It started as a summer job. That turned into a career more satisfying than can be imagined. Now, working hard in the electrical industry has become a passion — to instruct, model, and encourage everyone to be safe. This is the story of Walker Engineering, Inc. Director of Safety John Rosas, IEC Texas Gulf Coast, who has 33 years of experience and the respect of those with whom he interacts.
“One summer when I was a teenager, being idle, not knowing what to do, my brother-in-law who was a master electrician asked me if I wanted to make some money for the summer,” John remembers. “I said ‘yeah, I’ll do it just for the summer,’ and here I am 33 years later still in the trade.”
John really shouldn’t have been surprised because he says he was one of those guys who loved to work with tools and his hands, and he took woodshop seriously from middle school on up. He was always making things, like cabinets for the main office at school. His dad was a builder and a painter and John saw him model good, hard work.
“I was always around tools and I knew I had a knack for it but I just fell in love with the art of pipe bending that summer working with my brother-in-law,” he says. “I enjoyed standing back and looking at what I created. Sometimes there was a big pile of pipe behind me from those bends that I didn’t like!”
John continued his electrical journey getting better and better at the work, running jobs, and exploring where this industry could take him. He enjoyed growing as an electrician and was intrigued — and pleased — to see that elevating worker safety was becoming more present in the industry. 
“When I started in the field in the early ‘90s, sometimes safety was an afterthought,” he says. “I heard often, ‘man, we got lucky there.’ I saw where the safety field was going and I remember talking with my wife and saying I think safety is going to become a big deal and I think I’m going to do that. I put the word out there that I was interested in moving into the safety area.”
John was working at Samsung Electronics in Austin at the time. They heard him, and he began his safety career.
Walker Engineering, Inc.
John moved to his current company at the end of 2013. Walker is the largest specialty contractor in Texas with a proven track record of delivering award-winning electrical and network services to clients since its founding by Charlie Walker in 1981 with three employees. The Walker Way means living by the company principles of family, safety, quality, customer focused, and leadership. Those are qualities that resonate with John.
Today, the company is just shy of 3,700 employees with regional offices in four major Texas cities — Dallas / Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. The company offers commercial electrical, structured cabling, security, tenant finish, audio / visual, end-user service, and distributed antenna systems.
But Walker’s commitment to safety is what John truly appreciates.
“We have area safety managers in all four markets, and we work hard to be sure we’re all on the same page and that everybody is performing and teaching our programs the way they’re supposed to. I have oversight in the Houston area, and as director I assist managers in the other three markets as well. I report to the Walker VP of safety and loss prevention.”
John describes the company’s safety philosophy as collaborative, where all safety managers are involved in bringing new ideas, strategies, and procedures to the table for discussion. Each is comfortable reporting how programs are working in their areas and also at suggesting tweaks to make things work even better.
“I do a lot of the connecting between all the markets to make sure we’re on the same page and that safety is being supported properly throughout the organization,” John says. “If issues arise, we find strategic ways to fix the problems. Stomping feet and acting like kids is no longer the way.
“Between all four markets, we have about 120 safety professionals,” he reports. “Walker is not a high-volume project company; we have large projects. That means we have the ability to gather people rather quickly to train for a project.”
Utilizing Technology
John realizes that a company of Walker’s size is positioned to use some tools that the smaller contractor cannot.
He explains the depth of communication in place when a new procedure is coming out and how technology has moved them well beyond getting an employee to sign off on a piece of paper that he or she understands the new tool, process, or procedure. There is no way even one employee cannot be aware — and training is offered in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
“When something new is coming, we’ll talk about it in the regular toolbox talks for a couple of weeks,” John says. “We’ll let employees know that pretty soon they will see details in their MyWalker portal, which is their personal website including time cards, insurance documents, manuals, etc. We alert them they’re going to see the new policy, its training dates, and more.”
Often training on the job site is the preferred delivery method, John explains. Each foreman has the training materials on their iPads, which they can hook up to large screens at the job site and conduct trainings right there.
Another tool utilized at Walker which assists them in conducting effective meetings and consistent training in all four markets is SmartTagIt by FactorLab. When foremen provide their daily update on operational risk management, it’s recorded. This video is then viewable for everyone and the safety team provides feedback to help foremen continually improve their daily talks.
