>> Well, I graduated in 1986 from the University of Connecticut
with a degree in mechanical engineering.
And I pretty much chose mechanical engineering because I liked things --
you know, doing things with my hands, and I was very good in math and science,
and I really didn't want to be an English teacher.
Which, in the end -- actually, I probably did want to be a teacher
to begin with, and it's kind of interesting.
Back in the day, teachers just did not make enough money to raise a family on,
and I decided to go into engineering as a result of that.
The interesting part of that is I find that, as I've grown in my career,
I've become more of a teacher and mentor towards the people that work for me.
So I'm still doing a little bit of teaching.
I come back to campus.
I'm a campus recruiter, also, so I'm constantly interfacing
with the kids here, which is a lot of fun also.
I've been everything.
I started out as what they call the product owner.
Essentially, I was in charge of all the molded case circuit breakers that they made
down in Puerto Rico for industrial purposes.
So basically, I own the design.
I own the quality of the product.
I own the manufacturing of the product.
And I own making sure that it was being built in a cost-effective manner,
so the productivity of the product also.
I graduated from that after a couple years doing that.
It kind of put me as a group leader of a bunch of product owners.
So I was then expanded down into lighting panels, larger industrial circuit breakers,
et cetera, but had a group of product owners reporting to me.
Interestingly enough, I actually had the first product owner from India working for me
at the time, and then the second one also.
I had the first two that were in GE that came over from India.
So I was there and did that for about a year as the leader.
And I got an opportunity to go into Six Sigma organization as a technology black belt,
so I said -- and I don't know if you're familiar with Six Sigma at all.
But, essentially, it's a quality culture.
I call it a good toolbox to solve problems.
In terms of the role, they basically put me out there to fight fires.
Wherever they had an issue with a customer or a product, it's,
like, get on a plane and go fix it.
So I had a lot of interaction with customers, et cetera, and really enjoyed that part
of it, as well as the product design.
Now, typically, roles at GE at the time were 18 to 24 months minimum.
I was in the role for about 15 months
when a program manager [inaudible] new development programs left the company,
and they recognized that I had a lot of circuit breaker experience.
He was in charge of a circuit breaker development program.
They said hey, John, can you take this role for me?
I took the role and took over a troubled, troubled program.
It had been running for about five years, totally dysfunctional,
and they told me to make it work.
So I spent the next three-and-a-half years doing just that.
Rolled off that assignment into a quality role, and then from the quality role
into the electric vehicle charger program that I told you about as I managed the program there.
And then from there, I'm now working on residential circuit breaker development.