Adapt, Communicate, Repeat: Lessons from Alexandria Real Estate's Rich Martelli

Adapt, Communicate, Repeat: Lessons from Alexandria Real Estate's Rich Martelli

In this episode, Rich Martelli, Executive Director of Facility Services at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, joins Jay to talk about a career built on adaptability, trust, and hands-on problem-solving. Rich shares how moving across roles at organizations like Samuels and Associates, Normandy Real Estate Partners, and UG2 shaped his approach to facilities leadership, and how that same adaptability helped him and his team navigate one of their biggest challenges: delivering the 201 Brookline Ave Class A lab building in the middle of COVID-19, including a mid-project vendor shutdown and a compressed leasing timeline that had tenants moving in within days of occupancy being granted. The conversation also digs into the ongoing debate between college and the trades. Rich, who started his career working alongside his father before earning his HVAC license, reflects on the talent gap he's seen develop over the past two decades and makes the case for more hands-on training opportunities for the next generation, including his own 16-year-old son. Along the way, Rich talks about what it takes to manage a campus full of vendors, why letting tenants focus on their own work while facilities handles the rest behind the scenes builds long-term trust, and what's kept him energized about the job after years in the industry.   Takeaways: * Make adaptability a daily practice: Rich credits much of his career success to learning each team's culture and adjusting his approach rather than expecting one leadership style to work everywhere. Ask questions and observe before assuming how a new team or building operates. * Build trust before you ask for patience: During the COVID-era construction of 201 Brookline Ave, consistent, proactive communication with tenants about ongoing disruptions kept relationships intact through years of delays. * Handle friction so others don't have to: In specialized environments like Class A lab buildings, the best facilities teams absorb day-to-day disruptions behind the scenes so tenants can stay focused on their own work. * Loop your team into hiring decisions: Rich relies on his existing staff's read on candidates — their day-to-day experience often reveals fit faster than a single interview can. * Treat the college-vs-trades question as a personal path, not a universal answer: Encourage people, especially the next generation, to try hands-on work early and let curiosity guide the decision rather than convention. * Close the training gap with real hands-on exposure: Classroom instruction matters, but pairing it with structured field experience and mentorship is what actually prepares people for the realities of the job. * Invest in vendor relationships, but verify the work: Strong, long-term vendor partnerships pay off, but active oversight and engagement — not just a signed contract — keeps accountability high. Quote of the Show: * "We know our job, and they know their job, so that's always the goal: keep things strong and keep good relationships." Links: * Phone Number: 978-440-0083  * Email: richmartellijr@gmail.com [richmartellijr@gmail.com]  * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-martelli-965474209/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-martelli-965474209/]  * Website: https://www.are.com/ [https://www.are.com/]

The One Where Everything Went Wrong: Facility Rockstars Blooper Reel

For 117 episodes, Facility Rockstars has shared conversations with facility professionals, safety leaders, operators, and industry experts from across New England and beyond. But this week, we're doing something a little different. In this special blooper reel episode, we're pulling back the curtain and sharing some of our favorite behind-the-scenes moments that never made it into the final cuts. From mispronounced names and forgotten intros to off-the-rails conversations, technical hiccups, and plenty of laughter, this episode highlights the authentic moments that happen when real people come together to have real conversations. One of the things that makes Facility Rockstars special isn't just the expertise our guests bring to the table—it's their willingness to show up as themselves. These unscripted moments remind us that behind every title, credential, and leadership role is a person who doesn't take themselves too seriously. So sit back, have a laugh, and enjoy a side of Facility Rockstars that usually ends up on the cutting room floor.   Takeaways: * Authentic conversations are often more memorable than perfectly polished ones. * Every great podcast episode includes plenty of moments listeners never hear. * Leadership and expertise don't require perfection. * The strongest professional relationships are often built through genuine human connection. * Stepping outside your comfort zone is something guests and hosts experience alike. * Humor plays an important role in building trust and camaraderie. * Behind every successful episode is a team willing to laugh at themselves. Links: * Sal DeFranco * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatoredefranco/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatoredefranco/]  * Matt Anthony  * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-anthony13/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-anthony13/]  * Michael Rich * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rich-cfm-00b06b19a/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rich-cfm-00b06b19a/]  * Don Bezek * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbezek/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbezek/]  * Colby Fillippelli * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colby-fillippelli-cfm-8591097/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colby-fillippelli-cfm-8591097/]  * Mike Albano

How Observation, Humility, and Coaching Create Better Facility Leaders with Maria Ruiz of UNICEF USA

