Our Team of People
We currently employ twelve people. Below is a short biography of each team member.
Peter Viola
Co-founder/CEO
Peter graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and a Minor in Chemistry. In 2002, he began working as a geophysical survey technician for Subsurface Consulting, LTD, as an apprentice to certified professional geologist Dr. James S. Mellett, CPG (aka Jim), an early pioneer in the geophysical surveying and mapping service industry. In his four years of being an understudy of Jim at Subsurface Consulting, Peter helped him successfully complete a wide variety of challenging commercial projects. In March 2005, after taking Jim's advice, Peter became a founding partner with Kamal Abdulrazak in Underground Surveying, LLC. Through lots of hard work and some luck, Peter was able to grow the company from a one man operation with revenue of less than $50,000 per year to a company of over ten people with revenues of approximately 2 million per year. Right now, Peter's roles include business development, answering phones, providing quotes, drafting proposals, scheduling projects, and occasionally helping out as a field technician on utility locating and concrete imaging projects; to sum it up, a little bit of everything! Once we get a few more people hired over the next few years, he would like to focus more on coaching people, growing the business to multiple states, and getting back into the field a little more often. His lifelong business goal is to liberate as many people as he can from the tyranny of command and control managed organizations. And his personal goals are to travel around the world, maybe write a book, finish reading the Great Books of the Western World set (before he dies) and, even more importantly, to keep his wife happy.
David Giro
Senior Project Manager/Technician
David graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science in Justice and Law Administration (JLA) and a Minor in History. Upon graduating in 2007, he eschewed becoming a corrections officer to help Peter get Underground Surveying off the ground. David learned utility locating and concrete imaging services by working as an apprentice to Peter and another project manager for up to 2 years. In 2009, he began running his own projects and training new technicians. During his first 10 years with the company, he and Mike Gulla worked together as our primary team for large, multi-day projects. Now Dave specializes in taking on our most challenging projects, and has a long history of high quality work and minimal fieldwork mistakes. His current roles include Safety Manager, Team A field leader, utility locating, concrete imaging, and every so often answering phones, providing quotes, drafting proposals, and scheduling projects.
Mike Gulla
Senior Project Manager/Technician
Mike joined us back in March 2012, bringing with him many years of construction and HVAC experience. His puritan work ethic and attention to detail was something many of our team leaders immediately loved, which is why they always wanted him as a partner on difficult projects. For about 5 years he was paired with Dave Giro, who worked with him on some of our most difficult, multi-day projects. You can find Mike on any given day working feverishly until every single last utility has been marked out perfectly, grinding himself into the ground in the process. In fact, our clients trust him so much they often request his services on their high risk projects. Mike's current roles include Team B leader, utility locating, concrete imaging, and, in the winter when things slow down, answering phones, providing quotes, drafting proposals, and scheduling projects.
Pete Giro
Senior Project Manager/Technician
Pete joined us in September 2012, with the purpose of helping us expand our leak detection and video inspection services. He has almost 10 years experience as a plumber, having worked in North Carolina for both Drains Plus and Schwartz Plumbing. During this time he did service plumbing, fit-ups, installation, and repairs. More importantly for us, he also gained a lot of experience doing video inspections, searching for problems in pipes before doing repairs or cleaning them to correct the issue. His current responsibilities include Team C leader, utility locating, leak detection, and video inspection. He is currently responsible for expanding our leak detection and video inspection services.
Gail Patterson
Office Manager
Gail joined us in October 2013 to help us with our office and paperwork responsibilities. She has over 20 years of administrative experience, dating back to her days as a Personnel Administrative Specialist (Human Resources Assistant)in the United States Army. During this time she worked for Watson Pharmaceuticals (now Actavis), MannKind Corp., Boehringer Ingelheim, and Verus Financial. Peter met her while working at Watson. He was immediately impressed by her no BS attitude and her ability to get things done quickly and efficiently, oftentimes steam rolling through any imposition in the way. After hunting her down on LinkedIn in late October 2013, Gail joined the company only 3 days later. It didn't take long before she was answering phones, scheduling projects, obtaining COIs, invoicing, doing collections, and taking no prisoners.
Kamal Abdulrazak
Co-founder/Business Development/Senior Project Manager
Kamal graduated from Western Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Master of Arts in Biological and Environmental Sciences. Upon graduating in 2000, he worked as a pharmaceutical microbiologist. During his tenure as a microbiologist whenever his work schedule allowed for it, like Peter, he also worked for Subsurface Consulting, LTD as an apprentice to Dr. James S. Mellett, CPG. In 2005, Kamal and Peter both founded Underground Surveying, LLC. A couple of years later, however, when Peter quit his pharmaceutical job to pursue the business as a full time endeavor, Kamal make the decision to continue his career as a pharmaceutical scientist, and did so over the next 16 years. Finally, in 2016, he left his position as a lab scientist in the Medical Device industry to rejoin Underground Surveying. After working in the corporate world, joining our company represented an opportunity to be part of a team that more closely aligns with his values, with a greater emphasis on service, quality, and people than profits. His current roles include Team D field leader, survey technician, and business development. He is currently working on a system for reviewing and improving individual and team performance, in addition to working on any other aspects of the business that need further development. More importantly, once we open up additional regional office locations, he will be responsible for leading and coaching these teams as well.
