A FORCE TO BE DEALT WITH

When Marjorie Perry graduated college after growing up in the projects of Newark, she told her mother she was going to be rich one day. Her mother told her to get a job at Bambergers. Perry didn’t listen. Today she is president and CEO of MZM Construction & Management Company, Inc., a privately owned construction management and transportation company serving clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits, educational institutions and others. Some of MZM’s signature projects include New Jersey Performing Arts Center, MetLife Stadium, Newark International Airport, NJ TRANSIT Hudson Bergen Light Rail and Marriott Hotel guest room renovations. Perry has been recognized often for her career achievements, including by NJBIZ as One of New Jersey’s Best 50 Women in Business and as one of the Top 25
Entrepreneurs in New Jersey and in 2018 became the first woman and African-American chair of the NJIT Board of Overseers. Perry recently shared her experiences and thoughts at a luncheon hosted by the Women in Business Committee of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce at the Westin Governor Morris in an interview format with WIB member Leslie Allen of West End Residential. The theme of the discussion was Building Greatness from Within. Allen asked Perry if she had a seminal moment in her journey to success. “I don’t think anyone is born knowing what greatness
is,” Perry said. She told the audience she had wonderful teachers who told her she could do anything and to think big. She became the first in her family to graduate college and never looked back.

   After years in the corporate environment – “I was a complete failure because I wasn’t CEO,” she said – Perry started a consulting company and took on MZM as a client. The owners soon asked her to join the firm as a partner. Allen asked Perry how she succeeded as a black female in a white male-dominated industry. Perry explained she has great street wit developed in Newark and never backed down, even following a customer who owed her $500,000 into the men’s room to demand payment. “That’s the survival part,” she said. “No is not an option. I didn’t wake up with a girlish attitude. I would not have survived in construction without that.” Perry also said she had not known racism growing up in Newark. “When I went into construction, I didn’t realize how hated I was,” she said, adding that running MZM helped her cope with racism. “Being black and female can be something you hold on to or can be something for them and you stick to what you’re doing,” she said. Allen asked Perry what message she would give to young people about persevering through challenges in their career. “I got my confi dence through a lot of failure and readaptability,” she said. “Each time I came back I became a force to be dealt with.” Perry also had a message for millennials, who will soon make up more than half the workforce. “You can’t get there before your time,” she said.
“Young people have to slow down and know there will be a dues period…The mistakes you make today will impact you for the next 30 years.” Allen asked Perry for her secret to achieving
emotional intelligence.“People need to be okay with constructive criticism,” she said. “If you have a problem hearing constructive criticism and all you hear is (someone) putting you down, that’s the greatest impediment to achieving emotional intelligence. “If you’re not questioning, you’re not moving forward,” she added.

Author

Christopher Reardon