New environment, opportunities ignite drive for facility manager

WIESBADEN, Germany – As Installation Management Command – Europe moves its headquarters from Sembach to Wiesbaden, the first employee to move into the new space is building manager, Rick Hamby.

Hamby, who has served as an executive assistant and command driver within the Secretary of General Staff since 2020, was promoted to the new position and is coordinating with the headquarters consolidation team and contractors as they put final touches on the new building. He’s already reached out to other facility managers to gather best practices he can implement in the new facility, which IMCOM-Europe expects to occupy this fall.

Hamby said his favorite part of the new job, and why he was excited about it in the first place, is because it’s a brand-new position he can mold into what it needs to be. This opportunity for growth and professional development is one of the things Hamby said he appreciates about working at IMCOM-Europe.

Growing up in the Chicago area, Hamby began his Army journey in 1999, when he enlisted out of high school to see the world. From his first duty station at Fort Sill, Hamby, a transportation coordinator, also spent time in Korea, Germany and Iraq. He spent several years in the private sector when a move to North Carolina to be with his fiancée gave him the opportunity he was looking for to get back into federal service.

“At that point of being in the civilian sector outside the government, I really felt that I’m just a number for a company,” Hamby said. “Especially working for a publicly traded company, it was like really, I’m just a dollar amount to them. So, coming back to the government was always the idea I had.”

Looking for a new opportunity and career growth, Hamby applied for his position with IMCOM-Europe and moved back to Wiesbaden, his wife’s hometown and the city where they met. Since then, Hamby said meeting so many new people and broadening his horizons has reignited his initiative to advance his career, which he’d felt had gone stagnant in the states.

“Whenever I do go back to the states, I’ve built that base to go back on,” Hamby said. “It’s been working with such great professionals across IMCOM-Europe, that it just reignited something that had gone dormant in me because leadership that I had didn’t really push for that in the states the way they do over here.”

Hamby, his wife and daughter are enjoying exploring Europe, but their ultimate goal is to get back to their home in North Carolina, where Hamby said his wife let him decorate one room orange and blue for his favorite team. The diehard Chicago Bears fan said he looks forward to watching games during normal waking hours again, but also to future career growth and passing on leadership lessons he’s learned overseas.

‘You can advance your career,” Hamby said. “It’s kind of a push for people to better themselves.”