Communicator
Jim Morozzi: Engineering success at D&E
Garlic, basil, and buttery sweet olive oil meld with
tomatoes and bubble in a stock pot on the stove,
sending savory scents throughout the house. Can’t you just taste it? The Morozzi family does.
“I make a great spaghetti sauce,” says Jim Morozzi, president, CEO, and director of D&E
Communications. “I come from an Italian background, and my mom’s a great cook. Holidays
are always a big deal with food spilling over tables, so I do like to cook.”
With a grandfather from Italy and grandmother from Poland,
his mom mastered Italian and Polish cooking and passed her culinary prowess on
to Jim. She also handed down her love of family and profound work ethic.
“My mom worked so hard all her life. I came from a family
where my dad worked in a factory, I’m the youngest of four, and we really didn’t
have a whole lot when I was growing up. I was the first one of my family to go
to college. My mom instilled in me from the very beginning that ‘you’ve got to
get a good education.’ She recognized the importance of education, and she
really sacrificed a lot in her life to put me through school and college. There
were some lean times as a kid, and I don’t know how she did it. She was a magic
worker.”
Both born and raised in Philadelphia, Jim and Dorothy, his
wife of almost 21 years, live in Montgomery County with children of their own.
Greg is a high-school junior looking toward college, and Matt is a seventh
grader who currently fancies sports more than school. Being engaged in their
kids’ lives is paramount and why Dorothy remains an active school volunteer.
“I’m most proud of my family. I love being president and CEO
of this company. I’m very blessed for the opportunities I have had in my career,
but my most important job is raising those two kids because I have to make sure
they are fundamental contributors to society in the next 5, 10, 50 years. I
take that the most seriously.”
It’s interesting how apples really don’t fall too far from
the proverbial tree. Jim speaks of how his mother stressed ethics,
responsibility, and doing the right thing.
“She always used to say ‘character is doing the right thing
when nobody’s looking.’”
This same breed of character—one of integrity and
honesty—is what Jim appreciates most about the folks in Lancaster County
and at D&E Communications.
“People here are outstanding. They’re earnest, hardworking,
and pretty transparent. They’ll tell you what they think, whether it’s good or
bad; it’s refreshing to be around people that are genuine. I see that in the population
at large, and I see that in my own employee base.
“There are good people in this company, and I’m very
fortunate to be working with all the people here. A lot of people think it’s a
great job being a CEO, and it is, but it’s a fantastic job if you work with
good people. I’m lucky, I really am.
“And the people that we have here, I would put them up
against any engineer I’ve ever come across, whether it’s a Verizon person or an
AT&T person. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of technical proficiency
when I got here, but it is outstanding.”
Jim himself has an engineering background with a Bachelor of
Science in electrical engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Drexel
University. He has also completed the senior executive program at Columbia
University’s Columbia Business School in New York. Jim sits on the boards of
the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Pennsylvania Telephone
Association and is a member of the National Association of Board of Directors.
D&E is soon to be 100 years old, and it’s not uncommon
to meet employees that have been with the company for 30+ years. Having started
at D&E in March 2005, Jim’s a relative newbie. He worked for PECO Energy
for 18 years until PECO’s merger with an electric utility in Chicago formed Exelon Corporation. He knew he had a choice to make.
“Do I continue on and possibly get relocated to Chicago,
because that’s where my job was being moved, or do I look for something else?
It was a hard decision.
“When with PECO, I had done a lot of things in terms of
designing transmission, distribution, and substation kind of work and then
moved into starting telecommunications businesses within the electric utility
industry. That’s what got me into telecom and what got me to D&E.”
Jim’s relaxed, and his patient presence doesn’t reveal the
blistering pace of the telecommunications industry he navigates. He credits his
sanity to focusing on what the technology is doing, what the competition doing,
and trusting his employees.
“I like to tell people where we are going, why we are going
there, and then get out of their way. The most important thing is communication.
You have to tell people what you expect of them, and you have to keep on
articulating that same message. So what’s important for me is to always be out
in front of individuals, explaining why it is important to do this and why we
are not doing that.
“With regard to technology, you need to understand what
people are willing to buy, what it is that’s important to people today and a couple
years from now, and then understand how you can get technological solutions to
do that. For example, we believe very seriously that broadband is the key.”
It’s obvious Jim is truly engaged and motivated at the helm
of D&E Communications. He mentions there’s not a lot of off-time. Even at home
he busies himself with emails, meeting prep, or reading periodicals and trade
publications.
“I have to keep current. I religiously read The Wall
Street Journal to keep up with what’s happening in the world of finance and
economics. I read [Business2Business Magazines] every time they
come out because I want to understand what’s happening in the local economy as
well—there’s the national picture and the overall market and then the
local piece, and [Business2Business Magazines] are really outstanding at
capturing that.”
In between keeping his head in business and keeping pace
with his boys, you’ll find him tinkering around the house.
“I get so much satisfaction out of working on my home. I
can’t stand paying somebody to do something on my house. That’s my engineering background
in me, and that’s my down time. I don’t enjoy so much playing golf; some people
like to fish, I like working on the house.”
Let’s see: successful businessman, handy around the house,
likes to cook. No wonder Dorothy hasn’t let go of Jim since meeting him their
junior year in high school. Just as Italian cuisine emphasizes the simple and excellent
flavors of each ingredient resulting in straightforward tastes, Jim Morozzi emphasizes the simple ingredients of a hard day’s work,
family devotion, and integrity—an excellent recipe for genuine character.
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