Don Maggioli’s marching orders came from himself three years ago, when he decided to create his construction and energy efficiency services firm, The Alares Group – in the midst of the worst recession in decades. But the former Green Beret and West Point graduate wasn’t going to let a little thing like an economic crisis stop him.
Instead, Maggioli summoned the perseverance the military drilled into him to bring his company’s backlog of projects from a goose egg in its first year to roughly $10 million today.
A licensed environmental engineer, Maggioli currently focuses on renovations and environmental efficiency work at Veterans Affairs hospitals around the country. Recent projects include demolishing and rebuilding an entire ward of the West Roxbury Veterans Affairs hospital and installing a geothermal heating system at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Reno, Nev. Eventually, Maggioli hopes to make his company’s Copeland Street property in Quincy a zero-net-energy building.
Don Maggioli
Title: Owner, The Alares Group; Quincy
Age: 53
Experience: 25 years
Q: I think we’re all curious – what leads someone from wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle in the Special Forces to wearing a hard hat and carrying a hammer?
A: I got hurt with the Green Berets and left the military about 25 years ago and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I liked the construction management aspect because there are all these moving pieces, so I got involved with a real estate development firm called the Boston Group, which is defunct now because of the market crash in the late 1980s. Then I decided to get my master’s degree in environmental engineering. I worked for a design company doing wastewater treatment plants, then moved to [land development and environmental firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin], mainly in the environmental side. Then about three years ago I decided it was about time I put my own shingle up. My company is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). The government has monies set aside for the companies in that group. Our group is supposedly allocated 3 percent of all government revenues for business contracts. In the [Department of Veterans Affairs], since there’s a big push for upgrades and infrastructure improvements in VA hospitals, there’s a lot of money available there to renovate these deteriorating facilities and make them more energy-efficient. And with my knowledge and experience, I can also help with these projects to clean up the environment.
Q: What drives your focus on environmental issues?
A: That whole concept helps our customers reduce their energy needs and our dependence on oil. If I can in some way help reduce our dependence on oil, then we’re not going overseas trying to create havoc in places like Iraq [and elsewhere]. A lot of what we do is geothermal [heating and cooling systems]. The costs are typically 30 percent higher than a regular system. You have to put the wells in, and that involves drilling pretty deep. We also do feasibility studies to see if you are really going to get savings or not. But your payback for the system is within five to seven years. In Sweden, probably 80 percent of the homes use geothermal [heat pumps]. Iceland, same thing. But our economy is based on oil and natural gas. At Bradley Air [National Guard] Base we did a retrofit of a 20,000-square-foot office building, and they’re saving probably 30 to 40 percent … of their heating and cooling costs each year.
Q: What experience from the military do you bring to the industry and your company?
A: The culture I was subject to at West Point and the skill set I was taught there and in the military, and the value system there was really instilled in me. I apply those same values to my work, like self-responsibility and helping others by setting people up for success rather than failure. Perseverance is key in this business. I started the business in the worst economy in years, but there was really just no fear whatsoever. We’re small now, but we’re growing. We’ve doubled our revenues every year since we started. Our backlog alone is over $10 million.
Maggioli’s Top Five Traits To Successfully Operate A Business:
- Have an end goal in mind, because everything else you plan for has to move toward that goal.
- Balance. I work hard, but I also play hard, and to me balance comes from my family.
- Create a team environment at work.
- Client service. We can’t grow as a company unless we provide a value-added service to our clients.
- Walk the talk. I’m not someone to just sit around and think all the time. I don’t let the moss grow on me. I’m a guy of action.
