Anthony Marchese: Where You Started, Where You Are, and Where You’re Going

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Intro:
Today’s guest, Anthony Marchese, grew up on the shop floor of his family’s elevator controls business — literally riding his tricycle between controller panels. From those early days to designing New York City’s first inclined elevator, Anthony’s journey is a blend of legacy, innovation, and vision for the future.
Anthony is currently Vice President Technical Services at VDA and a member of the VDA new product committee. In this interview, we talk predictive maintenance, elevating performance with smart tech, and what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing industry. Join us as we dig into this exciting topic.

Summary:
Anthony Marchese, Vice President of Technical Services at VDA, discussed his journey in the elevator industry, influenced by his family’s legacy. He highlighted his work on New York City’s first inclined elevator and emphasized the importance of predictive maintenance using advanced sensors for vibrational analysis, temperature, and water infiltration. Marchese stressed the need for proactive maintenance to avoid catastrophic events and the importance of embracing technology to optimize performance. He encouraged young professionals to be enthusiastic and take risks, citing Jim Valvano’s inspirational speech as a guiding principle.

Transcript:
Anthony Marchese 0:00
The industry on a whole as has a bright future. As far as what I’ve seen from the past, there are a lot of legendary people who who’ve taught and paved the way for me, it’s something that I would like to pay forward. So for young people out there, I think it’s important for you to be enthusiastic look towards people like myself, who are, you know, looking to teach. There is a famous award speech by Jim Valvano, who was coaching in college basketball, it was very inspirational. He said that every day when you wake up, you think of the following, where you started, where are you now, and where do you want to be one day? And I think about that that motivates me still. And I think if you wake up as many days as possible in your career, you’re thinking about that, and you’re really enthusiastic about what you do, and you could go really far in this industry.

Matthew Allred 1:13
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Matthew Allred 1:55
Today’s guest, Anthony Marchese grew up on the shop floor of his family’s elevator controls business, literally riding his tricycle between controller panels from those early days to designing new york’s first inclined elevator, Anthony’s journey is a blend of legacy innovation and vision for the future. Anthony is currently Vice President of Technical Services at VDA and a member of the VDA new product committee. In this interview, we talk predictive maintenance, elevating performance with smart tech and what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing industry. Join us as we dig into this exciting topic.

Matthew Allred 2:27
Anthony, welcome to the show.

Anthony Marchese 2:29
Hey Matt, thanks for having me today.

Matthew Allred 2:31
Thank you. This is always fun. I appreciate you taking the time. Always enjoy these conversations. So tell me what, what’s something you’re exciting you’re working on right now?

Anthony Marchese 2:42
Yes, so right now, VDA is great because of a lot of freedom, you know, to just develop my brand and, you know, to work with a great team. Right now we’re working on some interesting things to include into specifications. You know, optimizing the elevator, so you know whether it be installation performance or adding things to the specifications, where a client will have options to to add performance criteria, you know, being sensors that incorporate vibrational analysis, temperature analysis, water infiltration.

Matthew Allred 3:28
Sounds intense. I mean, it sounds like you’re kind of driving, kind of the next level of innovation. I mean, if you can really dig into that

Anthony Marchese 3:39
Yeah, absolutely. You know, just optimizing where we need to be using technology. I mean, the technology is out there, so, you know, why not use it

Matthew Allred 3:49
Absolutely, absolutely. Well. Tell me. Tell me about your first exposure to the elevator industry. What was that for you?

Anthony Marchese 3:54
So, I come from a family where we have, we run deep into elevators. You know, back to the 1950s, with family, my father and my uncle, they started at O’Thompson, which was a big controller company here in New York City.

Matthew Allred 4:15
What kind of led, if I may, what kind of led them there? What was it that prepared the way?

Anthony Marchese 4:19
Yeah, So I think, you know, it sounded like it was very random. I mean, my uncle found the position at O’Thompson, and my dad, graduating high school, trade school, you know, got him the job there, and together, the two of them just grew there, and they worked their way up and eventually owned O’Thompson.

Matthew Allred 4:41
Wow. Now that’s, that’s so that’s certainly working your way up to actually own the company at some point.

