AssociatesHi. My name is Steve McKenzie, and this is my chance to talk about the company I founded and still lead. Some of the things I’m going to say might sound like clichés, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true.
I founded my company in 1989, and originally it was just me. I started out offering only one service, utility bill auditing. My goal was to be the best utility bill auditor I could be by combining my natural skills of creativity, an eye for detail, intuition, and negotiation, with my strong sense of integrity and tenacity.
I liked my new career, found I had quite a knack for it, and I soon developed an obsession for making sure my clients weren’t giving any more of their money to their utility companies than they had to.
It was fun; everyday I got to feel like a detective trying to solve a “crime” that had not even been reported. The “crimes” were of course overcharges that I knew just had to be waiting to be discovered in my clients’ bills.
As the size of my clients grew, so did their needs. In response, I added new services, such as Utility site set-up, bill processing, outsourced lease administration, and I hired people to work with me.
Sometimes I trained them, other times they trained me.
32 years later, our home office is still in Marin County, CA. We incorporated in 2005, and our official name is now The McKenzie Group, Inc, but we still go by our previous name of McKenzie & Associates.
It’s been quite a privilege to work with the great companies I’ve had as clients. I’m always honored at the trust that they place in my company and me.
Scott has been with our company for 17 years - longer than anybody except Steve McKenzie. Scott manages our team of analysts, and interacts personally with our larger clients - including their executives if necessary.
Scott’s background prior to joining McKenzie & Associates was in Operations and Logistics. While he initially relied on learning his auditing skills from Steve himself, over the past 17 years Scott’s knowledge of tariffs has far surpassed Steve’s, along with his ability to use that understanding to our client’s advantage.
Scott’s unique gift is his ability to combine an inquisitive mind that can analyze and understand complex tariffs, with a very human side that can explain to customers what they need to know, as well as a personable, non-threatening demeanor that allows him to make friends and allies with the utility company representatives.
CJ has worked for McKenzie & Associates for almost as long as Scott ... 16 years. CJ manages our Utility Setup Service for new customer locations ensuring that every new location’s utility services are ready on time, with the correct billing info and the least amount of deposit required, and on the most advantageous rate schedule with the utility.
Like Scott, CJ came to us from a previous life in an unrelated field; in her case Human Resources in retail and banking. Much of her training has literally been “on the job” and, over the past fifteen years, CJ has amassed an immense knowledge of utility construction policies, as well as making allies in the Planning and New Construction Department of nearly every utility company in the nation, all while rising from Project coordinator to managing our entire Due Diligence department.
CJ’s superpower is her friendly but determined manner that allows her to enlist and manage the cooperation of all parties involved, along with her ability to keep calm even when the unexpected happens - as it always does in construction. CJ is responsible for many, many letters of appreciation from grateful clients whose projects she has either saved from late openings or whose lives she has just made much easier with her efforts.
The proud parents of two grown daughters, CJ and her husband currently live in Boca Raton where they love the weather but not necessarily all the iguanas.
