Our Mission
Quality. Customer Service. Integrity.
“Joe” Dickey Electric Inc. was founded on the principle of achieving success through customer satisfaction and high-quality employees. Since 1957, we have maintained a consistent commitment to customer service by training our employees to adapt to the changing industry.
Through strict continuing education efforts and training in the latest technologies and techniques, “Joe” Dickey Electric ensures its electricians are the best trained in the area to meet all of your electrical needs.
Company Officers
Eric Carlson – President
Since he was 15 years old, Eric Carlson has worked at “Joe” Dickey Electric in some capacity. His father, Gary Carlson, was an electrician and general foreman at the company for 21 years, and helped Eric land his first job handling material for Dickey.
Eric worked at Dickey all through high school and college and developed an interest in the engineering aspect of the work. In 2000, he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology from Youngstown State University and went to work for Dickey full time.
For Eric, “Joe” Dickey Electric is a second family as much as it is a career, and he takes care to promote the same work ethic and ideals that Joe Dickey Jr. has advocated since 1957. He approaches every job with an open-door policy and makes himself available to each customer.
“Joe, David and myself work with each client on some level,” he says. “If we see them, we know their names and we’re able to talk to them. Our name and our reputation are the most important tools we have.”
Dave Dickey – CEO
David Dickey has worked for his father’s company since he learned how to count. He and his siblings started early with the family business, sorting materials and helping with inventory. But when he turned 8, David took an immediate interest in riding along with his dad on service calls, even on weekends and holidays, and learning how to do electrical work.
That interest stayed with him and, after graduating from South Range High School, David pursued an associate’s degree from Youngstown State University. After graduating in 1977, he entered a four-year apprenticeship program and became a journeyman wireman in 1981. During that time, he worked for several contractors and was general foreman for many projects in the Mahoning Valley.
He returned to “Joe” Dickey Electric in 1982, eventually becoming president and chief operating officer in 1993. David strives to maintain his father’s core values of integrity and excellent service, and works to identify new opportunities for growth.
“Dad has always told us to think ahead of the curve; to be innovative,” David says. “He’s always given us room to try new things.”
From adding industrial and institutional clients to the company’s work in the residential and commercial sectors to incorporating the latest technology in its practices, David Dickey has helped grow the company from a 12-man shop to a company with hundreds of employees. But with that growth, David says he hasn’t lost sight of the employees who helped make that happen, some with up to 30 years of professional experience.
“Our employees are just as important as the people we serve,” he says. “We wanted to be the most well-known contractor for integrity and service in the area, and we are so blessed with finding the talent who helped make that possible.”
Joseph H Dickey, Jr. – Founder
In 1947, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Joseph H. Dickey Jr., began his electrical career at the General Outdoor Advertising Co., where he worked on neon signs until 1951. He then spent several years working in the electrical construction industry for Carlson Electric and the A.F. Beil Co.
In 1957, he had the opportunity to start his own electrical business when the former M.D. Bush Electrical Co. went up for sale. The one-man North Lima, Ohio-based operation sold for $6,000, including equipment and one truck. Dickey was just 27 years old.
“I met a man named Paul Reeves, a banker with Citizens Bank in Columbiana,” Dickey says. “When M.D. Bush Company went up for sale, Reeves made me an offer I couldn’t turn down. The deal was made on a handshake. I’ll never forget it.”
He started “Joe” Dickey Electric Inc. out of the basement of his home. The first big job came in the late 1950s, when the company was hired to repair the Fithian warehouse at Market Street and Wildwood Drive in Boardman after a fire.
“That project seemed to set us on our way,” Dickey says. “We have shown consistent growth since then.”
In the company’s early days, Joe Jr.’s brothers, Arnold and Jim Dickey, worked alongside him as the company grew. His children were always around the family business, often going along for the ride when he would have to respond to a call during holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 1982, his son, David, started working full-time at the company and became president and chief operating officer in 1993.
Above all, “Joe” Dickey Electric is a family-owned business. Joe Jr.’s eldest son, Joe Dickey III, is in charge of the company’s Commercial Service Division, and previously ran its Residential Division. In 2005, Dickey’s other son, Kevin, left the company to start an electrical-related company called CurrentSAFE, after previously running the company’s Preventative Maintenance Division.
“I take great pride in what they’ve done,” he says. “And I am so pleased with the employees that we’ve brought on over the years, the talent they’ve given us and the integrity they’ve shown in their work. Without that, we would not have gone this far in the business.”