Anthony Marchese 4:46
Yeah. I mean, you know, like stories like that. I don’t think they happen that often anymore, but, yeah, you know, it’s pretty wild. You know, they started from the bottom, I would imagine, you know, Assembly wiring, making their way through drafting design, where they eventually own this company that was started in the 1920s by Olof Thompson, who’s an Otis engineer

Matthew Allred 5:13
So, I mean you, sounds like you, you grew up. I mean, dad jumped out of high school and landed there that, yeah, from, from your earliest memory of what dad does that was, you know, in the elevator industry, what’s that like for you? What are your earliest memories of the industry?

Anthony Marchese 5:28
Yeah, I mean, so it’s funny because, you know, dating back now that far, but yet, you know, I have specific memory where I know that I’m remembering back to like when I was four years old. Like, this is 1974, 1975 this places me back there. And I remember just being a kid, you know, going to work with my father. We would take my tricycle and I would, I would drive them through, you know, like the OSHA yellow lines, you know, but back then there were like, no rules. This is the 70s.

Matthew Allred 6:03
You’re like, on the shop floor with your tricycle. Did you have a hard hat or anything for safety?

Anthony Marchese 6:09
Was safety considered? And yeah, I would like, hitch maybe a wagon to the back of my tricycle with, like, a cardboard drum that a bunch of hardware came in, and then I have a broom attached. And then, you know, I’d be playing around, sweeping up

Matthew Allred 6:26
During working hours or is this?

Anthony Marchese 6:27
Yes, during working hours, the people were like, fantastic there, you know, they were there was so nice to me. They’re just people that I remember, faces names, you know. And it was family there. I would go visit my uncle up in his office, there was another uncle who was working the hardware department where I’d go visit him. You know, various employees would just kind of, like take me under their wing, a draftsman. I remember like he would set me up next to him at the drafting table, and I would actually he would give me, like, we would make an original sepia and and I would copy what he was doing. I would take his stencils and create, like, normally open, normally closed contacts, and I draw, or like resistors, you know, like, you know, I would just draw. And then we would run that through these, this black light machine, which was always intriguing to me, with this glowing light, and then it would come out the other end, and then we’d roll it up, and we’d stick it in these tubes with this ammonia smell that would take you out, you know, and you know, I was like, making circuits. I didn’t even know what I was doing, you know

Matthew Allred 6:27
An apprenticeship, right starting, starting at age four, right here, being tutored.

Anthony Marchese 6:43
This is how a four year old like, you know, made his time. You know, there were no iPads. There was nothing like that, you know. And I was just always intrigued by it. I always just had this connection. It was just such a great place being at O’Thompson

Matthew Allred 7:59
Did you ever consider doing anything else? I mean, did you ever say hey, fireman, astronaut, football player? I mean, did those things ever cross your mind?

Anthony Marchese 8:07
I mean sports, yeah, you know, being a kid involved in sports. I was a football player then I was a hockey player. Was pretty serious about hockey. But, you know, as far as just like, you know, real life career, no, like, it just always, elevators just seem to be the path. I never really thought about anything else.

Matthew Allred 8:28
That’s awesome. What would you say are some of the most pivotal moments? I mean, do you remember? Do you remember specifically making a decision or maybe an opportunity, or it’s like, okay, dang, light bulb goes off. This is this? Is it anything like that?

Anthony Marchese 8:41
Oh I mean, you know, playing around with things at my father’s shop, you know, I was interested in electricity, building components. You know, there was so many things that intrigued me, lights, buzzers, relays, I would just make up pretend circuits. And then, like he had these intriguing test panels, you know, they look like something out of like a Frankenstein movie, you know, with these knife switches, sure, with lights and buzzers. And, you know, I would build these, these circuits, but they weren’t real. But then, you know, we would connect power to it, and I would hit buttons on the test panel, and we’d light the circuits up, you know. So I think that just carried forward. You know, eventually he moved on from Thompson, he started his own controller company. And, you know, little by little, I got more and more serious about it, you know, from working part time at 10 years old, I needed to know what it took to make $50 in the week so I could buy my next Atari.

