Madonna High School announces Mr. John Mazzone, Madonna High School Class of 1979, will be the guest speaker at Commencement scheduled for Sunday, May 20, at 2:00 pm at the high school.
Mr. Mazzone, oldest son of Anthony and Mary Mazzone of Weirton, is a retired executive from American Electric Power in Columbus Ohio with over 32 years of applied knowledge in power plant operations, maintenance, performance, planning, outage management, and field project engineering.
John began his career in 1984 at Conesville Power Plant as a Plant Engineer and was quickly promoted through the ranks until being named Operations Production Superintendent in 1993. Left Conesville in 1996 to accept a promotion to become the Operations Services Manager for the newly formed Northern Regional Support Organization (NRSO) where he managed an engineering team that provided field support services to AEP’s eastern power plant fleet. After two years, John was promoted to Production Support Manager in charge of the mobile outage crews comprised of approximately 350 traveling hourly workers and their supervisors. In 1999 John left the NRSO to be named AEP’s youngest Plant General Manager at the age of 39, to Picway Power Plant in south-central Ohio.
Under John’s leadership, many creative operational practices were implemented which dramatically improved Picway plant’s energy market value, surpassing nearly half of the other 42 coal units in AEP’s fleet. In 2001, he was promoted to Vice President of Maintenance Services to the newly formed AEP ProServ organization. There, John lead a team of approximately 1400 employees including 1200 hourly workers from three unions (IBEW, UMW, & UW) and was responsible for ProServ´sRegional Maintenance Services Organization (RSO); AEP’s Transportation Services, including the Cook Trans-loading Coal Terminal in Paducah, KY; AEP’s 7400 rail car fleet, and the company’s two railcar maintenance operations in Alliance, NE and Metropolis, KY; AEP’s fleet Machine Shop Services in Charleston, WV and in Shreveport, LA; and its third-party maintenance and erection office in Sanford, FL.
After ProServ’s disbandment in 2003, John was named Director of Asset Planning and Fleet Optimization for AEP’s Fossil and Hydro Organization. Responsibilities included strategic and long range planning, and operational performance of AEP’s generating fleet.
During this time, John served as the acting AEP Ohio Generation Lead for the generating assets owned by AEP Ohio. John worked extensively on AEP’s Generation Fleet Transition Plan, serving in Washington D.C. as a Technical Subject Matter Expert, presenting before House and Senate members and various government agencies. In 2013, John was promoted to Managing Director of Indiana and Michigan’s Generation having an office in both Columbus Ohio and Fort Wayne Indiana. In this, his final role before retirement in 2016, Mr. Mazzone he had responsibility of the Rockport, Lawrenceburg, and Tanner Creek coal and natural gas power plants; 4 solar farms in Indiana and Michigan, and AEP’s 17 hydroelectric plants covering a five a state territory. John’s duties also extended to overall fleet performance; oversight of the company’s 11 state environmental field organizations; and as lead-interface with AEP’s Fuel’s, Transmission, and Operational Excellence functions.
Mr. Mazzone holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University. He successfully completed the Executive Management Program from Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and the Leadership in Changing Times program from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. John has been the recipient of six Operating Ideas recognition awards, including AEP’s first place award for Electrostatic Precipitator Performance Improvements in 1995. In 2002, John’s organization received the “Horizon Safety Award”, AEP’s highest safety performance honor. John is a certified Leadership facilitator from Senn-Delaney teaching employee cultural transformation.
In retirement, Mr. Mazzone is employed as a part time Adjunct Professor by Stark State College and Career and Technical Education Center in Industrial Engineering Technologies and Mathematics. He is past Grand Knight of the Fr. Bill Johnson Council 11665 in Newark Ohio; is a Eucharistic Minister; a choir member; and on the Board of Directors for Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark Ohio.
John and his wife Lori (Henderson) Mazzone, have resided in Newark Ohio for 34 years. Lori holds a BS in Arts and English and a BS in Communications from West Liberty University. She is currently employed by St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Zanesville Ohio as their Development Director. John and Lori have four children: Nicholas Mazzone, 29, with a BS in Exercise Physiology from WVU, is an Account Manager for Bound Tree Medical; Christine, 27, with BS in Nursing from WVU and a Masters in Family Nurse Practitioner from Ohio State University, is employed with the VA in Columbus Ohio. Twin sister Jessica, 27, holds a BS in Accounting from WVU, and is a Senior Risk Analysist for NiSource Energy Corporation in Columbus Ohio; and finally Mitchell, 13, who is lead drummer for Liberty Middle School.