In celebration of ESOPtober, we are highlighting Schimenti’s Board of Directors. These appointed members are responsible for safeguarding the interests of Schimenti’s shareholders, monitoring company performance, and overseeing the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

Each board member serves a specific term, providing an additional layer of oversight and strategic partnership within the ESOP. The board consists of four independent members and two members from Schimenti. Learn more about their unique backgrounds.

Matthew Schimenti

Matthew C. Schimenti, President of Schimenti Construction Company, comes from a family with a long history in the construction industry. He founded Schimenti Construction in 1997, with a particular focus on retail construction that distinguishes the company as the #1 Retail Contractor in New York. In 2025, Engineering News-Record East named Schimenti Contractor of the Year.

Schimenti has experienced steady growth under his strategic vision, expanding its operations nationally across various sectors, including hospitality, commercial interiors, and industrial. The recent transition to an ESOP in 2022 has further solidified the company’s position for future growth and next-generation leadership, putting employees and client service at the forefront of business operations.

Joseph Rotondo

Joseph Rotondo joined Schimenti Construction in 2000 and has been a valuable team member ever since. As Executive Vice President, he is pivotal in providing leadership for critical areas such as program accounts, staffing, and business development. Over the years, he’s been dedicated to expanding Schimenti’s client base, demonstrating his strong commitment to ongoing business growth.

Joe views his role as part of a collaborative effort, recognizing the importance of teamwork in achieving excellence. He takes great pride in the complex builds that Schimenti delivers, which reflect the team’s shared commitment to quality and innovation.

INDEPENDENT BOARD MEMBERS

William Hughes

Bill leverages his combination of skills to develop and execute strategies that enable companies to grow. He utilizes his 40 years of business leadership experience, applying the methodologies, disciplines, and passion that have been attributed to his success.

Before his strategy consulting work, Bill was President and Chief Operating Officer at Shawmut Design and Construction, a leading national general contracting and construction management firm headquartered in Boston, MA. For 11 years, he was responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations, which grew from $100+ million to almost $1 billion. In his role, he led the Senior Management Team in promoting the unique culture while maintaining strong financial performance and revenue growth, including the transition to becoming a 100% ESOP Company.

Prior to leading Shawmut, Bill served as the General Manager of Johnson Controls for five years in the Controls and Facility Management Business. For twelve years before Johnson Controls, Bill held various leadership positions in multiple businesses at General Electric.

Bill also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Perkins School for the Blind and the Board of Directors for The Room to Dream Foundation. In addition to his philanthropic work, he currently serves on the Board of multiple privately held and employee-owned companies.

Ryan Lake

Ryan Lake has an extensive professional background, leading two marketing services companies, Lake Group Media Inc. and DonorBase®, for over 20 years, culminating in successful private equity exits.

Ryan built management teams, developed new products and revenue streams, expanded margins, improved EBITDA, created and implemented strategic plans, and maximized the sale price multiple on exit. Ryan’s effective communication with all team members was essential to the Company’s success, as was effectively conveying the financials to the Company’s eventual acquirer, Data Axle.

Before running and building these businesses, Ryan received a Marketing Degree from the University of Notre Dame (1994) and subsequently spent four years in advertising sales at Miller Freeman.

Today, Ryan is a FINRA arbitrator, resolving securities-related disputes for the investing public and the securities industry. In addition, Ryan is launching a Peer-to-Peer Texting business, Metior, Inc., to help organizations market products and services through texting at scale.

Jack Callahan

Jack has recently retired from his role as National Construction Industry Leader at CohnReznick LLP. In that role, Jack led a highly specialized team of over 200 that served the assurance, tax, and advisory needs of Construction contractors and their families. Jack was a trusted advisor for general contractors, construction managers, heavy civil contractors, specialty trades, and equipment supply.

His clients included Family, Private Equity, ESOP, and internationally owned enterprises. With over 40 years of experience in the industry, Jack is well-known and respected by the major surety, banking, insurance, and legal professionals who specialize in the AEC field.

Jack has a 23-year history of providing fiscal and integrity monitoring services to public owners on some of the larger infrastructure projects. This subspecialty began with the oversight of the Ground Zero Cleanup, which brings unique insight into the compliance challenges faced in today’s construction environment.

Jack remains active as the Moles finance committee chair, ACE GNY’s Treasurer for MBDI, and Board Chair of the Independent Colleges and Universities of NJ.

John Fargis

John’s impressive career spans over 35 years on Wall Street. He has worked at Chase Manhattan Bank, BlackRock, Bear Stearns and was appointed Managing Director at Jefferies & Company.  During the last eight years of his investment banking career, he served as Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Guggenheim Securities.  He was also an adjunct professor at NYU, teaching Finance to students in the Stern School of Business.

He is currently serving as a strategic advisor to CEO’s and Board members and has advised an impressive list of domestic and international corporate and financial clients on a wide range of topics including M&A, debt, equity, and restructuring of transactions.

John earned his MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts in International and Comparative Political Studies from Hamilton College. John lives in Greenwich, CT and is also currently in the process of building a small bourbon business.  Please join me in welcoming John to our Board of Directors.