Matthew Allred 9:49
That’s all you need, man, right? You just needed

Anthony Marchese 9:52
Yeah, so you know. So it started with that, and then it went to like, you know, at age 14, got my working papers. I got a buddy. To come along. Our moms would drive us over to work because it was, you know, my dad’s shop was 15 minutes from home. You know, I remember minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and my dad was giving us $3.50 and, you know, we started to assemble controller components. And eventually that turned to wiring them. And then, you know, by the time I was 17 or so, you know, it was definitely more serious in the summers, every day after school, you know, taking myself there again. My buddy was still with me. He was still working with me, and that’s when I started to get into learning how to test and really understanding sequence of operation. And you know, that was with all with relay logic. So it was easier to understand because it was a visual in front of you. You know, everything ended up getting incorporated into microprocessors. So we didn’t see that, but back in that day, you actually saw the sequence of operation, you know, you put in the call, you’d see direction, you know, closed circuits, the elevator take off, running circuits

Matthew Allred 11:09
Almost like the old Rube Goldberg type, you know, Ka Ching, Ka Ching, Ka Ching, and it pulls the lever. And then, you know

Anthony Marchese 11:15
Yeah. And it was all, you know, sounds. There was a lot, you know, based on sounds expectations, where you know, eventually that took me to the next part of it, where you’re helping people over the phone, supporting them, and you could just by the sounds of what you’re hearing in the background of relays, clicking, pulling in, picking up, dropping out. You knew what was going on with the elevator and where, you know where his problem may be.

Matthew Allred 11:41
Yeah, so, so, from high school, I mean, did you move immediately into elevators? Did you go what was kind ofyour path?

Anthony Marchese 11:47
Yes, so, pretty much, yeah. Well, I did have a short period, like I said, you know, I was really into ice hockey, went to school in Maine for a little bit, you know, had aspirations of playing college hockey and everything. And then that doesn’t work out. It becomes, you know, you’re back to the real world. And I said, Okay, you know, I went back to state school near home, good engineering school, you know. So I went for Electrical Engineering Technology at the same time. Was still working with my dad. Was an easy back and forth, go to classes, go to work, and, you know, I learned all the the programming, and, you know, all that that prepares you to go to the real world.

Matthew Allred 12:33
That’s awesome. Yeah, what? I got two questions for you here. Well, I’m just curious. I mean, as you were coming up through, it sounds like you had so much time to kind of get used to it. I’m just curious what, what was one of the hardest lessons you ever learned? I mean, obviously different if somebody’s coming in from, you know, off the street, and they’ve already maybe developed some habits. Do you remember anything like that that was like, you know, this is, this is a challenge?

Anthony Marchese 12:57
So lessons regarding elevators?

Matthew Allred 13:01
Well you tell me maybe it’s, maybe it’s getting along with coworkers. Just curious.

Anthony Marchese 13:06
Yeah. I mean, you know less, yeah, you know, it was difficult. You know, there were a lot of great things about being the boss’s son. So many, you know, there was, there was success and

Matthew Allred 13:21
Lots of high expectations?

Anthony Marchese 13:22
Lots that I enjoyed, but at the same time, yeah, high expectations. You’re the boss’s son. And again, I come from a legacy that, you know, where everybody’s successful, cousins, uncles, my dad, you know, they were just just being hard on yourself, I guess, because you wanted to get to the level where everybody else was

Matthew Allred 13:45
Yeah, and I can see that, and I didn’t know if others held you to a higher standard because of who you are. Or, it’s mostly internal.

Anthony Marchese 13:53
Yeah it was mostly internal, you know, just expectations. But you know, at the same time, it’s a motivator, you know, motivator for me to, you know, get to the next level to learn things. So, you know, those were, those were lessons

Matthew Allred 14:12
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I mean, obviously you’ve been at it really your whole life, right? Although you can remember essentially, what, I’m curious, though, what, what’s the coolest project you’ve ever worked on?

Anthony Marchese 14:23
So the coolest project that I got to work on was I developed New York City’s first Tran certainly transit. I guess it’s arguable about the inclined elevator on there might have been some smaller projects or something, but I worked on for seven line. There’s a train that runs in the city here that the seven line used to stop in Times Square and back in around 2010 or so MTA, they created a design where they were going out to Hudson Yard And for reasons that they couldn’t go down vertically, they designed an inclined elevator, so I was doing a pretty much all of the MT elevators at this point in time. Company and I designed an inclined elevator, but we had to work with an Italian company over in Italy, so we had to ship my equipment out there, and they had a test tower out there. And I basically designed the whole thing on the spot time constraints dealing with this, the whole MTA schedule. And, yeah, I designed an inclined elevator 185 feet. Worked on batteries, round trip, so everything was from scratch, I never did anything like that before.

