Meet the VP of the Internet of Things

On this episode of Connected Nation, we take you back to the Broadband Nation Expo taking place in Orlando, Florida. This time we have a very special guest, the man who calls himself the Vice President of Internet of Things. Find out if he's serious or not!

Recommended links:

MasTec website
Richard's LinkedIn

Transcript

Jessica Denson (00:07):

On this episode of Connected Nation, I take you back to the Broadband Nation Expo taking place in Orlando, Florida. This time we have a very special guest, the man who calls himself the Vice President of Internet of Things. Find out if he's serious or not coming up. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. I'm at the Broadband Nation Expo, and I just finished my lunch just in time for Richard Zinno, am I saying it right? I was trying to give it a zest.

Richard Zinno (00:41):

Right.

Jessica Denson (00:41):

Um, <laugh> with MasTec Inc. I walked up to our booth and was talking a little bit about what his company does, and I asked, Hey, would you talk to me on the podcast? And he said, yes. Welcome, Richard

Richard Zinno (00:50):

<laugh>. Thank you.

Jessica Denson (00:51):

Yeah.

Richard Zinno (00:51):

Appreciate you, um, inviting me.

Jessica Denson (00:53):

Yeah. Talk about MasTec and what you do.

Richard Zinno (00:55):

So MasTec is, um, it's a really amazing company. It's been around for over 60 years, uh, founded by a Cuban immigrant

(01:03):

Mm-hmm

(01:04):

<affirmative>. Uh, in Florida. Uh, the company grew through, um, reverse acquisition of a competitor the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and then subsequently became a public company in 1994. Uh, today, um, the founder's son, Jose Moss is our CEO mm-hmm <affirmative>. So still, uh, minority control company, publicly traded, fortune 300 company.

Jessica Denson (01:27):

Wow.

Richard Zinno (01:27):

Uh, but when you think about Mossek, we are the dirty boots. We are the infrastructure constructors. Um, I'm part of our communications group. MoTeC has really four large segments, uh, power transmission, distribution.

Jessica Denson (01:41):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (01:42):

Clean energy and infrastructure, uh, pipeline, oil and gas in our communication group. Each one of those groups makes up about four, three to $4 billion of revenue. Mm-hmm

Jessica Denson (01:52):

<affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (01:52):

We're annually now trending about 14 billion in revenue. This year. We're about 36,000 employees strong. So, so

Jessica Denson (01:59):

Not a small company. Not a

Richard Zinno (02:00):

Small company. And it's just a pure, you know, when you think about Mossek, it is the workforce. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. It is the workforce that goes to build critical infrastructure, whether that be, uh, clean energy, wind farms to fiber and broadband underground and aerial construction.

Jessica Denson (02:15):

So when you talk communications, you mean all of that infrastructure that deals with telecom,

Richard Zinno (02:19):

Anything touching telecom. We have a very large wireless division as well. Uhhuh <affirmative>. So Mossek, uh, is a very large vent, uh, turf partner for at and t

Jessica Denson (02:29):

Uhhuh <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (02:29):

We cover about a third of the country. So it's everything from line antenna to radio swaps to stacking towers, um, doing data center construction inside the inside facilities, Uhhuh, <affirmative>, rack, stacking, cabling. And then I'm part of our broadband division, which is everything from, uh, HFC, fiber construction and maintenance and, and, and break fix work on the, on the wire line side of the business,

Jessica Denson (02:54):

Uhhuh <affirmative>. So right now, um, especially with BEAD and all this, this effort to deploy to every corner of the us I, is there a challenge with staffing happening for you guys?

Richard Zinno (03:06):

Yeah, I really believe that there's, um, a few long poles in the tent that are gonna prevent bead from being accomplished in that four year timeframe.

Jessica Denson (03:13):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (03:14):

Uh, number one is workforce. Um, it's not just a workforce shortage, finding the workers, but it's also a skills gap.

Jessica Denson (03:22):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (03:23):

Ensuring that you have trained workforce to do the work. And, you know, it is really a trade. It's a craft. It's not like you just put anybody in a bucket truck and ask 'em to go place strand or, or splice fiber.

