Kristine Juvel Guerrero-Zayco – Keeping it in the family business

Grandmothers typically pass recipes and stories about parents as children down to their granddaughters. Kristine Juvel Guerrero-Zayco, Leica Geosystems senior sales engineer in Singapore, though, remembers her grandmother sharing surveying tips and discussing the correct way to position a marker.

“My grandmother was a geodetic engineer, so she was always showing me the instruments she used,” recalls Guerrero-Zayco. “She would ask me ‘Do you want to also be a geodetic engineer when you grow up?’ I knew early on I would follow in her footsteps.”

Generations of a surveying family

Guerrero-Zayco comes from four generations of Philippine surveyors. Starting with her great-grandfather to her grandmother to her father, she also has uncles and cousins in the business. With eight geodetic engineers in the family, there are three surveying firms the family operates in her home country.

“I grew up in a surveying environment where my father would bring home total stations. During my school breaks, my father would bring me to the office and let me help,” said Guerrero-Zayco. “I learned early about our family business and always looked forward to being out in the field helping my family with surveys.”

When deciding what to study at university, the choice was easy for Guerrero-Zayco. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geodetic engineering from Feati University and is also a licensed geodetic engineer with the Philippine Regulations Commission. After graduation, she joined the family business conducting surveys and working her way up to supervising engineer teams.

Taking on a new challenge

When an opportunity developed for Guerrero-Zayco to move from the Philippines to Singapore, she took the leap and made the move. She found her way into Leica Geosystems first as a regional technical support engineer where she supported sales managers, dealers and customers to understand the company’s innovative solutions.

“Being a geodetic engineer/surveyor by profession and my almost decade of experience in the surveying industry contributed a lot in shaping me for my role in Leica Geosystems,” explains Guerrero-Zayco. “As I encounter many types of customers, there is a common thread they all do and want to do with the technology – surveying tasks. With my background, I can relate to what they are doing and understand their pain points. I’m then able to advise on what can be done to solve their issues with the use of our Leica Geosystems solutions.”

After five years of working to support several stakeholders in the business, Guerrero-Zayco became the GNSS subject matter expert for Asia. Within one year of being in the position, she significantly impacted the GNSS business in the region.

Recently, Guerrero-Zayco moved into her current role as the regional senior sales engineer where she presents and demos technology while understanding the needs and the pain points of the customers.

“With my experience and knowledge, I gain the trust of the customer by not just only aiming to sell them instruments, but I genuinely want to help them address their needs or solve their problems,” said Guerrero-Zayco. “I’m able to help them to be more productive and efficient in carrying out their surveying tasks. With this background and my passion in surveying, this drive keeps me going and inspires me to share my knowledge with the customers who depend on us for their business’ success.”

With almost seven years in the company, Guerrero-Zayco continues to enjoy her work daily.

“Working with Leica Geosystems, I’m living my passion of not only working with the latest in surveying technology but also sharing my surveying knowledge with our many customers,” concluded Guerrero-Zayco. “It was my dream to work in the No. 1 most trusted and well-known brand in the surveying industry.”

With three young daughters of her own now, Guerrero-Zayco is passing down her grandmother’s and other family members’ stories of the family business, along with her own unique perspective of what it means to work in the ever-evolving industry. Perhaps the fifth generation of the family of surveyors will carry on their mother’s tradition in Leica Geosystems.