John Christen
Document Control Specialist, for New Gold Inc. in Ontario, Canada
Can you tell us a bit about you?
My name is John Christen and I am from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Thunder Bay is in NW Ontario and is located on the shores of Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake! The city is also home to the largest Finnish population per capita outside of Finland.
My home life includes my beautiful wife and three, outstanding children, Lincoln (5), Scarlett (3) and Michael (2). They give vibrancy to me every single day. Being a father has changed my outlook on life and my general perspective on things.
I enjoy being outdoors and spending time with the kids, reading them stories and teaching them new things. I also love American Football both college and NFL and have been an Auburn Tigers fan for years. I am looking forward to what the future has to bring for my family as my wife and I watch our children grow.
What is your current role?
My current role is Document Control Specialist for the New Gold Rainy River Project. It is located 65km NW of Fort Francis, Ontario. I, however, am based out of the Thunder Bay office.
I am responsible for the management of our entire document control sector as I am the sole controller for all departments on/off site.
Can you describe your professional experience?
I have not always been a document controller and my career has taken a few alternate pathways since I have began working. I started working as a land surveyor in 2000, working in the oil and gas industry in North Alberta.
I graduated from Civil Engineering at Confederation College in Thunder Bay in 2013 aspiring to work in the field of engineering, yet still finding myself drawn to the work of the outdoors. Thus, I began working with the New Gold project during the earthworks stage in 2015 with a local Engineering consulting firm.
I joined NGD in 2019 as Surveyor for the Mine Operations Technical Services in the Open Pit where I worked until I was injured on site.
While on modified work, I assisted the current Document Controller until they were no longer there and then, I took ownership of the document control department through training, online education, and self taught while on the job.
I no longer was the assistant on modified duties, but as the Document Controller itself.
Which Consepsys course did you attend and when?
I attended the live online Certified Document Controller in December of 2021.
What did you think about the course? How did it help you in your current role and career development?
I found the Course to be very informative and it helped me to decipher and remedy all the methods to be considered poor practice in this profession.
I took the bull by horns, so to speak, and I wrote a controlled documents policy, revised our processes, procedures, guidelines, and restructured our workflows while also giving training to current and new managers on the proper procedures.
This job is very important to me because it is the foundation and baseline for the safety standards in the workplace and after having been injured at work, and changing careers because of it, I take advocating for the safety of workers very seriously.
I look forward to finishing all the courses Consepsys has to offer in the near future and I highly recommend not only document controllers take these courses, but management as well, for at the end of the day the sole purpose of a Document Controller is to protect the Shareholders investments.
Interview date: June 2023
