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Business View Magazine
The Mazzella Companies
Leader in overhead lifting and rigging vows to remain independent
Mazzella Companies is 60 years old. Current CEO, Tony
Mazzella, recounts how the original company was found-
ed by his father in 1954: “My dad got into the wire rope
and slingmaking business because of his father, who in-
vented several types of wire rope slings. My grandfather,
Antonio Mazzella, patented five wire rope slings and sold
his patents to a wire rope company. My dad and grandfa-
ther went to work for that company and started their first
wire rope shop. This was back in the early 1940s when
my dad was a young kid. He went to work right after his
sophomore year in high school. He ended up going into
the Service and when he came out and married my mom,
he moved from New Haven, Connecticut to Charleston,
West Virginia.”
According to Tony, James Mazzella’s first attempt at start-
ing his own business therewas not successful. “He starved
for a year and then he ended up getting a job in Cleveland,
Ohio as a foreman at a company called Frank Morrison &
Sons. He worked there for about five years and in 1954,
he started out on his own again.” This time, James Mazzel-
la made it work - his business provided the most basic of