Jessica Denson (03:37):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (03:38):

Um, so one of the things that Mossek is doing to, um, help the industry is we've got 12 Mossek Academy constructions around the country. Um, these are typically a four week training program, uh, where students get fundamentals of bucket truck training, safety training, OSHA certifications, uh, CDL. Uh, so it's a very involved, um, training. And they come out a competent lineman

Jessica Denson (04:04):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (04:04):

Competent fiber splicer. We have a few different tracks. We have an underground track as well. Uh, you know, we do this at a completely, at our expense. So the challenge with that is we are a for-profit company, uhhuh, we're a publicly traded company, and you think the cost to hire, recruit, train, and put somebody through this school is about $20,000 per student. So we've been talking to a lot of state broadband offices about how do we solve for the workforce shortage mm-hmm <affirmative>. How do we solve for the, the gap? And, you know, the infrastructure and Jobs act. Right. I a a, which is what part's, part of it's actually a job creations act. Right. So one of the unique things we did was we partnered with the state of Florida, uh, with Secretary Kelly. Um, Mossek has a rich history in South Florida, and we partnered with the, um, Miami-Dade College

Jessica Denson (04:56):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (04:57):

Which is the largest college in the United States. About 250,000 students enrolled

Jessica Denson (05:01):

There. I didn't know that. Wow.

Richard Zinno (05:02):

<laugh>, uh, and we work with the state, uh, to get funding to the university to set up the Utility Broadband Academy at the Miami-Dade North Campus.

Jessica Denson (05:13):

Uhhuh,

Richard Zinno (05:14):

Powered by MasTec

Jessica Denson (05:15):

Smart.

Richard Zinno (05:16):

They're, it's funded by the state and the university. They have their own trainer. We train the trainer, but they use our curriculum, they use our standards, our pole yard set up. And the beauty of that is, right. It helps us because we have, I wouldn't say ary refusal, but since it is powered by Mossek

Jessica Denson (05:35):

Uhhuh,

Richard Zinno (05:36):

A lot of the employees come outta there, wanna come work for MasTec, and then we can ship 'em all around the country. Oh, you wanna go work in Michigan? There you go. You go to Michigan. Right. So it's a way to help create, um, uh,

Jessica Denson (05:47):

A pipeline of workers, a pipeline Yeah.

Richard Zinno (05:49):

Of trained workers. Right. That, that when people think, oh, this is broadband construction, they think, oh, it's programming a router. You know, it, it is a hard job gathering polls being in a bucket, being in the elements. So we gotta find those workers who are willing to do that, but also be trained to do it. So that's, that's one of the things that we're doing when we're talking to a few other campuses as well. One in Southern California with the community college there,

Jessica Denson (06:13):

Uhhuh <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (06:14):

So, um, we're hoping to really make this more of like a franchise model where we can take this to other community colleges

Jessica Denson (06:20):

And grow

Richard Zinno (06:20):

That workforce and build that front

Jessica Denson (06:22):

Of workers. Because not only are we gonna have to build this infrastructure or shore up infrastructure where underserved people are, but you're also gonna have to maintain it. Right. That's

Richard Zinno (06:30):

Right.

Jessica Denson (06:30):

So it's a long term career.

Richard Zinno (06:32):

Oh, it is. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, when you think about the ability to pivot, right? Because a company like MasTec has been around for over 60 years

Jessica Denson (06:41):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (06:42):

Much of our leadership comes from the, the craft, right? So you really can grow into, from a, a ground hand to alignment to a foreman, to a project manager, to a director, right. There's a, a, a great career track

Jessica Denson (06:57):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (06:57):

And a lot of our folks can break off and go be safety, you know, in our safety division. So there's a lot of ways to, you know, use this skillset to grow your career.

Jessica Denson (07:07):

So, uh, you, I like that you said it with the dirty boots is very interesting. So you're really the guys that are doing things behind the scenes that maybe the average person doesn't see unless they happen to drive by it, right?

Richard Zinno (07:17):

That's right.

Jessica Denson (07:18):

So I know you deal in all different kinds of infrastructure. So do the, is there a crossover at all when it comes to that? Do you guys work? Does your different, uh, groups work together, that kind of thing?

Richard Zinno (07:29):

Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, you know, so yes. In fact, I'll give you a really good example. Uh, with the surge in the boom of data center and the explosion of data center construction, uh, there's no better company suited to do the data center construction, right? Because we've got our power division that can bring power there.

