What drove Kinston native Kirby Lee more than 20 years ago to go to engineering school was the possibility of working with his father in the family HVAC business. “My father actually told me if I wanted to work for his HVAC business at the time I needed to go to Engineering School and get my Professional Engineering license. The funny part is that I loved engineering so much that I didn't end up going to work for him and I’m still involved in the engineering community.”

A 1998 Lenoir Community College Pre-Engineering graduate, Lee transferred to North Carolina State University where he graduated in 2000 in Mechanical Engineering.

LCC currently offers an Associate in Science – Engineering degree and a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree for those planning to transfer to a four-year university to study engineering.

“I didn’t get accepted as a freshman so I was hoping my efforts at LCC would get me there as a transfer student and it did,” he said. “Choosing LCC allowed me to stay home and offered a unique opportunity to get a second chance at going to NCSU for engineering school.”

Living in Apex with his wife, Tara, of 15 years and 4-year-old daughter, Madelyn “Maddie” Rose, Lee said his father and grandfather were HVAC contractors and business owners. He took his father’s advice to be a professional engineer not knowing where the career would take him. His parents, Walter and Karen Lee, still live in Kinston.

“After graduation from NCSU, I worked in Consulting Engineering with expertise in HVAC design. I worked at several local MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) Engineering firms and gained skill set in the design along with project management / business development focus areas. One specific passion of mine in engineering is Energy and helping clients find ways to reduce energy consumption in buildings.  

Looking back on his days at LCC, Lee said the College was a building block where he got to have a clean slate with education. “Nothing in the past from high school with my grades mattered and it was simply going to be about my effort in community college that would determine if I got into an engineering school,” he said. 

“In high school, unfortunately, I believed I was the smarter than the room and didn't apply myself until it was too late for colleges.  I can now look back on that experience and realize I learned a lot of lessons about hard work that started with LCC. Many of those lessons I use even today.” 

Lee said that the classes at LCC had more of a personal feel. “I felt like the professors really cared about you,” he added. “Some of my best memories were being involved with lots of activities like Student Government, The Javelin (college newspaper), and getting to connect with people to build friendships.  I was a late bloomer to the social scene of life and LCC was the beginning of the process that has got me to where I am today.”

Today, Lee has just taken a role for Johnson Controls as a commercial systems specialist, a technical expert role around HVAC equipment that has service in the North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia markets. 

In addition to Johnson Controls, he started his own MEP / Energy Engineering Firm, Panthera Leo Consulting. “Panthera Leo was my dream of running my own business with a focus on Energy Evaluations.  My skill sets with MEP and HVAC technical knowledge have been a perfect fit allowing me to help clients solve problems with their high utility bills in buildings,” he said.  

“The name is the scientific term for lion and I found it after listening to a speech called the ‘Lion Attitude.’  After hearing the speech, my life changed and my mission ever since has been to exhibit all the qualities of a lion for service to others - Courage, Strength, Bravery, Leadership, Heart.”

Lee said if someone is thinking about going into the engineering field, he would tell them to reach out to professionals in the industry of their choice to ask questions. “It might be worth doing a co-op (work-based learning experience) in college to explore opportunities to make sure something is the right fit for the person’s interest,” he said.

“Also, I would tell people that after finishing engineering school, the journey has just begun. There is so much to learn after school and you have to stay humble along the way.”

Lee said it’s important to work on the soft skills of professional life and self-development such as goal setting, public speaking, communication, and emotional intelligence because they are just as important in your career as the technical book knowledge. “Build relationships and network as much as possible because you never know what opportunities might present itself,” he said. “I knew what I wanted to do in engineering before I got into school so the path was fairly linear for me. It was simply putting in the hard work to make a dream a reality to get there.”

“I am grateful for all that LCC gave to me and look forward to seeing lots of great things happen in the future,” he added. “I hope that I can give back as much to people with my knowledge as people did to me along the way.”