Rick West
Shop Supervisor
Bryan Aponte
Assembler
“Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted, and experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
Glenn’s attractions career began at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom while in college, where he worked as a Fantasyland Operations Lead and Trainer. Receiving his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Central Florida, Glenn would join Walt Disney Imagineering upon graduation.
Glenn would have control system project responsibility for EPCOT’s anchor American Adventure Pavilion, then the most ambitious of any Disney project. Glenn left WDI as Electronic Engineering Ride Group Leader after the opening of EPCOT to found Birket Engineering in 1984.
Glenn’s vision has led the company to a global presence, providing ride & show control services and equipment to every Walt Disney World and Universal Studios park in the world, together with countless related sites. He has had a foundational role in the ongoing process of elevating the attraction industry’s standard of care, providing safe and exciting experiences for generations around the world.
Glenn’s accolades include being named ‘one of our most valued vendors’ by WDI General Counsel in 2011, the prestigious 2013 IEEE Outstanding Entrepreneur Award, recognition as 2016 Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Supplier of the Year, and designation as a TEA Master in 2018.
Glenn is an avid aviator, Boy Scout Aviation Merit Badge Counselor, and Puppy Rescue Flight pilot. He has hiked to the highest point in the continental United States four times.
"Again and again, we are asked to work with people and projects we have known for 20 and 30 years, these relationships are such a gift. We are a part of the best industry in the world and we work with the best people in the world."
Steve has worked in the themed entertainment industry continuously since high school, first as a parade and waterski performer at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and later as a project manager for Universal Creative and Walt Disney Imagineering. He is a past TEA Eastern North America and International Board President and is licensed in Florida as a Professional Engineer and Electrical Specialty Contractor. Steve holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from UCF and an MBA from Rollins College.
"There's only one way to do something, the right way."
Marcial’s lifelong career has allowed him to meet hundreds of people that have made his life very special.
He has been blessed to know these people and from them, he has learned the best traits to apply to his life. A life that has been filled with honesty and responsibility and thus making his career as an Electrical Engineer a success.
With over thirty years of experience in the theme park industry, he has participated in the successful design of nearly every park in the world. He has always been driven by efficiency and reliability in every system that he has designed and commissioned.
In his free time, you will find him travelling with his family to almost every national park in the western USA, as well as, growing fruit plants that he can share with his friends and family.
Brian is responsible for Birket Engineering’s world-wide engineering designs, policies, and resource planning. He is a veteran leader of multiple simultaneous controls design and integration projects for some of the world’s best-known attractions in Japan, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Spain, Germany, and the United States. Brian manages all phases of the engineering process from proposal to fail-safe hardware and software design, technical documentation, implementation, site commissioning, and warranty support.
Brian began in the attractions industry with the Walt Disney World College Program, followed by multiple internships with Walt Disney Imagineering’s Design and Production group. It was during these internships that he found his home with Birket Engineering. Brian is an honors BS Electrical Engineering graduate of The Pennsylvania State University.
“If you are afraid of failure, you don’t deserve to be successful.”
Jerry started at Birket in Sales and Marketing and then moved into Project Management. He has spent years working from China alongside Birket’s Shanghai staff, and his first major portfolio of projects was Birket’s contribution to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland. Jerry now travels between Birket’s Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Florida offices, keeping administrative policies and practices in line with and cohesive to Birket’s values and goals.
Jerry enjoys getting to see people grow within Birket and getting to be a part of Birket projects as they come to life, as well as, meeting new people from the themed entertainment industry and watching the industry grow and change.
Jerry began his education in law but gravitated to business and graduated with a BSBA in Business Economics from UCF.
In his free time, you will find Jerry watching and playing sports, as well as traveling to new places to see and learn new cultures. He also enjoys making memories scuba diving, skydiving, hiking, and through other outdoor activities. Jerry is competitive by nature and considers himself a thrill seeker.
Ed supervises all financial management and administrative operations for Birket and has overseen the company’s expansion for almost twenty-five years. His previous positions have been with ITT, TOLD Corporation and Universal Creative. Ed holds a BS from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and has earned the Certified Management Accountant designation. He is married with five children and resides in Orlando.
Ray is an effective problem solver that develops customized solutions to meet challenging business demands.
He has hands-on management experience with notable contributions as an operations leader, production leader and program leader with a particular expertise in project budgeting, supply chain management, electrical controls engineering, production flexibility, Sig Sigma, Lean manufacturing, cost savings and creating innovative systems.
