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John Massaro was MKJ Communications’ first, although some would argue the second, employee back in 2006 and is now the Vice President of Engineering and Operations.
John manages a team of over 20 engineers (over 10 NYCT certified/communications network engineers) He overseeing every project we bring to completion. He most recently wrapped up the design and fabrication of the public address system at LaGuardia Airport, no small feat if you know anything about working within the transportation sector.
We caught up with John, who’s not only beloved as a “great guy” by our entire office, but also respected as a genius engineer who can overcome even the most complicated problems, on jobs with systems that seem impossible to figure out. We dove into not only his 13-year career at MKJ but also the things you really want to know- which NY teams you’ll find him rooting for.
When did you first realize you wanted to work in engineering?
Since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by how things work. I would take apart every toy or appliance I could, to understand how it worked. As I got older, family and friends always said, “give that to Johnny, he can fix it.” I just naturally liked electronics and engineering and have a great passion for designing and building things. Eventually, I gravitated towards systems engineering.
What do you love most about your job?
I get to lead a team that is collaborative, remarkably smart, and dedicated to giving 110% on each project they’re involved in. We’re a close group of like-minded people who share ideas and technical challenges to solve any problem that’s thrown our way on a job. We recently had to pull together a very technical and time-sensitive cut-over of an airport announcement system at LaGuardia Airport. A lot of engineering, planning, and field surveys were required with 10 of our staff involved working on different tasks in different communication rooms.
Everyone had a specific job to perform and this all had to happen simultaneously and be back online before the morning flights departed. The cutover went flawlessly due to all the dedicated work by the engineering staff, doing what MKJ does best.
What is your favorite thing about working at MKJ?
I would have to say my favorite thing about MKJ is the way all the employees work together, we’re one big open book. We’re not your typical corporate, departmental-type company and this is by design. Jennifer and I seek out the most dedicated, talented engineers and technicians that have a passion for what we do and genuinely care about the quality of the work and the company. We all wear many hats on occasion and our staff always rise to the challenges needed, whether working through the night to get the project completed on time or just business as usual.
MKJ understands the value of good vendor relationships and we work with them to ensure that our clients are satisfied with every detail on every aspect of their project. We have an esteemed list of contractors that we would do just about anything for and work with again and again.
Our team is extremely client-focused, so my team and I give every client our all. We’ve never had a project that didn’t end on time and on budget with 100% customer satisfaction- and we’ve completed over 275 projects. I’d say we’re all extremely proud of that!
What was your favorite project to work on so far?
After 25 years in this industry, I don’t know that I have a favorite project, per se. Quite frankly, I’ve only worked in transit, it’s what I know, it’s what I’m good at and I get excited every time we finish a project because most of them take about 3 years to complete.
But, If I had to pick just one I’d say the large airport audio system at LaGuardia was my favorite, but Amtrak’s Penn Station and the NYCT 2nd Ave Subway line were also good projects.
MKJ has some exciting new transit work coming up that will allow us to do what we do best – design a fully functioning and operable system on time and on budget.
What do you look forward to doing in the future?
I’m excited that we are branching out with a new focus on providing maintenance and on-call services to better serve our end user because it’s what our customers asked for. We will be doing more non-transportation related venues, such as hospitals, prisons, parking garages, convention centers and more, so I’m excited about supporting this incredible growth.
To help support this growth we’ve built a state of the art shop where MKJ’s technical experts fabricate designs on-site and ensure functionality by conducting rigorous diagnostic testing, resulting in peak system performance for our clients.
Call me weird, but I love a challenge; the more complicated the existing conditions or system integrations, the better. So while I love building new systems from scratch, MKJ helps our clients remain current with industry standards. Part of that challenge is integrating new technology and retrofitting their existing systems. In the end, we always find a way to make it work.
Any fun stories from the field?
Many years ago, we were splicing and transferring a live circuit communication cable outside a subway station in February, and it had snowed heavily the night before. The contractor had a large, industrial, forced air heater I was a little too close to and the back of my insulated coveralls caught on fire! The guys were calling me sparky for a while after that. I wasn’t injured but had a large burned hole in the back leg of my coveralls.
Jets or Giants?
Giants
Mets or Yankees?
Definitely YANKEES!
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