Legacy reimagined - Nicholas Miller takes family business to new heights

“I see each day as a challenge, and I love a good challenge,” declares Nicholas Miller, the second-generation leader of Montego Bay-based JFM Electrical Engineering and Maintenance Limited.

“I thrive under pressure. Challenge sharpens me. If my days become too quiet, if no client is calling, I start to feel restless. I do my best work when there’s something meaningful to build, fix, or overcome.”

It is a mindset that has kept Miller’s days anything but idle. From behind the desk of his modestly furnished office, nestled within a three-storey industrial complex at Barnett Logistics Park, he oversees a business whose brand of client servicing has put it on speed dial for projects across the island.

Twenty years after assuming the mantle from his father, John Frederick Miller, whose initials form the company’s acronym, Miller has grown JFM Electrical into a sought-after provider of mechanical and electrical engineering services. The company’s portfolio includes established brands such as Carreras, Nestlé and Sandals Resorts, as well as a growing slate of industrial, commercial and real estate projects.

Among its most ambitious undertakings is The Pinnacle, a US$450-million four-tower luxury development in Montego Bay that will soon introduce branded residences under the Accor/Ennismore banner.

JFM Electrical was retained as the project’s electrical partner two years ago and is responsible for the extensive scope of electrical engineering and works being executed. The assignment spans the design, planning, coordination and implementation of the development’s electrical systems.

The scale of the project is matched by the sophistication of the technology being built into its residences. “A lot of the technology we’re integrating there is brand new,” Miller explains of the smart-home systems threaded through the residences. “In a standard room, the air-conditioning unit can be monitored by your body temperature. You can use an iPad to manipulate the lighting. For safety and life management, homeowners are able to communicate with the panel – there are heat sensors that trigger alarms from the get-go, which mitigate any fire risk long before it poses a threat.”

In addition, JFM’s day-to-day responsibilities at the luxury residences under construction are manifold. “We are developing comprehensive electrical designs, overseeing system integration, executing all the electrical installations and ensuring compliance with applicable codes, regulations and project specifications. We are aiming to deliver innovative and sustainable electrical solutions and, at the same time, ensure they meet the highest standards of safety, efficiency and performance,” he pointed out.

Miller has a great sense of joy taking on the mammoth job at hand. He is, too, pleased about the working relationship. “Nicholas is exactly the kind of contractor we want to build with on The Pinnacle team: sharp, meticulous, genuinely invested in getting it right,” says Yangsen Li, chief executive officer of LCH Development, developer of The Pinnacle. “It’s been exciting to watch the fluency with which he’s embraced the leading-edge technology we’re bringing.”

JFM’s business model today is radically overhauled from what the senior Miller, a former Jamaica Public Service Company linesman, founded in 1995. “Primarily, what they did back then was on a smaller scale,” reflects the younger Miller, whose directional outlook and management style put him at odds decades earlier with his father and manager at the time. “It was initially just electricians going out and doing residential and small commercial installations. Fast-forward to JFM now and we’re doing a full turnkey job, from design and installation to project management and construction.”

Reminiscing on the ambitious plan that JFM inevitably became, Nicholas recalls: “My father said it was a case of ‘two bulls can’t run one pen’, so, after starting the company, after 10 years, he decided to take an early retirement, and I took the reins.

“Our business acumen and leadership styles are generationally different, and that was something I noticed and appreciated when I first joined the company in my 20s.

“JFM was built on a solid foundation. My father cultivated enduring relationships with a wide network of respected business leaders, founded on trust, integrity and mutual respect, and that was an integral core of the business,” praises the successor of the legacy. “However, when I first started, I identified areas that needed significant improvement that may have ruffled some feathers but, in the end, it proved good for business.

JFM’s transition also meant expanding the scope of what it offered clients, and, at this juncture, Nicholas recruited his cousin Andrew Miller, freshly returned from studying electrical engineering in Cuba, as his right hand in the revamped business.

“What would have happened earlier is that a client would come with a complete design, and we’d just do the installation. The major transformation was that we started doing all the designs ourselves and proceeded to execute the electrical installations. That’s one of the main added components, handling oversight of the full engineering aspect of a client’s job.”

Clients noticed and appreciated the difference. So did his father.

“I believe that was the moment my dad recognised the vision and potential of the business. He chose to step aside, placing his trust in Andrew and me to lead it into its next chapter.”

Now, over two decades later, having captained the family business to new horizons, Nicholas insists his rise to the top was incidental, not intentional; he’d wanted to walk his own path. At the University of Technology, financing derailed his engineering degree in the second year, so he pivoted, earning accreditation in circuitry and controls through courses in Florida, where he relocated briefly before returning home to Jamaica.

For this quick study, who as a child pulled apart and rebuilt Walkmans and other electronics, his journey first started in the hospitality industry, where he worked in entertainment and, by chance, was also given the opportunity to gain experience within the hotel’s engineering department. Miller made an immediate impression with one of his first assignments at the then still-under-construction property.

“They wanted me to work with a team to do a full electrical installation of one of their large dining areas and, for some reason, I told the chief engineer I wanted to try it by myself, and asked if they could assign me an apprentice, even though I was an apprentice myself. They said they’d give me two weeks to complete the job. We did it in two days.” Lights, fans, circuitry: all done.

Following his well-received stint at the resort, he ventured into the airline industry for a few years. Later, the tour operating sector, where he also impressed his employers with his people skills and distinct leadership strengths. This did not go unnoticed by his father, who extended an invitation for Nicholas to come aboard JFM.

As JFM’s present-day managing director, Nicholas’ days start before the crack of dawn. “Religiously, six days a week I’m in the gym by 4:30 a.m.,” he volunteers. Beneath a crisp, frost-white button-up, the defined lines of his chest and biceps hint at years of disciplined weight training. Paired with fitted trousers and understated sneakers, his attire strikes a balance between being professional and practical.

Under the joint watch of Nicholas and his cousin Andrew, director and chief engineer, JFM Electrical has grown its permanent staffing from five to 45. With external subcontractors, the team expands to over 100. That growth has also meant more office space: a relocation from Church Lane in Montego Bay to the Barnett Distribution and Logistics Hub at Northbank, Catherine Mount, just outside the capital.

As Nicholas leads his team at JFM Electrical, the vision never stands still. Innovation remains at the heart of the business, driving it to anticipate the needs of a growing market and an ever-evolving clientele. Guided by uncompromising standards, integrity and mutual respect, these values form the foundation of the company and, for the Miller family, no success outweighs what matters most – family.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com