Ray has led domestic and international project management resulting in successful, profitable new product launches, on time and within budget.
Ray has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management/Administration from Lawrence Technological University.
“Just as blues players can play 20 blues songs in a row but find a way to make each one different, I always want to find different ways to do something."
Working in the automation and controls industry for over thirty-two years, Glenn has accumulated knowledge and experience participating in exciting ride and show projects, with a few mentoring roles as his career has progressed.
There is always more to learn and opportunities to improve upon the designs used in our target industries. Safety for the people that operate and use our systems has come more sharply into focus in recent years.
Glenn was sponsored by Birket Engineering to attend Rockwell Automation’s Machinery Safety program for certification as a Functional Safety Engineer by TÜV Rheinland. He has held this certification (#8240) since 2014.
Glenn has subsequently participated in several projects designing and testing safety functions and reviewing the designs of others using the ISO 13849 standard, safety of machinery, safety-related parts of control systems.
Glenn has a technical background as a nuclear operator in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service and studied electrical engineering at the University of Central Florida.
Playing guitar is a hobby that Glenn enjoys and takes inspiration from the quote above, one of his heroes.
“I smile when I hear the screams from a new attraction because I know that their ride around the track is safer than the ride home.”
Daniel Birket is one of Birket Engineering’s TÜV-certified functional safety engineers and is responsible for the safety analysis, design, and validation of safety-related control systems for rides and shows. He has created software for first-of-their-kind intense theme park attractions for 30 years, including Universal’s “Backdraft”, “WaterWorld”, “Revenge of the Mummy” and more in parks world-wide.
A professional software engineer since the early ‘80s, “Dan” created real-time mission-critical software for military, security, scientific, power, and telephony infrastructure applications before turning to safety-related software for theme parks. On the lighter side, he has written the software underlying some of Birket Lighting controllers and enjoys contributing to open-source projects and teaching another generation of engineers.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Andrea is an animal lover and protector at heart. Because of this, her career took an unexpected path.
Having a paralegal and business degree and working in the legal field for sixteen years, Andrea’s path changed when a 2lb rabbit came into her life.
After many years of working in the legal field, Andrea’s day-to-day became mundane so she decided to take an entry position in marketing. During this time, Instagram was becoming mainstream, and she created an account to share her rabbit’s life. Little did she know that little Cooper, her rabbit, would become famous and open many doors for her in the marketing field.
At the present, thanks to Cooper, she’s held different marketing roles and helped launch Birket’s sister company’s product, Firelinx.
Andrea manages online advertising, provides social media marketing solutions, delivers quality websites, and provides online reputation management.
As a team leader and manager of special projects and products, John regularly needs to operate “outside the box” to find solutions that are both creative and practical.
At Birket, John’s responsibilities include team management, project management, developing hardware and software designs, finding and practically applying new technologies, learning new ways to use old technologies, vendor discovery, vendor management, and client relations.
John began his career working on control systems and system integration in steel mills and metal processing plants and his passion for this field was born of curiosity about how things work and believing that his work brings happiness and lifetime memories to guests of the parks.
“I get here via the long way, by land, air, and sea. I get here via the people I’ve worked with, admired, constantly remembered. I am a student of how people get things done with some humble imitation of the best. I get here by family, my wife and 2 kids who prove that they are the hardest project to manage.”
Philip studied technical theatre at Memorial University in St. John’s, electronics at Eastern College in Carbonear and audio engineering at RAC in Hamilton.
He has managed new shows and equipment installs over many years on cruise ships, was Waterworld’s technical and operations manager in Singapore and managed technical costumes for the Paint the Night Parade in Hong Kong.
Philip is the Technical Project Manager for Birket at UBR in Beijing and is currently holding the same title right here in Orlando for Universal’s Epic Park.
Outside of work, you can find Philip listening to jazz and studying international literature. He also collects art and paints in his spare time.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."
Over the past twelve years at Birket, you will find Ryan working in almost every department. Ryan started in the shop, worked his way up as a technician in the field, moved on to hardware design, and is now in management.
Today Ryan manages various projects from new control systems to obsolescence work for customers like Universal, Disney, Palm Beach County Courthouse, ICON park, and Blue Origin. Ryan can assist in all phases of a project. From design, build, installation and commissioning, Ryan is there. You will often find him in the field during the installation and commissioning phases.
Ryan was born and raised in the Orlando area and has always found himself interested in theme parks and how rides actually work.