What does it take to lead people through uncertainty, change, and constant operational demands? In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Maria Ruiz, Facilities and Operations Manager at UNICEF USA, to discuss the leadership lessons she's learned across healthcare, nonprofit, and corporate environments. Maria shares why learning not to take things personally transformed her leadership approach, how succession planning extends far beyond retirement, and why empathy, mentorship, and continuous improvement are critical for building resilient teams. From managing difficult personnel decisions to creating trust through daily check-ins, Maria offers practical insights for facilities professionals looking to become stronger leaders while supporting the people around them.   Takeaways: * Don't take challenges personally. Pause, seek context, and focus on what the situation can teach you. Maria emphasized that some of her biggest leadership growth came from learning to step back before reacting. By seeking to understand the circumstances, perspectives, and motivations behind a situation, leaders can turn setbacks and difficult conversations into valuable learning opportunities. * Succession planning should account for retirements, leaves of absence, injuries, and unexpected organizational changes. Too often, succession planning is viewed only through the lens of retirement, but Maria highlighted the importance of preparing for any scenario that could create a gap in leadership or operational knowledge. Building processes, documentation, and cross-training into everyday operations helps teams remain resilient when unexpected changes occur. * Observation is a critical leadership skill. Some of the most important processes are often undocumented and learned through listening and watching. Maria shared how paying attention to behaviors, workflows, and unspoken routines helped her understand organizations more effectively than any manual could. Leaders who take the time to observe their environment often uncover opportunities for improvement that others overlook. * Knowledge sharing is essential. Information that stays with one person creates risk for the entire organization. Encouraging team members to document processes, communicate insights, and share expertise helps create a stronger and more adaptable team. When knowledge is openly shared, organizations are better prepared to navigate turnover, growth, and unexpected challenges. * Regular personal check-ins build trust, strengthen culture, and help teams feel supported. Maria believes that effective leaders check in on people, not just projects. Simple conversations that focus on an employee's well-being can create stronger relationships, improve engagement, and foster a culture where team members feel valued and supported. * Great leaders invest in coaching, mentorship, and continuous learning to identify blind spots and improve their effectiveness. Maria spoke about the value of having mentors and professional coaches who can offer an outside perspective. By remaining open to feedback and guidance, leaders can continue growing, challenge their own assumptions, and become more effective in supporting their teams. * Continuous improvement is a daily practice that starts with asking questions, challenging assumptions, and staying curious. Rather than treating improvement as an occasional initiative, Maria views it as an ongoing mindset. Consistently asking "why," seeking root causes, and looking for better ways to work helps organizations become more efficient, adaptable, and prepared for future challenges. Quote of the Show: *  "We're behind the scenes, but always on the front lines, and the front lines are tough." Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaruiz814/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaruiz814/]  * Website: https://www.unicefusa.org/ [https://www.unicefusa.org/]  * The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker: https://a.co/d/0j0d9AoN [https://a.co/d/0j0d9AoN]  * Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: https://a.co/d/07a90UL9 [https://a.co/d/07a90UL9]

Building the Plane While Flying It: Nick Petrosino on Growth, Accountability, and the Future of FM

In this episode, Nick Petrosino, Corporate Facilities Manager at Milton CAT, shares his winding path from Bridgewater State University to Massachusetts Maritime Academy to managing over a million square feet across six states. Nick opens up about the self-awareness it took to recognize he needed a different environment to thrive, and how Mass Maritime gave him the discipline and focus to launch a career he's now spent nearly a decade building with the same company. His story is one of calculated risk, intentional growth, and the kind of quiet drive that keeps buildings running before anyone notices a problem. The conversation dives deep into the operational realities of managing a large, multi-location facilities team — from growing his department from three to eight people, to navigating vendor accountability, CMMS implementation, and the constant balancing act of day-to-day demands versus long-term strategy. Nick is candid about the challenges of training new staff, managing complexity, and why soft skills will always outlast technical knowledge. He also shares his passion for giving back to the next generation of FM professionals through his work with AFE's Young Professionals Committee, making a compelling case that future-proofing the industry starts now.   Takeaways: * Doing your job well keeps you employed — going beyond your role is what advances your career. Clocking in and doing the bare minimum might keep you on the payroll, but taking initiative, creating value, and growing outside your defined role is what separates people who climb from people who stagnate. * Soft skills are ten times more valuable than hard skills. Hard skills can be taught; communication, conflict management, and the ability to network and present yourself are far harder to develop and far more impactful in the long run. * Vendor accountability starts with clear expectations up front. When scope, response times, quality standards, and communication expectations aren't defined clearly from the start, everyone interprets the agreement differently when problems arise — and they always do. * Facilities teams that stay stretched thin leave performance gaps. Growing the team intentionally — as Nick did by adding regional facility managers and coordinators — reduces response times, builds closer relationships with local stakeholders, and allows leadership to operate strategically rather than reactively. * A CMMS only creates value if people actually use it. Technology doesn't fix broken processes — it amplifies them. Before selecting a platform, map out the pain you're actually trying to solve, test real use cases, and prioritize adoption over feature count. * Generic training only goes so far — situational judgment comes from experience. You can teach a work order system, but you can't easily teach when to escalate, when to push back, or how to prioritize competing demands. Building that judgment takes time, mentorship, and real-world repetition. * The FM industry is one retirement cycle away from a leadership gap. Engaging and retaining young professionals isn't just good practice — it's a necessity. If the industry doesn't invest in the next generation now, institutional knowledge walks out the door and leadership roles go unfilled. Quote of the Show: * "Doing your job well keeps you employed. But taking initiative, creating value, getting outside your comfort zone, and growing beyond your role is what really advances your career." Links: * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-petrosino-cpmm-473b89a6/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-petrosino-cpmm-473b89a6/]  * Website: https://www.miltoncat.com/ [https://www.miltoncat.com/]

