{"id":61490,"date":"2016-09-30T08:54:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T13:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=61490"},"modified":"2016-10-03T09:00:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:00:06","slug":"meet-olivia-walt-wonder-woman-yates-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/meet-olivia-walt-wonder-woman-yates-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Olivia Walt: &#8216;Wonder Woman&#8217; of Yates Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_62111\" style=\"width: 178px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62111\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-62111\" src=\"http:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MG_2115-168x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Olivia Walt is Director of Business Development at Yates Construction in Jackson. (Submitted photo)\" width=\"168\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MG_2115-168x300.jpeg 168w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MG_2115-768x1368.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/MG_2115.jpeg 1150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 168px) 100vw, 168px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-62111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olivia Walt is Director of Business Development at Yates Construction in Jackson. (Submitted photo)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in;\">In the 1970s television series &#8220;Wonder Woman,&#8221; Diana Prince is transformed from an exceptional special agent into the powerful Amazonian heroine with a few simple moves. Like the fictional character, Olivia Walt has evolved from a promising 2015 <a href=\"http:\/\/olemiss.edu\" target=\"_blank\">University of Mississippi<\/a> general engineering graduate to director of business development at Yates Construction in Jackson.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt, who entered the firm as an estimator, was responsible for generating the cost of construction of a project. About one year later, she advanced to her current position.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;My initial impression of Olivia was that she seemed smart and capable,&#8221; said Laura Hearn, senior marketing manager at Yates. &#8220;Since then, she has proven to be not only smart and capable but a hard worker, self-motivated and dependable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt said she has definitely grown into her present duties.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;By getting a technical degree with a business background, I can now communicate with a project manager or engineer who is trying to talk about foundations or logistics,&#8221; Walt said. &#8220;I can also communicate with an owner about what makes our firm stand out from another.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt said she enjoys working for Yates Construction because of the company&#8217;s four core values: safety, integrity, passion and commitment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;I believe that these are all fundamental values that a company should possess and exhibit in day-to-day activities,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Yates is a family-owned company, and the Yates really do strive to make each and every employee feel like a member of their family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt, who earned her degree with an emphasis in business, hails from Jackson. A graduate of Madison-Ridgeland Academy, she chose Ole Miss because when she fell in love with Oxford and the university while touring campus and attending football games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;I could talk for hours on why I loved the engineering school, but my absolute favorite thing about UM engineering is the support I received from Marni Kendricks and Dwight Waddell,&#8221; Walt said. &#8220;They are outstanding individuals, both professionally and personally. They thrive on seeing their students succeed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_62112\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-62112\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-62112\" src=\"http:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Olivia-Alfie-300x168.jpeg\" alt=\"Olivia Walt rides Alfie, her favorite jumping horse. (Submitted photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Olivia-Alfie-300x168.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Olivia-Alfie-768x431.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Olivia-Alfie.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Olivia-Alfie-580x326.jpeg 580w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-62112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olivia Walt rides Alfie, her favorite jumping horse. (Submitted photo)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt said she also loved the tight-knit family that the school creates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;Bringing mechanical, civil and general engineers all into one group created relationships that will last a lifetime,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Kendricks, assistant dean for undergraduate academics and a fellow UM GE alumna, said Walt was always exceptional.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">&#8220;I am so happy for Olivia,&#8221; Kendricks said. &#8220;She has got to be one of the youngest people to ever take this job. So very wow!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0in; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;\">Walt&#8217;s family includes her parents, Bruce and Susan Walt of Jackson, and twin brothers Hunter and Heath. She enjoys riding hunter\/jumper horses and was the high point adult amateur rider in Mississippi for 2015.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1970s television series &#8220;Wonder Woman,&#8221; Diana Prince is transformed from an exceptional special agent into the powerful Amazonian heroine with a few simple moves. Like the fictional character, Olivia Walt has evolved from a promising 2015 University of Mississippi general engineering graduate to director of business development at Yates Construction in Jackson. Walt,<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/meet-olivia-walt-wonder-woman-yates-construction\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read the story &#x2026;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1307,765,1297],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet Olivia Walt: &#039;Wonder Woman&#039; of Yates Construction - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/meet-olivia-walt-wonder-woman-yates-construction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Olivia Walt: &#039;Wonder Woman&#039; of Yates Construction - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 1970s television series &#8220;Wonder Woman,&#8221; Diana Prince is transformed from an exceptional special agent into the powerful Amazonian heroine with a few simple moves. 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