John’s first undertaking was as a member of Hearth & Home Distributors where he helped establish a dealer network in the tri-state area and helped manage the business development for the company through its growth to a multi-million dollar company with four facilities throughout the northeastern United States.

Upon the sale of Hearth & Home to a larger company, John joined an emerging engineering company as a co-director of business development. General Heating & Engineering grew from a $14 million business to over $40 million and from a 130-employee company to well over 400. After John’s departure, this successful company merged with another service company and became a publicly traded company through a successful IPO in 1989.

John founded a natural stone import and fabrication company in 1989. It quickly became a technology leader in the manufacturing of residential and commercial stone. The company expanded to three manufacturing facilities and was one of the first to utilize digital CNC equipment that revolutionized the manufacturing process of commercial and residential stone products. His company serviced the Mid-Atlantic region, employing up to 140 persons in sales and manufacturing. In 2008, the company right-sized to meet market need and strategically relocated to western Maryland.  In 2013, the company was sold to his wife, Christine Congedo, with John continuing as a Board of Directors member and advisor.  It continues to provide cutting-edge manufacturing and creative design solutions to its customers. 

Through the years, John also initiated and led a number of successful real estate projects, including industrial sites in both Maryland and Delaware as well as residential developments in West Virginia as a founding member of White Horse Development.  He developed a successful vacation community near a major resort in western Maryland focused on the design and construction of net-zero residential living. 

After his more than 35 years of starting and growing businesses and real estate ventures, John founded AC~Wind, LLC. AC~Wind’s goals were simple: to bring jobs back to Americans, participate in the development of wind energy manufacturing first locally then nationally, and help lead the US away from foreign energy dependence.

During his tenure as CEO of AC~Wind, he successfully negotiated and secured an industry-first technology exchange agreement between AC~Wind and Molded Fiber Glass Companies in Ashtabula, Ohio.  This agreement allowed Maryland composite workers to expand their skills to be able to build large scale wind turbine blades in recently leased abandoned boat building facilities. This technology is planned be used to support the now-developing off-shore wind industry.  During this time, John was also a significant participant in the Annapolis legislative efforts that ultimately would approve the Maryland Offshore Wind Bill. This legislative effort, which John actively and routinely worked and testified with Maryland state legislators in favor for, became the backbone for the now-emerging Maryland Offshore Wind Industry. 

After he transferred his interest in AC~Wind to his partners, John worked actively with CDI Marine’s Dr. Bob Johnson to change large-scale wind turbine air foil design to meet improved energy output of large-scale wind turbine generators.

With the current industry trends of all-electric vehicles, John has founded Alternative Life Cycles (ALC), and has successfully developed one of the largest pre-approved sites in Maryland for harvesting and repurposing electric vehicle batteries and components.  This location is strategically situated in Grantsville, MD providing easy access to some of the most significant east cost DMA’s (Direct Market Areas) including Ohio (Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland ), Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia), West Virginia (Morgantown, Charleston) and the Baltimore-Washington Corridor. 

This soon to be fully approved site offers two 50,000-sq. ft. manufacturing facilities and a 15,000-sq. ft. office building and is nicely situated on one of the busiest highways in the country – Route 68.  A new contract and partnership has been successfully negotiated between ALC and Bates Architects, one of the leading commercial and industrial Architectural firms on the east coast.  John’s 30+ year relationship with C. Marty Bates, AIA , CEO of Bates Architects, well positions ALC to continue developing the required construction plans for this new effort.

With John’s leadership of these partnerships and highly experienced teams, and by working with local and state legislators, a successful outcome of this project is eminent.