Live from VPPPA: Contractor Safety, HOP, and Culture Change in Action

Recorded live at the 2026 VPPPA Region I Annual Conference & Exhibition in Portland, Maine, this special panel episode of Facility Rockstars brings together three leaders from Collins Aerospace's Windsor Locks facility, Matt Twardy (EHS), Jeff Houle (Facilities, RTX), and John Mullen (Fuss & O'Neill Manufacturing Solutions), for a compelling, real-world conversation on Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) philosophy. Host Jay Culbert emcees the discussion, which centers on five core HOP principles: people make mistakes, blame fixes nothing, context drives behavior, learning enables improvement, and, perhaps most critically, leadership response matters. The panel uses vivid, unfiltered stories from the plant floor to illustrate how shifting from a blame-and-punish culture to a learning mindset changes everything, from how teams communicate near misses to how contractors show up for conversations they used to avoid. The conversation goes far beyond theory. Panelists share first-hand experiences, from a fired electrician whose termination exposed a broken system, to a plant-wide blackout at 2 a.m. handled with remarkable calm, to a trenching job that uncovered decades-old underground conduit and called for a tactical pause and new technology. Audience members also share their own turning-point moments, reinforcing the message that psychological safety isn't a program, it's a philosophy, and it has to start with the leader in the room. Whether you're in EHS, facilities, or operations, this episode is a masterclass in how the right response at the right moment can change an entire culture.   Takeaways: * Leadership response is the most powerful culture tool you have. When leaders respond negatively to problems, teams get better at hiding them. When leaders respond with curiosity and calm, teams get better at surfacing them. The tone you set in the first five minutes of a critical conversation echoes for years. * Replace "investigation" with "learning review." The language you use signals your intent before you say another word. Framing post-incident conversations as learning exercises—not investigations—opens the door to honest, useful information that actually improves your systems. * Understand the gap between "work as imagined" and "work as done." Plans look clean on paper. Reality in the field is always more complicated. The goal isn't to eliminate adaptation—it's to understand it so you can build more resilient systems that help workers fail safely when things go sideways. * Context is everything before you draw a conclusion. Before assuming a rule was broken, ask why. In multiple examples from this episode, workers who appeared to have violated safety protocols had actually done everything they were trained to do. The system failed them—and pausing to get context made all the difference. * Psychological safety isn't built in a meeting—it's built in moments. Every time a leader chooses learning over blame, they make it slightly easier for the next person to raise their hand. One audience member described how a single calm response to a lockout-tagout incident became the catalyst that transformed reporting culture at an entire facility. * Apply "tactical pause" instead of "stop work." The language matters. "Stop work" carries political weight that can shut people down. A tactical pause reframes the moment as collaborative problem-solving—and keeps the team focused on solutions rather than defensiveness. * Invest in contractor relationships before the job starts. When contractors trust that they won't be blamed for raising issues, they stop hiding problems and start asking for help. Building that relationship upfront—through honest pre-job conversations and quarterly stand-downs—pays off in safer, smoother projects every time. Quote of the Show: *  "There's a small percentage of the population that will willfully do something wrong. You cannot go into any event thinking the employee did something willful. Flip the script—pretend your absolute best rockstar caused it. It changes your mindset and approach with everything." — Jeff Houle Links: * John Mullen  * Email: John.MullenJr@collins.com [John.MullenJr@collins.com]  * Jeffrey Houle * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-houle-4b56bb35/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-houle-4b56bb35/]  * Email: jeff.houle07@gmail.com [jeff.houle07@gmail.com]  * Matt Twerdy * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-twerdy-mba-csp-chmm-9661132a/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-twerdy-mba-csp-chmm-9661132a/]   * Email: Matthew.Twerdy@collins.com [Matthew.Twerdy@collins.com]  * VPPPA Region I Website: https://vppregion1.com/ [https://vppregion1.com/]