Get to know F&S: Conor Kealey

For Building Automation Analyst Connor Kealey, technology and collaborative solutions are key to keeping campus comfortable

It is no small task to keep a campus entering its third century comfortable for the 100,000 staff, students and faculty. For Facilities & Services, ensuring buildings on the St. George campus are effectively heated, cooled and ventilated takes constant monitoring, collaboration and innovation. One F&S teammate who is on the job is Conor Kealey. 

Kealey is a Building Automation Analyst working in the Remote Operations Control Centre (ROCC) within the Utilities and Building Operations team.

Alongside fellow Building Automation Analyst Sean Dela Cruz, Kealey sits in the ROCC HQ, keeping a close eye on the systems that track building temperatures, air flows and more.  

The ROCC, which launched in July 2025, is a new layer of support designed to tackle the 4,500 annual “space comfort calls” the utilities team receives. Instead of waiting for comfort issues to be reported by a building user, the ROCC continuously tracks comfort systems using thousands of monitoring points in 24 buildings on the St. George campus, about half of the campus’ building area.    

“We [Kealey and Dela Cruz] look for anomalies in live data from the buildings, take on service calls from different spaces and triage the situation to ensure occupant comfort – either fixing issues remotely or working with on-site teams to get to the root cause of the issue,” says Kealey when asked if he can tidily summarize his role. “We also perform surveillance on buildings to proactively monitor issues with mechanical systems.”  

It’s a real team effort, with Kealey citing the collaborative atmosphere as one of the things he enjoys most about his work. “It helps you learn a lot more, and with more people weighing in you can come up with better solutions, including ways you wouldn’t have thought of on your own.” 

That kind of teamwork is key to the program’s demonstrated success, with teammates working together to effectively catch issues before they can interrupt building occupant comfort. “Getting to communicate with the building engineers and lead hands allows us to integrate live data with on-site expertise and come up with more efficient solutions,” says Kealey. 

Clients are always front-of-mind for Kealey. “Clients come first, and we’re happy to make campus life more comfortable for them… They are always pretty appreciative when we call them.”  

Kealey got his start with F&S in 2024, a few years after graduating from Queen’s University with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and working in the field. His first role on campus was focused on ventilation system standards in classrooms, and how to navigate airflow in the wake of an infectious outbreak. From there, the launch of the ROCC provided an opportunity to stay at U of T and continue his personal growth, gaining skills and a knowledge base with building automation systems he was eager to develop.  

Outside of work, Kealey enjoys spending time with friends and playing soccer.