(07:51):

Uhhuh, we've got our silver infrastructure division that can clear the land. We've got our vertical construction group called LA MarTech that can actually build that physical data centers. And then we have our communication group, which I'm a part of, and bring the fiber. We can do the rack stack and cabling, we can do the liquid cooled, NVIDIA routers, all the things mm-hmm <affirmative>. Inside the facility. So the challenge I is gluing it all together, right? Because at the end of the day, mossek sometimes operates with these companies as their independent companies under the Mossek Inc. Umbrella, uhhuh, <affirmative>. But we've set up a, a cross sec, a working group of all our different divisions that you wanna call every week on our go-to market strategy to help solve for this equation, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Because that way one customer comes, come say, ek, come do it. All right? Versus I gotta go source

Jessica Denson (08:40):

This and

Richard Zinno (08:41):

That construction, I gotta source the fiber construction, gotta bring the power in. I've gotta, you know, grade the land. I gotta do the site acquisition, I do the zoning and permitting

Jessica Denson (08:48):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (08:49):

But we have all those core companies in one shop.

Jessica Denson (08:54):

So, uh, a lot of the bead stuff, we're still waiting and hoping for shovels in the ground next year. Um, are you guys involved in any of the bead uh, work? Or are you, did you bid any of that? I imagine you bid some because it's

Richard Zinno (09:05):

Huge. Well, we, we're not an op owner operator. Uhhuh <affirmative>. So our customers are the bead. So you do sub

Jessica Denson (09:09):

Grantee. Got it.

Richard Zinno (09:11):

Uh, but we are seeing some unnatural things. <laugh>, yes. Right now in terms of com, companies looking to lock in resources

Jessica Denson (09:18):

Uhhuh

Richard Zinno (09:19):

For when bead comes, because they know that

Jessica Denson (09:22):

It's gonna be a, it's gonna be a challenge. It's

Richard Zinno (09:23):

Gonna be a challenge.

Jessica Denson (09:24):

Mm-hmm

Richard Zinno (09:24):

<affirmative>. The other long pole tent is gonna be permitting. Uh, you know, think about a co a company, they, they got 25,000 miles of B to build. Right. Uhhuh, <affirmative>, do you know, many different permitting agencies across those 25,000 miles. So it's, the permitting is gonna be a long pole tent. And then, uh, if they go aerial, make ready is always the challenge as well. So Uhhuh,

Jessica Denson (09:46):

<affirmative>,

Richard Zinno (09:46):

I think between the workforce, the permitting and the make ready, those are gonna be some of the,

Jessica Denson (09:51):

Some challenges.

Richard Zinno (09:52):

Challenges that will hinder the be the bead deployment.

Jessica Denson (09:56):

Right. Uh, so your footprint, I take it, is complete, is national, is it global as well, or,

Richard Zinno (10:00):

Uh, national, we have 225 offices around the country.

Jessica Denson (10:03):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (10:04):

We've got a division of Canada, but that's primarily our, our pipeline division,

Jessica Denson (10:08):

Uhhuh,

Richard Zinno (10:08):

<affirmative>, um, so primarily in the United States, Alaska and Hawaii.

Jessica Denson (10:12):

Got it. And, uh, all of those places, <laugh>, when you talk infrastructure, I can't help but think about all the different geography, all the different things you have to, to deal with from weather to all of that. And as you said, everything's done outside pretty much <laugh> when you deal with infrastructure.

Richard Zinno (10:29):

That's

Jessica Denson (10:29):

Right. So, are, are there things that you could do to innovate to make it resist, to make infrastructure resistant to things like weather or fire or, um, even just the natural cycle of the year?

Richard Zinno (10:43):

Yeah, I, I think a lot of customers are finding to build underground is although more costly.

Jessica Denson (10:51):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (10:51):

Is a safer bet. 'cause you avoid having to deal with pole owners and the make ready and aspects of getting on those poles mm-hmm <affirmative>. And then the, as soon as the storm comes through, you know, uh, car hits that telephone pole,

Jessica Denson (11:05):

You have to deal

Richard Zinno (11:06):

With that infrastructure could be down.

Jessica Denson (11:07):

Right.

Richard Zinno (11:07):

So underground is always a safer bet, but in general, you know, I think the lifespan of what's going in the ground today lasts a long time. You think about the cable companies

Jessica Denson (11:21):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (11:22):

They've been milking this cable plant along for decades, right. Uhhuh, <affirmative>, and they're still now the Dous 4.0 have gigabit speeds on an HFC network. So I think fiber's gonna be no different, the glasses in the ground

Jessica Denson (11:34):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (11:35):

And you just need better DWM equipment that helps it, you know, have more capacity over that same glass. We have some customers installing future paths, which are just empty conduits 'cause they know there's a hollow core fiber coming and there's probably evolutions in the class

Jessica Denson (11:54):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (11:54):

That they're leaving space for. So that's an interesting, you know, thing. They're paying for the construction up front,

Jessica Denson (12:01):

Uhhuh <affirmative>, but

Richard Zinno (12:02):

Leaving those future paths empty.