Stephen Vedral
Project Manager/Technician
Steve joined our company in May 2018. He is a graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Waterbury, CT. After high school he became a manager in the retail business, eventually working his way up to an overnight manager at Big Y supermarket. After working in retail for 10 years, he decided a change in career path was necessary. After hearing from our Office Manager, Gail, that we had an opening, he came in for an interview. It didn't take long for us to know Steve was the right man for the job, and thus far we have not been disappointed. He immediately became a loyal sidekick on some of our more difficult multi-day utility locating projects, and now he is running his own crew, Team E. Not only do we love his work ethic, but we also love how his laid back manner fits in perfectly with some of our stronger personalities. Our goal is to have Steve take on larger and larger project as well as train some of our new technicians.
Johnnie Pereira
Project Manager/Technician
Johnnie joined our company in November 2018. He is a graduate of Wilby High School in Waterbury, CT. During his high school years, he worked with his father building concrete foundations after school. After graduation, he gained even more construction experience by building slabs, walkways, stone patios, masonry walls, and doing asphalt repairs. In fact, prior to joining us, he was managing a crew of asphalt repair technicians. However, a lack of advancement at that job led him to look for employment with us. Luckily for us, Johnnie's Portuguese work ethic and high quality craftsmanship were the exact traits we were looking for in a technician. Already his 10 plus years of construction knowledge and experience has enabled him to become a reliable helper to our experienced team leaders. Not only that, who cannot love a guy who volunteers to clean the garage when there is nothing else to do? Not surprisingly, after only about 6 months training, Johnnie was already running his own crew, Team F. Now he runs most of our large, multi-day projects, and is by far the most requested project manager on our staff.
Chuck Ruggiero
Project Manager/Technician
Chuck joined our company in August 2019, after having been recommended to us by one of our project managers. After graduating from West Haven High School and the Academy of Medical Training in Torrington with a Phlebotomy Certificate, Chuck, like the jack of all trades that he is, worked for many years as an automotive technician, contractor, and tote technician. His interest in working for a company he could settle down and build a career with caused him to look for work with us. During the interview we were impressed with his demeanor, eclectic work history, and technical gifts, so we hired him not long after it was completed. Since day one Chuck has displayed the traits we look for in a technician--attention to detail and pride in his work. He now runs his own utility locating projects as Team G, and is often placed on jobs that require a greater than normal attention to detail. As an added benefit to having him on our team, he is now the third employee who lives in the Waterbury area, which now makes it easier for us to perform jobs in the middle and eastern parts of Connecticut and in southern Massachusetts.
Alec Riley
Project Manager/Technician
Alec graduated from Henry Abbott Technical High School in Danbury, CT, back in 2002, through its carpentry program. After a few years working for a small remodeling company that specialized in renovating kitchens and bathrooms, he transitioned into retail management. He spent 10 years at CVS both as a store manager and a regional pharmacy inventory trainer. In an attempt to climb the corporate ladder--before realizing he was completely miserable--he moved over to Rite Aid for 5 years. Finally, after 15 years in the retail industry, he broke free and tried his hand as a truck driver for a short time. Eventually, he settled into a role at a western Connecticut HVAC company, where he both delivered fuel and did boiler/furnace maintenance and installations. In 2021, right before we were ready to interview a top-notch candidate we expected to hire right away, Dave Giro, our most senior employee, recommended that we first interview Alec. He was curious about the type of work we do and the way we run our company--free from the daily B.S. that bog so many companies down. Five minutes into the interview we knew Alec was our guy. And we were certainly right, for after only 6 months of training, he was out on his own doing utility locating and leak detection jobs as Team H. This was one of the quickest transitions from trainee to project manager we have ever had. So far this has been an ideal landing spot for Alec, because he gets to use his jack-of-all-trades abilities on a daily basis and avoids being cooped up inside. Outside of work he is an avid golfer, an exceptional dart player, hobbyist woodworker, and a Brian Daboll impersonator. Most importantly, he is a loving husband and a father of two (very) small humans.
TJ Smith
Project Manager/Technician
TJ graduated from Henry Abbott Technical High School in Danbury, CT, back in 2003, through its electrcal program. From 2000-2008, he worked as an electrical apprentice and journeyman for various different companies. Responding to an itch he had to work for himself, he started his own general construction and home remodeling company, Thomas Smith Remodeling, in 2009. In 2012, he received his general contracting license, enabling him to specialize in general construction and home remodeling, which includes interior and exterior repairs and renovations, including but not limited to bathrooms, kitchens, and basements as well as roofing, siding and decking. In addition, also in 2012, he started working as an independent contractor for MR Remodeling, helping out with general construction and home remodeling, with a specific focus on additions, demolition, installation, electrical, tiling, plumbing and maintaining communication with contractors on all trades. Although TJ enjoys working as an indepent contractor, as anyone in the business knows, the steady work can be difficult to attain. This is why back in 2015 when we were looking to hire a new technician, he reached out to us after Mike Gulla, one of our Senior Project Managers, recommended him for the opening. Unfortunately, we didn't hire him because at the time we were looking to hire someone from outside our employees' circle of friends. This turned out to be a BIG mistake, as the person we hired ended up being a terrible fit for the job. Fortunately for us, however, TJ remained interested in 2023 when another job opening appeared. This time we pounced on the opportunity to hire him. Thus far TJ has made our original decision look stupid, as he has quickly learned both utility locating and concrete imaging and moved quickly into being a reliable project manager as Team I--one of the quickest leaps from inexperienced new hire we have ever seen! We look foward to having him as a teamate for years to come.