Women in FM: How Major's CEO & Owner Angie Vrba Earned Her Seat At The Table

More than 20 years ago, Angie Vrba spent a year coordinating FEMA's Operation Blue Roof after Hurricane Ivan. With no power and no infrastructure, every job was urgent. It wasn't a construction degree or an engineering background that got her into facilities – it was that experience in the field. "Field credibility is what that year gave me," she says. "You can't fake it, and you can't learn it from a desk. I was standing in the middle of a disaster zone, making calls in real time."

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The experience, she says, gave her "the confidence to walk onto a site and direct technicians without second-guessing myself. Some people come into facilities knowing the theory. I came in knowing what it looks like when a job is going sideways."

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Of course, her journey didn't start in the aftermath of a hurricane. Angie came from a family where she got unique insight into life as a tradesperson. She explains, "My uncles were painters and drywall finishers, and a handful of my friends went into the trades through apprenticeships right out of high school." That upbringing gave her an inside glimpse into the reality of the trades: the good, the bad, and everything in between. "Nobody ever edited what they said to me or around me, so I heard every complaint, from when my uncles were employees to when they branched out and opened their own companies. I got both sides of the trade, and that's an education you can't buy," she explains.

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She carried a lifetime of experience into her facilities work as Major Facility Solutions' first employee. Today, as CEO, she says, "If I could keep work moving in a hurricane zone, I could run work just about anywhere. Facilities didn't intimidate me after that. Being employee number one meant I got to build the systems rather than inherit them, and that mattered to me."

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In 2019, Angie was "terrified" to take over sole ownership of Major Facility Solutions. "You spend almost a decade with a partner, and then one day every decision lands on you alone. It's sobering in a way you can't prepare for," she says. It was curiosity that helped her break through her fear and lead with confidence. She read countless business books and stopped second-guessing whether or not she belonged in the role.

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Angie immediately started making strategic leadership decisions to improve the business. For example, she moved the office from a remodeled 1950s gas station to a nearby business park with a great reputation. The new address led to a lot of changes. Suddenly, they were bringing in better talent, as people took them more seriously.
Today, her clients know exactly who she is and what she can do, and that reputation came from doing the work well enough, and long enough, that people started paying attention. Being one of the only women in the room just makes the impression stick. "People don't forget me," Angie says. "I'm often the only woman at the table, and that means people remember who I am a year later." Because facilities management is a relationship-centered business, being memorable is a very valuable thing.

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Angie has advice for other people starting out in the industry, especially women who want to advance into leadership roles. "Go get the experience no one else wants. Take the assignment in bad conditions, the account everyone's avoiding, the year that doesn't look like a career move on paper. That's where field credibility comes from, and it's the one thing in this industry you cannot fake and cannot buy later."

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And one more piece of advice: "Stay a student. I took full ownership of this company terrified, and eventually I stopped worrying that I didn't belong in the chair. Nobody hands you the qualification. You build it, and then you keep rebuilding it."

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