Jessica Denson (12:04):

That is interesting.

Richard Zinno (12:05):

Yeah.

Jessica Denson (12:05):

And it really calls to the idea that there's emerging technology. Everybody's talking about ai. Of course, you can't have a conversation without that. Right. Now, what is Mossek, am I saying it Mossek,

Richard Zinno (12:14):

Right? Mo Mossek. Well,

Jessica Denson (12:16):

Mossek,

Richard Zinno (12:17):

The, the founder's. Orge Moss, KoSA

Jessica Denson (12:18):

Tech. Oh, Moss Tech. Mos Tech. Mossek Tech. Yeah. I, people who listen to the podcast long term are used to me getting <laugh> mispronounced, but Mossek is, um, what are, what are you guys doing? Where are you placing AI in your system or in your workflow? Are you, are you even looking at that or is it just like, no, we're out in the field, we don't really need that. What is your point of view? Oh yeah,

Richard Zinno (12:41):

We are, since we, we acquired Buyers Engineering back in 2021. Um, and that truly was a monumental acquisition for us to do, to be able to do end to end, right? True turnkey, all the front end engineering, uh, permitting, high level design, low level design, and the construction. But you gotta glue that all together, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So we spent a lot of time and energy on, on processes, tools, automation, using tools like Oracle, prima Therapy, six Arc, GIS, and, and, and tools that help us automate. And then our, on our wireless side of the business, we're absolutely using, um, AI and automation, especially in like, on large warehouses to help with, with BOM and create, build, build a material mm-hmm

Jessica Denson (13:27):

<affirmative>. And we

Richard Zinno (13:28):

Go down build wireless sites. So we're absolutely adopting that. Um, it's just there, it seems to be evolving quicker than you can adopt it.

Jessica Denson (13:35):

Yeah, it does, doesn't it? <laugh>? Yeah. Um, your official role is Vice President of Strategic, uh, development.

Richard Zinno (13:42):

Well,

Jessica Denson (13:43):

Is that right? Yeah. Comes

Richard Zinno (13:44):

Have you ever heard of Yeah. Have you ever heard of the Internet of Things? Yes. <laugh>, I'm like the Vice President of things.

Jessica Denson (13:49):

I love it. I'm gonna use that in my teaser for this podcast. I'm about to introduce y'all to the Vice President of Things, <laugh>.

Richard Zinno (13:56):

Yes. I, I work in our, our customer, um, strategy organization. I report to our chief commercial officer. Uh, Mr. Dave Condo is a wonderful man, and Jason knows we're the great organization. And, you know, our role is really to make sure that we're out here with our customers, that we're meeting their expectations, and that we're out there talking with new customers, right? Mm-hmm. Because as a publicly traded company, you've gotta grow the top line and the bottom

Jessica Denson (14:21):

Line. Yeah. <laugh> got you. Totally. So tell me a little bit about yourself, Richard. Uh, what's your background? What brought you to Moss Tech? Uh, how did you get there and where are you based out of?

Richard Zinno (14:33):

So I live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Jessica Denson (14:35):

Was

Richard Zinno (14:35):

Father of, uh, two boys, pretty

(14:37):

17 and

(14:37):

13.

Jessica Denson (14:38):

Pretty city.

Richard Zinno (14:39):

Yeah. I, I, I started with Nextel, my telecom career. Actually, my telecom career started as an intern with Lucent. Oh, wow. Bell Labs Innovation back in

Jessica Denson (14:47):

Just five years ago. Right. <laugh>.

Richard Zinno (14:50):

Uh, but I start, went to work for Nexel back in 2001. And really that was a journey that you, you, you, somebody stumbled in the telecom and you never leave.

Jessica Denson (15:02):

Yeah.

Richard Zinno (15:02):

So I spent a lot of time on our wireless side of the business, uh, through the Sprint transition. Uh, Nexel Sprint at one point outsourced their entire field force to Erickson, and I was at, stay Behind at Sprint, so I was there about 13 years. Great organizations, so have a lot great relationships there and T-Mobile. Um, and I used MasTec as a one of my partners at Sprint.

Jessica Denson (15:25):

Oh, interesting.

