Spotlight on FWN Members: Elvie Abordo, Global FWN100™ '14, and Hedy Leuterio Thomas, President, Leuterio Thomas LLC

Elvie Abordo

Vice President, Rockland Ambulette Service, Inc
Congers, Rockland County, New York
Global FWN100™ '14

Elvie Abordo is a leader who have proven herself quietly in doing good for others and the community. She is part of Gawad Kalinga team to end poverty by 2024 in our country.  She has helped in alleviating suffering in our society by contributing in the building of homes for GK Village in Pangasinan for Typhoon Pepeng victims in 2009. 

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from St. Louis University Baguio and landed her first job as an accountant at Aris (Phils.) Inc.  As a Filipina woman, the most difficult workplace challenge was the difficulty of getting promoted.  No matter how excellent her work had been, she was bypassed promotions several times as the company favored mostly men. She later became self employed, then an entrepreneur and founded Rockland Ambulette in 1986.  Overcoming in our workplace everyday is always a challenge.  

The hardest lesson she learned is how she proved to herself that she is worth something, that she is capable and intelligent enough to tackle duties and responsibilities without others' recognition.

She left the Philippines because she was petitioned by her late father, a US Army veteran in the Philippines during World War II.  She would like to pass on to others the Bayanihan Spirit (the GK way).  

Hedy Leuterio

President, Leuterio Thomas LLC.
National Harbor, Maryland, USA

Hedy Leuterio is a structural engineer with over twenty five years of experience, who has designed projects in many countries around the world including USA, Japan, South Korea, Moscow, and the Philippines. Her multi-cultural background provides a deep understanding of how to relate to clients around the globe. She is an engineer who loves to design and work out the construction details, integrating them into the architectural design solution. Her BS in Architecture and MS in Engineering provide a sympathetic foundation when working with architects. Solving design issues, working with contractors on site, providing hands on supervision of her design team, drive her working day. She believes in building talent, providing opportunities for young designers but mentoring them so they learn through success. Hedy has built her company steadily over the years, believing in combining talent with technology, hard work with a positive family atmosphere, where employees are challenged to succeed.

Her experience is founded in designing large projects such as NMIC in Suitland, CEBAF at Norfolk, Virginia and numerous correctional facilities such as Wallens Ridge, Red Onion, Greensville, Hagerstown, Baltimore County Detention Center, Lynchburg Correctional Center and NBCI, Cumberland Maryland. She has designed high-rise office buildings and apartments in Moscow, as well as office buildings in Inchon, South Korea. Since founding Leuterio Thomas, she has expanded to include wood structures, such as Axumite, structural restoration projects, such as at the Forrestal Building, and many structural investigations of federal facilities. She has worked with concrete and steel in designing buildings. Challenges include repairs to a NARA facility and adding lateral bracing to a steel roof where welding, cutting and drilling of existing steel were not allowed due to fire risks. She is registered in nine states, including California which requires additional seismic exams. She has extensive experience in seismic design based on developing prototype designs for USPS, for projects in Japan, and from the analysis of a number of Federal Buildings after the August 2011 earthquake in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Currently working on the MGM Resort at National Harbor designed the 3000 seat theater and the new Headquarters for DC Water next to the Nationals Ballpark.