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Mark Russo
Beware Government Contracts!
Mark Russo grew up in the King Merritt Acres section of Greenwich, attending local schools, and playing basketball and football in High School. He worked summers and weekends for his father, who had built a successful electrical contracting business.
Mark attended the University of Arizona pursuing studies in business and architecture. A call from his parents changed Mark’s direction. A government-funded hospital project being worked on by Mark's father's firm denied payment for major change orders, leaving a financial disaster so severe that his father’s partner sold his home and fled – leaving all the debts behind.
Mark stepped in, learning the business from the ground up while handling estimating, bidding, bookkeeping, and payroll. The company survived and in partnership with his father, together they re-built a very successful firm.
When his father retired 20 years later, Mark took over, running the company for another 30 years, employing up to 60 electricians on major commercial projects across Connecticut and New York. Mark was also active in the Westchester Fairfield Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association and was a Board Member at the age of 32. Mark was also a past member and President of the Westchester Executive Association.
Near the end of this long and successful career, history nearly repeated itself—again because of a government contract. And as always, the smallest subs at the bottom—those paying workers out of pocket every week—took the biggest losses. After effectively working for free for two years, Mark decided to change his risk model, transitioning to construction management and project consulting.
In 1982, Mark married a Stamford native, and they built a home in Weston, where they still live. They raised a son and daughter, who live in the area, and they now enjoy five grandchildren. Recently, Mark decided to scale back at work and looks forward to new friendships and activities with the Y’s Men. Click here for the full version of this bio.
Hearing Assistance for Y’s Men Meetings
If you are one of the new members of the Y’s Men who (like many in our age group) are wearing a hearing aid, you should know that you can leverage a system that will send audio during the meetings directly to your hearing device. Mark Mathias, who set up the system at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, provides a description of the easy-to-use system (see below).
Please let me know during the next meeting you attend, and we can help you set it up. You can download the app for hearing assistance for Y’s Men meetings ahead of time, but you must be onsite to connect. Let us know before the meeting if you need help connecting.
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