Richard Zinno (15:25):

So I knew some of the folks there, Uhhuh, they did, uh, the network vision installation work for Sprint. And, uh, when I had left Sprint, I knew I wanted to get in more of a strategic, you know, business development type role. So I went to work for Generac, uh, as the director of, uh, global enterprise sales for telecom, managed at and t massive account, uh, um, you know, ultimately wanted to get closer to home, uh, doing a lot of travel. So, uh, left that went to charter communications. And I was only a charter about 18 months. Uh, it was a great job. But when I saw the director of business development role opened up Moss Tech, it was a new role. It was about eight years ago, and it didn't exist. And, uh, came into the company, was able to help grow their wireless business diversity from at and t. We grew T-Mobile, Verizon, to hundreds of millions of dollars, which was a fantastic, uh, way for me to really just embed myself into the culture here and help grow the business, which was really fun. And then in 20 22, 20 21, we awarded a large RDO program,

Jessica Denson (16:31):

Uhhuh

Richard Zinno (16:31):

From a major cable, MSO

Jessica Denson (16:33):

Oh wow.

Richard Zinno (16:33):

Uh, about 35,000 miles of fiber construction awarded to us. And I, I was involved with from the front end of that business.

Jessica Denson (16:40):

And you're grinning and excited.

Richard Zinno (16:42):

That made you

Jessica Denson (16:43):

Excited? Well, it fun because like, yeah,

Richard Zinno (16:44):

I was doing wireless and then I brought Charter or a big Gable MSO in

Jessica Denson (16:47):

Uhhuh,

Richard Zinno (16:48):

And it was like, okay, now you gotta do both wireless and broadband.

Jessica Denson (16:51):

Oh, no.

Richard Zinno (16:52):

<laugh> and I, I, I was sort of voluntold in

Jessica Denson (16:55):

2022, voluntold <laugh>. I love that. You just

Richard Zinno (16:57):

Gotta go support wireline, Uhhuh <affirmative>, because they, I think we saw the, the growth was gonna be happening with R Olf and defunding and all those things. So, uh, it's been a great journey. Really happy to be here. Mossek iss a very unique company. What I love about this organization is that, you know, it's founded by a Cuban immigrant, Uhhuh <affirmative>, and it's never really lost that

Jessica Denson (17:18):

Scrappy go that, that, that scrappy Go for it. Scrap could

Richard Zinno (17:20):

Work with an immigrant mentality, right?

Jessica Denson (17:22):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Richard Zinno (17:23):

To care of your customers, take care of your people, build a better future for you and your families.

Jessica Denson (17:27):

Yeah.

Richard Zinno (17:28):

And that's what I love when I go out and I'm able to, you know, establish a new market for us or a new, uh, office. We set up 12 new offices last year. That's awesome. Three, just in the past couple months for new work. Right. And I take tremendous pride in that because we're giving people a future. We're giving them jobs, we're creating safety and security for them and their families. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I take a lot of pride in

Jessica Denson (17:50):

That. Yeah. You can tell. Yeah. It, I know the viewers are, the listeners can't see you, but you've got this huge grin on your face. You're animated, you're excited about it. I love to hear that. That's wonderful. Well, I could talk to you all day, but tell me what you would like our audience to take away from our conversation. And I will include a link to your, uh, company and the description of this podcast so our listeners can easily find you. And I take it you're on LinkedIn?

Richard Zinno (18:11):

I am, yeah.

Jessica Denson (18:12):

I will include that link as well so people can find you

Richard Zinno (18:14):

<laugh>. Absolutely. Reach out. Call me. Do you, I would love to, you know,

Jessica Denson (18:17):

Talk, what trade ideas, what would you hope that people take away about Mazdas Tech?

Richard Zinno (18:22):

Um, just that it's, it's a real company. It's the real deal. It's, it's, you know, a company of, you know, 90% of our people are hourly employees. Right. There's not a lot of bureaucracy. Go get it done. Make your customers happy, treat your people well.

Jessica Denson (18:37):

Sounds like working for a nonprofit like <laugh> <laugh>.

Richard Zinno (18:41):

Yeah. But yeah, it's, it is a great organization and I'd love to hear from your audience if they wanna reach out. They can reach me anytime. Uh, I'm always happy to chat, trade ideas, brainstorm all the things.

Jessica Denson (18:53):

Alright. Richard Zinno. Zinno with Zinno. Sorry, <laugh>. Sorry. And your background, you told me earlier. Sicilian, right? Sicilian, yeah, Sicilian. That's the, we had an Italian on earlier. Okay. Oh, <laugh>. Anyway, thank you so much for your time. Oh, my pleasure. Yeah. We'll continue our coverage from the Broadband Nation Expo on future episodes of Connected Nation. Until then, I'm Jessica Denson and this is Connected Nation.