Joseph Mezzo:  

Joe Mezzo (The Early years Plus) - Background I was the second child of four children born on April 18, 1949. I had 2 sisters and one brother and was part of a very close family that deeply cared about each other's happiness. In kindergarten the teacher told my Mom that I disrupted the whole class with frivolities and just plan clowning around. I soon learned to defer such behavior to a more tolerant time and place in my life. I was a club scout, boy scout, altar boy, and a little league baseball player in my early years. Those were the fun years. I attended a college preparatory school during my high school years. The family could not afford the tuition for prep school, so I was fortunate enough to land a job working in the school cafeteria. I met lots of people in that role. I was elected a class representative throughout my 4 years of prep school and was a class officer in the first year. The college years were tough years primarily because a good part of each day was working at a machine shop to pay for the next semester's tuition. It was tough work and a great experience. I learned a new trade and realized why I needed to complete my education. I paid my tuition and was fortunate enough that my parents provided my housing and beautiful Italian meals. All this took place with the specter of the Vietnam War being waged in the background. The only lottery I ever won was the selective service draft lottery. It was a certainty that I would become part of the US military as soon as I graduated from undergraduate school. I joined the Navy in January, 1971. I took a number of tests provided by the military to determine my strengths. The Navy slotted me to become an airman hunting the Atlantic coast for Soviet submarines. Four months after I joined the Navy President Nixon, to his credit, ended the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Soon after that the selective service came to an end. Nice timing right? But going into the Navy was one of the best things that happened to me. Among other things, it helped me make the conversion from the sedentary college years to the brave new world. Six months after my active duty with the Navy ended, my undergraduate placement office had a hand finding me a position with a large bank in NYC - Wall St. The corporation I joined, JPMorganChase, had college a tuition reimbursement program. Wow a good job and they also will pay for an advanced degree. The corporation paid the entire tuition for my MBA degree. Four years into my new career I got married and we had two beautiful boys. I spent 33 years at that company. I met lots of good souls there and had a rewarding career. Joseph A Mezzo Career Biography I began my career at JPMorgan Chase as a Cost Analyst in the 70’s where I was charged with pricing every bank product. This involved industrial engineering and process improvement events. I then moved to Corporate Systems to perform Return on Investment Analysis on every new systems capital project that would be presented to the Board of Directors for funding approval. From there I became the controller for the group responsible for rolling out the first wave of ATM’s in NYC. Had many Board of Director presentations and had my first exposure to the corporation’s senior management. Then I moved to a position where I was Manager of Strategic Planning for the Bank’s branch network. In that position, identified and create an optimized branch network distribution system. This included identifying targeted customer segments and designed a demographic system that mapped out locations to expand the bank branch network. At that point I was promoted to Second Vice President. I was asked to join a new group called Service Quality where I was charged with consolidating branch locations while retaining customers. I devised a system to reduce customer line waiting in the branches. We closed 50 branches and lost onl...Expand for more