While Ryan believes that this industry is not for the weak, due to high stress situations and having to focus on what challenges the team is facing, his favorite part about working at Birket is the ability to work with the young engineers and pass his knowledge and experience to them, as well as, working with the senior engineers and learning from them.
Ryan graduated from Business School at UCF and loves playing baseball, basketball, football, and golf in his free time.
“Work Smarter, Not Harder” and design with “KISS”.
For more than thirty years, Douglas has been working both domestically and internationally with many different levels of design styles and environments, and with innovative and/or traditional design tools, new and/or old technologies and software.
Prior to his engineering degree, he was an electronics technician; building, troubleshooting, and programming equipment that were prototypes, one-offs, or custom designed modifications.
Given this diversity of experience, it allows him to improve the process of selecting the best design techniques and practices as applied to the problems presented by applying both current and traditional tried and true practices.
He thrives best in an environment where working on a project through all stages from concept to completion, in a very hands-on environment, is essential and leading by example is required.
At Birket, you will find Jose working on PLC hardware design, doing on-site work, like the startup of The Mummy, as well as the commissioning of multiple projects.
When Jose was a kid, he dreamed of being a jet fighter pilot and that love of machinery brought him into the field of science and technology.
Jose’s grandfather worked for the railroad and used to take him to the shipping yard, where they both spent time admiring and building the engines. For this reason, getting to see behind the scenes and testing out the newest technology is Jose’s favorite part about his job.
Before graduating and becoming a Controls Engineer, Jose worked on electrical maintenance and automation for fourteen plus years.
In his free time, you will find Jose grilling, watching football (Let’s Go Titans!) and spending time with his beautiful family.
“I refuse to not have fun!”
Chris has been designing, programming, and installing supervisory systems around the world for Birket for over ten years.
His interest in theme parks started when, as a young boy, a ride attendant let him ride Pirates of the Caribbean three times in a row. During his time with Birket he’s enchanted two lands with magic, trained a dragon, and controlled an army of zombies.
In his free time, he is at home taking care of his son, his assortment of hydroponic plants, and two of the laziest cats on the planet.
Chris is pretty sure that the entire universe is actually a simulation run by a poorly implemented control system.
“Anything worth doing, is worth over doing.”
Since the age of eight, Cory has been tearing apart his toys to find out how they worked. His father decided this needed to stop and encouraged Cory to do something more creative with his time. Cory has been programming ever since.
His professional career has centered around cryptography and embedded systems programming.
Cory is also one of the original Firelinx system designers and developers. Stretching back twenty years to the first generation of the product, Cory has been there.
When clients need the most esoteric and bleeding-edge systems designed, they end up at his desk.
“If you’re not all in, you’re all out.”
As an electrician on residential and commercial projects, ranging from large solar array installations to apartment complexes, Alexander brings a unique perspective to the entertainment industry.
Working with multiple engineering disciplines, as an electrician and now as an engineer, has paved the way for his success in leading large scale entertainment projects to completion.
Alexander has designed, personally assembled and installed equipment for many of our large-scale customers. With his strong technical background, he is able to keep projects moving and customers informed as the Project Engineer.
Alexander has developed a passion for competing in triathlons and loves the outdoors. He enjoys traveling with his family and is always up for an adventure.
“Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced”
Carolyn has been working with control systems and automation in China, Canada, and the U.S. since she graduated from college.
In college, Carolyn was good at math and logic, so she studied automation and for her it is satisfying to see a control system up and running just as the client expects. Over the years she has always put safety and the quality of her work as the top priority.
"We're entertainers. The fact that we use concrete and steel to do our entertaining, as opposed to a piece of Shakespearean text or whatever, is immaterial."
Ryan’s passion for theme parks began at the age of thirteen and not just visiting them but learning how roller coasters worked and showing off his scale coaster models on YouTube.
Through his college studies and involvement in a TEA club, that passion expanded beyond the pure thrill of roller coasters to include the storytelling capabilities of escape rooms and themed experiences.
At Birket, Ryan wears a variety of hats while using his dual background in mechanical and controls engineering. When he’s not designing or commissioning the controls for an animatronic or show supervisor, Ryan can be found doing mechanical design for whatever projects need it, (though his favorite ones are interactive props)!
Growing up Nicole went on a lot of family trips to theme parks; she has such fond memories of them.
When she learned about engineering, she knew that was what she wanted to do, as she dreamed of doing a job where the end result would make people happy!
So, when the time came, she studied mechanical engineering and then learned controls on the job after college.
Now she spends her days at Birket doing commissioning and startup of ride and show systems, along with PLC & HMI Programming.
None of her days are ever the same and there is always a challenging problem to be solved.
In her free time, she loves to bake sweet treats and explore the outdoors!
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse”
Larry’s passion for “engineering fun” serves as the roadmap for his life.
From an early age, Larry was interested in amusement park rides and how they operate. Whether building model train sets or virtual amusement parks in the computer game Roller Coaster Tycoon, Larry became increasingly passionate about ride design.
After studying Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at Princeton University, Larry moved to Windermere, FL to work his dream job at Birket Engineering.
Outside of work, Larry is an annual passholder, who visits Walt Disney World often to continue to learn what guests, including himself, find so magical about Disney.
“The love of family is everything!”
At Birket, Pete troubleshoots and repairs electronic equipment that is having problems and fabricates electronic items and support projects.
Pete’s passion for amusement parks began while he was working at Disney Engineering Services and his training at the Naval Electronic School.
Pete’s favorite part of his job is spending time with the people he works with and when he is not at work, you will find him spending time with his family.
At Birket, Luke’s work is centered around AutoCAD Design. Many of his tasks are to design custom lighting fixtures for several clients.
Luke can work from hand sketches or instructions to bring a light fixture into the 3D program and make the final item. Luke’s favorite part of his job is the enjoyment of seeing the final product and knowing that he took it from a concept to reality and made something that didn’t exist before!
One thing Luke has tried to learn and accept is patience, especially when it comes to how many changes can occur before an item is final.
In his spare time, you will find Luke fulfilling his passion for road cycling. He can ride for very long distances while maintaining a very high speed.
At home he enjoys spending time with his baby brown dog named Cookiepuss.
“Permission to jump in an X-wing and blow something up?”
Maggie likes being a part of solutions that make the world fun, interactive, and spark joy and curiosity. She has been immersed in Solidworks 3d design, prototype assembly, on site installs, and documentation of systems that light up the sky with fireworks and things that light up crystals in a dark cave.
It requires an open and inventive mind on how things can be done, organization of schedules and deadlines, collaboration with a great team, and flexibility and tenacity when you meet problems to get the project done.
When Maggie is away from the office, she is a member of the Rebel legion Star Wars costuming group as a Resistance pilot.
For more than ten years, Myrian has worked on very creative thinking projects, from the sale to the procurement and on occasion, the design, assembling, and soldering of electronics to the final delivery—she has done it all! She handles projects that are tedious and labor intensive and is completely hands-on at any given task.
With a background in the home remodeling trade, as well as, a special event coordinator and DJ, she acquired the attention to detail, common-sense, PATIENCE, planning, problem solving, and multi-tasking abilities which are skills sets that are very important to succeed at Birket.
She always strives for perfection and believes that there is always room to learn, no matter what your background is. “Just set your mind to it”.
She enjoys what she does at work, although she “just comes here for the entertainment!”
In her free time, you will find her traveling with her family and jamming to some good music.
"I hope you like numbers!”
Leslie began her career at Birket Engineering, Inc. shortly after graduating from the University of Central Florida, with her accounting degree in the Fall of 2015.
Since starting as Birket’s accounts payable accountant, she mostly spends her days in accounts receivable. Her favorite part of her job? Working with customers and project managers, all with a smile on her face.
In her free time, you can find Leslie playing with her beloved French Bulldog, Bruno, named after her favorite musical artist, Bruno Mars. She also enjoys traveling and trying new food!
“Always be on time and treat people how you would like to be treated.”
At Birket, you will find Korey working in accounts payable and making sure all the bills are entered in a timely manner and paid. He received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from The University of Central Florida.
Korey enjoys his days at Birket due to his co-worker’s friendly nature and is dedicated to always learning something new.
Outside of work, you will find Korey preparing to be a first-time father to a beautiful baby girl!
"When words fail, music speaks.”
When Ashley was young, she loved to go on any and all rides and now as an adult, she loves taking her kids to all of the amusement parks.
At Birket, you will find Ashley handling all of the purchasing, shipping, and logistics for our production department. She also assists accounting with filling out applications for credit and other purchasing-related accounting tasks.
She specializes in office management, accounting, and administration. Outside of work, you will find her spending time with her two kids outdoors, going to parks, going on runs, and baking.
Ashley loves all types of music, as she grew up surrounded by it in many different ways.