Matthew Allred 15:47
So I have a, just a random question, is that in that is, you know, there’s that old Italian song about the funicula that goes up the mountain. Is it? Is it based on the same technology? Is that what we’re talking about?

Anthony Marchese 15:48
Same type of thing. Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome. So, yeah, it was wild. You know, I spent a couple of weeks out there. We had to go back few times some but then in between, I got to go visit various places. I got to go to Sicily. I’m Sicilian. So it was really nice to like that whole project was just amazing. It’s an amazing experience.

Matthew Allred 16:22
Well and it sounds like, you know, even going forward, right? I mean, anytime you ride the the trains, you know, you just know that, hey, I contributed to this part of the city

Anthony Marchese 16:31
Yeah, absolutely, you know, like I said, I did the majority of the MTA work from about 2005 to 2015 there are a lot of big, mega projects that went up during that time, Fulton Transit Center, Second Avenue line. So, you know, like, to this day, it’s like, you know, I’m running around the city, and it’s pretty cool to ride all these elevators, to see people shoulder to shoulder with me. You know, we’re in the elevator together, and knowingthat.

Matthew Allred 17:02
They don’t know that you’re the one that.

Anthony Marchese 17:04
Electrically software. I mean, I did it all. We were a small company, and I was responsible for everything, you know, worked with the elevator company, tuned them up, tested them, you know, I was part of the whole project, personally. So there’s a lot of, you know, just a lot of I have a lot of gratitude for having those opportunities just in life, it’s pretty cool.

Matthew Allred 17:30
Hey everyone, thank you for listening. This is Matt with a brief message from our sponsor, the Allred group, has been recruiting elevator industry talent for over 14 years. If you were looking to grow your business and hire great people, contact the Allred group, at Allred group.com, that’s A L, L, R, E, D, G, R, O, U, P.com, and talk with Matt and his team about how they can assist you. And now back to the show.

Matthew Allred 17:56
So we started by talking a little bit about the most exciting thing you’re working on, but I wanted to see if you could dig in just a little bit. In just a little bit deeper on what’s most exciting about what you’re working on, because you’ve kind of hinted that there’s, there’s just kind of a lot to that. What is it that really drives your excitement about your current project?

Anthony Marchese 18:15
Yeah, so we’re working with some clients who have interest in getting to the next level of optimizing performance of the equipment.

Matthew Allred 18:25
What does it mean for them? Like, what are they trying to get out of it? What’s the kind of the payoff? Of

Anthony Marchese 18:30
The payoff is being proactive to issues that may arise down the line with maintenance, you know, just like an automobile, right? So, you know, we have these advanced systems now that tell us when it’s time to go to the shop for various reasons. Same type of thing, you know, we’re monitoring the equipment. We’re harvesting data, you know, as far as number of door cycles, how much we traveled, you know, and all this is wear and tear, and, you know, so eventually we’ll be able to predict models. This is, you know, it’s a ways off. It starts with putting the equipment in place to harvest this data. So we have clientele who they’re interested in this. And then, of course, to at the same point to capture any catastrophic event that could happen, like water infiltration, you know. So before the entire system, you know, water pours on top of the car, top and we blow up all the equipment, what can we do to avoid that?

Matthew Allred 19:39
For sure. For sure. Some of that you can’t, you can’t really predict, like a hurricane Sandy necessarily. I mean, other than a week or a few days out, some of this sounds like you can predict that. Hey, we’ve gone through X number of cycles. We’re going to need to shut down for maintenance for this long to replace this.

Anthony Marchese 19:57
We’re sensing vibration, friction in the doors, you know, all of these type of things will lead to shutdown. So if we could start to, you know, capture this, put parameters on this. This is the low point. This is the high point. This is where we started, where we installed. And after three to five years, this is where we are now. These are the vibrations we’re picking up. This is becoming abnormal. We need to do something about this, whether it’s to, you know, change some door gives change a door, operate a bill, whatever it is, you know, things with the break, you know, again, looking at the physics and making predictions is exciting, common sense type things

Matthew Allred 20:46
Sure, for sure. So I’m curious what’s, what’s next, and would you say, I guess what I’m thinking is, is this kind of forward thinking approach, something that that you think elevator companies could actually use to their advantage, and say, Hey, we can now, you know. And maybe they’re trying to do it. I don’t know, you know, to predict, for the customer’s sake, I guess

