Jonathan Potts – DP Electric

Jon Potts did not arrive at project management through a straight line. His path into the electrical trades began during high school, when he spent summers working for a family friend performing residential electrical installations in custom homes. The early exposure gave him a feel for the fundamentals of the craft—and a quiet appreciation for the work.

Then the 2007 housing market collapsed.

Construction slowed, Potts was laid off, and he spent the next several years trying on different lives. He drove a school bus, worked as a maintenance worker at Rio Salado College, worked in pool maintenance, worked in a supply warehouse as a delivery driver, and even sold insurance. None of it stuck; he needed something that was a career. He was capable in each role, but none of them felt like a true direction or career option.

The shift came in 2016, when a mentor from his time in maintenance at Rio Salado College pushed him to return to electrical work and pursue it seriously. Potts enrolled in an apprenticeship program through the Arizona Builders Alliance, joined DP Electric early in that journey, and never looked back. He moved steadily through the ranks—from apprentice electrician to journeyman, then journeyman lead—and eventually transitioned into the office side of operations. From there, he climbed from Project Engineer to Assistant Project Manager before stepping into his current role as Project Manager in December 2023.

The reality of the job

DP Electric is a fully employee-owned electrical contractor operating primarily in the commercial and industrial construction sectors across Arizona and Texas

Founded by Dan Puente, the company transitioned to 100% employee ownership through an ESOP structure, ensuring that those who build the company’s success have a direct stake in its future. DP Electric provides electrical infrastructure, power distribution, lighting systems, and control systems for a wide range of facility types, including high-tech manufacturing, healthcare environments, data centers, arenas, and hospitality projects.

“Data center construction has become a significant portion of our workload,” Potts notes, reflecting the broader surge in digital infrastructure development across the region. Commercial and industrial work remains its primary focus—markets where DP Electric can deliver greater value and maintain stronger margins.

As a project manager, Potts is involved from the earliest stages of a project to its final close-out. His responsibilities begin with relationship-building—cultivating connections with general contractors, developers, and project partners to identify and secure new work for the company. Once a project is awarded, he manages the full electrical scope: estimating, scheduling, budgeting, team coordination, and ensuring the final installation meets client expectations.

Potts oversees a small internal team that is a blend of assistant project managers and project engineers. He is also actively involved in hiring decisions for those who would work directly under him, participating in interviews to assess not just technical knowledge but how well a candidate will fit into the team’s culture and workflow.

“I’d rather evaluate how someone will actually perform on a real project than rely solely on what’s on paper,” he says.

Repeat business is a byproduct of that careful approach. In commercial construction, a well-executed project often leads directly to the next one, making relationship management as important as technical delivery.

Projects that define the work

Three projects illustrate the range and depth of what Potts manages.

The Queen Creek Recreation & Aquatic Center, located within Frontier Family Park in Queen Creek, Arizona, stands as one of the most visible projects in his portfolio. The 68,000-square-foot indoor facility pairs with expansive outdoor aquatics—competition pools, a leisure pool, water slides, and a 500-foot lazy river—to serve as a major destination for a rapidly growing community. DP Electric handled the electrical infrastructure for the aquatic center, including large electrical control centers managing pool equipment, advanced 60-foot MUSCO stadium-style lighting, pump control systems, and remote emergency shutdown integration. The facility opened to the public on March 29, 2025, after an 18-month construction timeline, and was named a finalist for the 2026 RED Awards in the Recreation category.

“Working on a public project means navigating a lot of voices—staying direct and solution-oriented is what keeps things moving,” Potts says.

A second project—an 80,000-square-foot pet pharmaceutical compounding facility completed in August 2025—pushed the team in a different direction. The building required clean-room-adjacent environments for producing medications for animals and exotic pets, with a 1,250 KVA generator providing full backup power to protect temperature-sensitive inventory. Nearly the entire building slab had to be cut and excavated to install underground electrical distribution before being restored. Potts credited his foreman’s field leadership as essential to the project finishing both efficiently and profitably.

The third project—Buck & Rider, a high-end seafood restaurant in North Scottsdale—holds particular personal significance. Completed in 2022, it was the first project Potts managed entirely from start to finish as lead project manager. The roughly 10,000-square-foot venue seats approximately 450 guests and features a 10-seat sushi bar, a full commercial kitchen, and layered lighting and control systems throughout. His background working in the field before entering management proved immediately useful.

“Having done the work yourself means you understand what you’re asking of your crew,” he says.

The future is bright

DP Electric competes for major contracts against established firms in a highly competitive market. Potts believes the company’s edge comes not from scale alone, but from how it has managed growth without losing what makes DP Electric an outstanding company worth working for.

“A lot of companies grow and become something unrecognizable,” he says. “We’ve worked hard to keep the culture intact.”

That culture—employee-owned, promotion-from-within, deeply collaborative—is what leadership has deliberately protected through a period of rapid expansion. The company is now establishing operations in Austin, with potential entry into the Dallas market under active consideration. The guiding principle throughout has been sustainable growth: expanding into new territories carefully enough to avoid spreading resources too thin or diluting the internal environment that has driven the company’s success.

Outside the office, and what comes after the workday, Potts is focused on family. His two-year-old son anchors most of his free time, with travel, hiking, and camping filling the margins when schedules allow. Mountain biking, once a regular outlet, has given way to the demands of early parenthood—a trade he seems entirely at peace with.

Professionally, his goals mirror the company’s own trajectory: more complex projects, a stronger network, and a continued commitment to the culture that defines DP Electric. For Potts, building relationships and building infrastructure are two sides of the same work—each one quietly powering everything that comes next.