Our company’s number of employees has grown significantly over the past 20 years—along with the John family. When M.J. Design started back in 1998, there were only 4 full-time employees, and 3 summer employees!
Fast forward to 2003... We hired our first Hispanic worker, Daniel Lopez Beltran, using the H2B, seasonal work visa program. In 2004, we brought in two additional workers, Daniel’s brothers Geronimo & Jose Luis.
Today, we have 18 Hispanic workers, and many are related. Our team has 4 sets of brothers, 2 father/son combinations, and some cousin and nephew combinations. Out of the 18 workers, 15 are in the Green Card process and will hopefully have permanent resident status within the next 6 months. We could not have grown over the years without our great staff—Patrick Leitch, Grady Cobb and Kelly Darrow have been with us for four years. Michael Coyle completed two internships with us (2009 & 2011) while also studying Landscape Architecture at Arizona State University. He joined us full time last year as a designer and salesman.
Watching our employees and families grow over the years has been fun as well. Today, the M.J. staff consists of 26 full- and part-time employees.
M.J.'s 2017 Team
As for the John family, Molly and Joel had their first addition, Alison, in 1999. Then Drew joined the family in 2003. This spring Alison will graduate from Dublin Coffman High School. She is planning to study Exercise Science at University of Cincinnati. Sorry, Dad, not a Buckeye at this point! Drew will enjoy having all the attention come this fall. Or will he?
The John Family in 2005
The John Family in 2017