Jerrod T. Borkey is President and owner of BMA Media Group.
Jerrod started Bortini Management Associates in 1991 as an event production company and has since expanded it to a full-service union agency providing a multitude of services primarily to the union construction industry. These services include marketing, public relations, media relations, television and video production, radio and audio production, advertising design and placement, graphic and web design, web site and social media management as well as special events planning, management and implementation.
Jerrod’s grandfather, John H. Borkey Sr., was an IBEW electrical worker with Local 1377 and an IBEW Local 38 "permittee" and Jerrod's father, Jack, began his apprenticeship with IBEW Local 38 in 1954. In 1968, Jack founded PEPCO which has become one of the largest electrical distributors in America. Jack continued a career-long relationship with IBEW Local 38 officers and instilled his legacy of union construction values in Jerrod that have forged the mindset that has guided BMA Media Group for more than three decades.
In 1993, Jerrod started the America’s Work Force Radio program, as a one-hour, daily drive-time program in conjunction with then AFL-CIO Executive-Secretary Richard Acton to address a multitude of labor-oriented topics improperly covered by the media for organized labor in Northeast Ohio. Today, America’s Work Force is one of America's premier labor podcasts heard each weekday on multiple streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora and others. For more on America’s Work Force: Click here.
In 1995, Jerrod and the BMA team implemented the first large-scale BMA – union event at the Cleveland Convention Center for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 38. This gala event of more than 2,000 attendees helped catapult the company into the union special events business for the next 25 years across North America from Vancouver to Atlanta to Boston and many large and small markets in between.
By 1998, he organized the company, becoming a signatory contractor with Sign Display and Allied Trades Local 639 of IUPAT DC 6 (Cleveland, OH) to represent the company’s marketing, design and operations staff. In 2000, he started the company’s in-house video production and organized another bargaining group with IBEW Local 673 (Mentor, OH) to represent the video technicians and editors. He also made BMA an AFTRA shop at the onset of the radio programming in 1993.
In 2008, Jerrod moved the company to a union-renovated 7,500-square-foot location in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. The new facility features three (3) video production edit suites in addition to a video/photo green screen studio and an audio recording studio. Jerrod and his staff at BMA have accumulated more than 35 regional & national awards since 2001 for video productions and creative design.
College: Syracuse University, BA
High School: Gilmour Academy
Other: Leadership Cleveland
Local Union: SDAT Local 639/ IUPAT DC6