Anthony Marchese 21:04
So, you know, I would say, you know, the world right now, we’re in an AI world and and elevators is always seem to be, in this sense. I would say, especially in the city of New York, we’re a little little behind, or maybe skeptical about, you know, advancing. I remember these type of things going back to when they were just Relay Logic Controls and then advancing to microprocessors. You know, there was some companies that were like, No, we’re just going to continue to go with relay logic, you know. And obviously, eventually technology takes over, and you can never buy a relay logic controller now

Matthew Allred 21:45
Your early and late adopters, right? So they’re

Anthony Marchese 21:48
So I mean, you know, ultimately, everybody’s going to have to jump on board. And there’ll be ways where you’re going to optimize your maintenance. This is how you’re going to make money, as an elevator company, you know, and a lot of the OEMs and the majors, they already have these, this process in place, you know, but ultimately, it just kind of makes sense, you know, you have to find the way to use the technology to advance yourself as the elevator company, as the consultant, whatever it may be, you know, prediction is the way to go, especially now where things are kind of hidden in this black box micro processor, there isn’t a lot available, you know, to the outside world, you know, so you need to have these tools in place to be able to get ahead of issues.

Matthew Allred 22:41
Right. Yeah, yeah. That’s obviously makes a lot of sense. It’s, it sounds like a fun project to dig into and to be able to see kind of a bigger it sounds like you’re, like, you say, harvesting data, and kind of see a bigger view of maybe what you would have seen otherwise.

Anthony Marchese 22:57
Yeah, and it’s gonna, it’s gonna take time, but the time is now to start that process.

Matthew Allred 23:01
So, um, just curious you, is there anything else you’re kind of seeing in the future, things that are maybe coming, that maybe we haven’t talked about, that you’re like, oh, yeah, this is going to change how we do things.

Anthony Marchese 23:14
I mean, to me, that’s the big one. Okay, you know, it’s really, really all about that. And ultimately, just like everything else the rest of the world, how things have gone, it just needs to go that direction, you know. I mean, take you back to the 1930s when they were, you know, to dig a hole. You took a team of 30 guys to dig that hole, and then ultimately, an excavator came around and did that within, you know, a couple of days, you know. So it’s just no different with technology and elevators. I mean, that’s just the way it has to be driven.

Matthew Allred 23:49
Yeah, yeah. Agreed, agreed. So as we wrap up, I got at least, you know, and one more question for you, but I’m curious if there’s anything you wanted to kind of bring up that maybe we haven’t talked about before we end

Anthony Marchese 24:03
The industry on a whole as has a bright future. As far as what I’ve seen from the past, there are a lot of legendary people who who’ve taught and paved the way for me, it’s it’s something that I would like to pay forward. So for young people out there, I think it’s important for you to be enthusiastic look towards people like myself. Who are you know, looking to teach. There is a famous award speech by Jim Valvano, who was coaching in college basketball. It was very inspirational. He said that every day when you wake up, you think of the following, where you started, where are you now? And where do you want to be one day? And I think about that that motivates me still. And I think if you wake up as many days as possible in your career, you’re thinking about that, and you’re really enthusiastic about what you do, and you can go really far in this industry. So you know, I would just like to share that, you know, with people who are coming up, you know, don’t be afraid to take risks and, you know, really dive into things, because there’s a lot of opportunity in this industry.

Matthew Allred 25:34
Absolutely, yeah, no, it’s perfectly said. And it kind of, you know, it covers my the final question I was going to ask, but it, what it reminds me of, is the old saying, is the old saying, you know, start with the end in mind, and that is, keep your, you know, your focus on where you want to be, and you can get there.

Anthony Marchese 25:50
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you know, even as guy who’s in his golden years, you know, I’m in my 50s, but there’s just still more to do, and every day is a learning experience, and there’s still a lot of unknown for me. But I love, I love the challenge, and I love, you know, venturing into that

Matthew Allred 26:14
Anthony, thank you for your time. Thank you for being with me today. I’ve enjoyed every minute.

Anthony Marchese 26:18
I appreciate it. Yeah, there’s been a lot of fun, so hopefully we do it again sometime.

Matthew Allred 26:23
Yes sir, good luck to you as you keep building your career.

Anthony Marchese 26:26
Thanks.

Matthew Allred 26:27
Thank you. Thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast, sponsored by the Allred group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. Please visit our YouTube channel at Elevator Careers, or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net Please like and subscribe and until next time, stay safe.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai