Meseroll Recognized as Lakehurst’s Supervisor of the Year
In the nearly 20 years Bob Meseroll has been at Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst, he has worked his way from a computer scientist in the early days of the Integrated Diagnostics and Automated Test Systems (IDATS) Lab to recently assuming the role of Chief Test Engineer. Along with his new role, Meseroll has been recognized as Lakehurst’s Supervisor of the Year for his work leading the ALRE Software and Systems Test Engineering Branch.
Looking back at almost two decades working at Lakehurst, Meseroll said he was given every opportunity by leadership and mentors to put him in a position to succeed and work his way up the career ladder. In that time, he has worked in most of Lakehurst’s labs and now moves to the test sites. All this experience gives him a more complete picture of how to help others succeed as Lakehurst achieves its goal of supporting the warfighter. He credits a diverse group of supervisors helping him develop his own leadership style.
“As a supervisor, if you don’t take the accountability and put it on the people that are capable, you’re missing out because those people can light the world on fire. Whereas if you try to micromanage or tell them exactly how to do things, you might be missing out on them coming up with better ways, or faster ways, or more efficient processes that can help us get products out the door quicker with higher quality,” Meseroll said.
“I think having the right people at the right time ready to take those challenges on, being prepared, being mentored, and being trained properly so that they can step into those roles and be ready, that’s the key,” Meseroll added. "If you don't have the right people, you won't be able to push this technology out. You won't be able to solve the hard challenges and problems that we have day-to-day at the sites and on the ships.”
One of the people to nominate Meseroll for Supervisor of the Year was Joseph Wolfe, who said the award winner's performance "significantly benefits the fleet by appropriately testing the requirements of the Navy’s newest technologies and providing critical data and recommendations to improve performance.”
“Bob’s leadership style, dedicated efforts, and genuine passion and care for his branch and its team members make him a standout supervisor and a candidate very worthy for the NAVAIR Supervisor of the Year Award,” Wolfe said.
Meseroll said he likes playing golf and staying active when he's not working. He noted that a considerable part of his staying active is now taking his four kids to various sporting events and other activities.