“When the foremen themselves started seeing their videos, I heard many say, ‘I need to work on looking at my guys when I’m talking to them,’ or other ways they thought they could improve,” John says. “The other thing SmartTagIt does is use AI to ‘score’ the presentation. Once we started getting the grades and posting them, I started receiving phone calls from foremen asking ‘how do I get my score up?’ Then they started competing and improving and now we’re having better conversations in the field.”
In the year and a half Walker has been using this system, they’ve seen a great reduction in injuries, especially soft tissue injuries. John says they’ve also seen an uptick in production.
“When the speaking gets better, the interaction gets better,” John says. “We’re having better conversations in the field about the work, which means they’re discussing safety and understanding the procedures a lot better. It beats just signing a JHA that somebody wrote and nobody bothered to read. Everybody contributes and that just makes work that much safer.”
Making a Difference
John is proud of his company’s commitment to safety and his part in getting their employees home each night. He also knows that his family’s support has provided him with the opportunity to succeed.
“The success I have had in this trade, and the experiences I’ve had in my life would never have happened if it was not for my family,” John shares. “My wife, Christine, has stood by my side for the last 32 years, and said ‘it will be ok, you can do this,’ and the two beautiful successful daughters we raised — no matter how many recitals and games I missed, they understood it was all for them, for a better life, for better opportunities.”
Recently, he’s added another layer of safety awareness to the company and to the industry — suicide in the construction industry.
“I opened up about my personal situation — I’m a three-time survivor of suicide attempts,” John says. “After connecting with other survivors and experts in suicide prevention through the AGC, I brought it to the IEC Texas Gulf Coast and said I’d like to present the safety portion of the chapter general membership meeting and talk about this.” 
The chapter agreed and John spoke at a meeting in mid-2023. It was one of his hardest — and proudest — moments of his life.
“You know when you go to conferences and meetings, you see a number of people looking at their phones in every session,” he mentions. “At the IEC Texas Gulf Coast meeting, I started sharing some of the suicide numbers. And the minute I said I can relate to those who attempted to take their life because I tried it three times, the phones went down and they focused on my story. I could see my words resonated and I knew I had made an impact. Another proud moment came when people came up to me afterward and thanked me for talking about suicide. They shared with me that they knew someone who took their own life and they’ve never thought about talking with anybody about it. I knew I made a difference that day.”
John also knew he could make an even bigger difference by keeping the conversation going. He told his story on a toolbox talk at Walker in front of some 600 people one day. Three employees approached him to share their thoughts of suicide. He says they expressed not really knowing why they have the thoughts as their family life is great and they enjoy their work. But sometimes they get bouts of anxiety, for example.
“I’m able to listen and share with them numbers to call and people who can help them work through this before they try to take their life,” he says. “I’ve shown them how to use the Walker employee assistance line and showed them how to get there through their employee portal. I want to help the industry in this area. I provide them with my phone number and with my email and invite them to contact me. I want them — and Insights readers — to know if you need someone to talk to, I’m here. My ears are always open and there’s always a chair next to me to sit and have a conversation.”
To better be able to share these important messages, John is stepping up his involvement with AGC and IEC. In fact, he’ll be the 2026 president for the IEC Texas Gulf Coast chapter. He currently also is on the IEC National Safety Committee and since November 2024 has served as the IEC Regional Director for the Greater Texas Region on the IEC National Board of Directors.
“In these leadership roles, I will champion suicide awareness in construction and do what I can to review and provide resources for IEC wherever they need it,” John promises. “Show me what you need me to do, and I can look into it and do it. I can help herd the sheep and share things I’ve learned over the years for fellow contractors big and small.”
John’s Advice for Future Electricians…
John has been to a couple of high schools with Brian Townsend, IEC Texas Gulf Coast executive director, to talk with the young men and women about a future in electrical. He stresses the effective training offered, the ability to make good money as an electrician, the various directions the career can take you, and the opportunity to chart your own future.
“I’m a perfect example with my summer job to make a couple of dollars to finding out it was something I loved,” John states. “I’ve made a great living for my family and may be getting to the point where I don’t want to work so much, play some more golf, and learn to be a great grandfather to our new grandson. Then there are guys who want to continue working 60 hours a week, because it’s in their blood. Others don’t want the responsibility of being a leader or superintendent; they just want to continue doing the job. You can do electronic instruments, testing, safety, whatever. Don’t ever let anyone tell you construction or being an electrician is a dirty job. If you can stand to sweat a little bit and can make it through the training, you’re going to have jobs of your choosing for the rest of your life.”