had to pick a place to have dinner, where would you go?

Anyplace where Pointwise has a distributor. I love to travel and have had some really great meals while visiting our overseas partners. I have been lucky enough to visit 10 of our 14 distributors and can tell you about a memorable meal or meals I had in each country.