Delegate & Distribute the Power You Have

Tamrat Negera joins the podcast on this episode; proclaims that everyone can be a leader and that being a servant leader is the most accomplishing thing we can do. Tamrat invites us to think about the comparisons of Nelson Mandela & Robert Mugabe and King Benjamin & King Noah to highlight the differences in a person espousing servant leadership and a leader who priorities their own progress over others. Tamrat also calls upon experiences growing up in Ethiopia and living in Kenya and the United States to emphasize his message that true fulfillment comes when you serve other people and when you help bring people to wherever you are or to an even better outcome. At a young age he was put in a leadership role, which he uses to display how important it is to become a part of your team and to encourage everyone to contribute based on their strengths. Tamrat became an engineer to help the people of his community in Ethiopia and works diligently to stay connected to his community while working hard to serve the community he belongs to in Louisiana and all that he has encountered along the way. 

Tamrat Negera is originally from Ethiopia and moved to United states in 2012 to pursue higher education at BYU-Idaho where he graduated with bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. While attending university, he worked for the campus as a team lead on a project that created a GIS (Geographic information system) for BYU-Idaho electrical department. With the GIS technology, the electrical department could locate all campus street lights, transformers and breakers with a GPS enabled mobile phone application.

After graduation, Tamrat worked at APR Energy; a company based in Jacksonville Florida as a global inventory engineer. he was on a team that enabled the company to create visibility on their material assets in USA, Panama, and Dubai. In 2016 he started at working at his current employer, Solar Turbines, a Caterpillar company, as a Field Service Engineer. His office covers 8 southern states, from Texas all the way to North Carolina. As a field service engineer, Tamrat travels around to commission, upgrade and maintain industrial gas turbines, generators and compressors for Hospitals, universities, offshore oil rigs, natural gas transmission pipelines, chemical plants, waste treatment plants.

Tamrat speak 4 languages: English, Amharic, Oromic and Swahili. During his off hours, he volunteers as the LDS church English to Amharic translator and interpreter. In this capacity, he works on semi-annual general conferences, publishing materials and was also one of the ecclesiastical reviewers of triple combination translation to the Amharic language before it was published.

As a young man, Tamrat volunteered to serve in the Kenya Nairobi Mission between 2010 and 2012 that included Kenya and Tanzania. Other volunteer church leadership positions include Young Men's President in Ethiopia, Elder’s Quorum president at BYU-Idaho, Sunday school teacher and youth leader, and is currently serving as a High Councilor in the Slidell Stake High Council of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tamrat married Donnya Negera in 2015 in Salt Lake temple and they have 2 children. Abigail 4 years old and Amaan just turned 3 in January.

Resources: 

Nelson Mandela - UN Nelson Mandela International Day Information https://www.un.org/es/events/mandeladay/legacy.shtml 

International Journal of Servant Leadership - Gonzaga University https://www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-leadership-studies/community/scholarship-publications/international-journal-of-servant-leadership 

King Benjamin Addresses His People - Based on Mosiah Chapter 1-5 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/mosiah-1-5/2020-03-0100-king-benjamin-addresses-his-people-mosiah-1-5-1080p?lang=eng 

King Benjamin - Benjamin the Great King by Eugene England https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1976/12/benjamin-the-great-king?lang=eng