About.
Michael Hockham is a seasoned glass & glazing expert with over four decades of extremely diverse global industry experience.
About Mike.
Michael Hockham is a British expat now living in a quaint and quiet village in Southern Ontario, Canada. A freelance glass and glazing expert with over 40 years of global industry experience, Mike offers a plethora of services in glass ranging from simple advice, to the supply and installation of high-rise glass packages. When at home, he enjoys life with his long suffering wife, two teenage children, and an unusually quirky and potentially very dim beagle named Harry. From his base near Lake Ontario, he takes on clients and projects across North America and beyond. Music is Michael’s passion outside of work. He’s a reasonable guitar player, and terrible singer-songwriter.
It’s All I Know.
Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration—but glass has truly been at the center of my life from a very young age. At 12 years old, I started working evenings and weekends cutting glass and helping out on site. I had no idea back then that this humble part-time job would snowball into a diverse and rewarding career that would take me across the globe, and eventually allow me the freedom to choose where I wanted to live and work.
I say fortunate, but nothing came easy. Growing up in 1980s England, you were born with a work ethic. If you didn’t work hard and move forward, there were hundreds lined up behind you ready to take your place. I put my head down, soaked up everything I could, and when I turned sixteen, I signed up for a formal Glass & Glazing apprenticeship without hesitation.
I graduated at nineteen and quickly worked my way through a wide range of glazing installations—from traditional heritage projects to point-fixed systems and curtain wall applications.
In the late ’90s, I launched an emergency glazing business built on a lean, agile “man-and-a-van” model. I had trusted glaziers on call in 12 major cities across the UK, and the business thrived. I loved the fast-paced nature of emergency work so much that I took the calls personally in my home city of Manchester rather than hiring someone else. That period taught me a lot—about people, pressure, and precision.
By my mid-twenties, with 13 years in the industry already under my belt, I was offered a high-rise curtain wall renovation in the heart of Manchester. I executed and managed the project successfully, and it became the key turning point that launched me into glass & glazing scope project management.
From there, things moved quickly. I stepped away from the emergency business and began managing large-scale curtain wall and façade projects across the UK. Soon, national became international. My first overseas project was in Germany, and from there I was fortunate to deliver projects across Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East.
My family followed me through it all, and we eventually settled in Canada, which we now call home.
As my career progressed, I moved from project management into senior and executive leadership roles—but at heart, I’ve always been more entrepreneurial than corporate. So I took the leap into freelance consulting, and that’s where you’ll find me today.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Please don’t hesitate to reach out—whether you’re looking to collaborate, share your industry story, or just talk shop. I’m always interested and can talk glass for days!
The more I consider my initial statement, it really is ‘all I know.’
MH.
A FEW USUAL SUSPECTS.
FAQ – About Mike
I started as a very young and extremely green 12 year old boy, way back in 1982. My initial role was twofold. I spent half of my time between cutting glass and glazing and the other within the Salisbury Cathedral Glass Works learning the art of traditional stained glass restoration.
Yes. I started a full 4-year glass and glazing apprenticeship when I was legally allowed, which was at the age of 16. That was back in the UK in 1985.
I started as a glazier and quickly moved through the ranks until I decided I wanted to work for myself. I kicked off an emergency glazing business and covered 14 major cities in the UK. Emergency glazing taught me an astonishing amount in a very short period of time.
I took on a contract to renovate the glazing component of a high-rise building in Manchester, UK. The contract was for the replacement of the entire curtain wall facade and it taught me a lot. After completing that contract my client offered me another in Berlin, Germany, but simply project managing this time. The rest as they say, is history and from then onwards, I was lucky enough to have my pick of projects globally.
I’ve been lucky enough to have my pick of projects and have worked in many major cities across the globe. To name a few, I’ve delivered projects in Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Delih, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, San Francisco, San Jose, London, Manchester, Glasgow.
Never procrastinate, always answer your phone and ensure you are on top of your scope and clients. Once you fall behind and into a reactive state, it’s very hard to recover from. Remember, continually fighting fires, is not actually managing your project and you are losing a great deal of project specific time. Get in front of your client. When you do, your working day will be so much easier and way more satisfying. An expression I use far too often for some is ‘remove the noise.’ A huge benefit to your client – especially general contractors – is the removal of the general coordination issues attached to the glass & glazing component of their core contract. Many GC’s find the building envelope sub-contract the most difficult to manage. There are many reasons for this and they alter dependent upon your global location. As an example, while all large scale builds demand a pinpoint accurate and carefully monitored prime schedule, with all sub-trades falling in line and pulling their respective weight, the overall facade component is up there with critical trades given not only the fact that so many other trades interface with, and depend upon the facade being in place, the weather here also plays a major part. Come October in colder parts of the country, close-in is critical and if late, it can throw a huge spanner into the the general contractors plan of action, along with other sub-trades. In turn at a bare minimum, your margin can be swiftly dissolved and in the worst case, delay claims from all involved will likely land at your door. It’s imperative Glazing Scope Project Managers are on their toes, managing potential risk, and way ahead of the builds general scheduling.
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