Long before Joseph Mattox was managing fleets and facilities, he was a teenager working in the Lawn and Garden department at Sears.
At 15-and-a-half years old, Mattox landed his first job at the Moreno Valley Mall in California. He quickly developed a reputation for being good with the technical side of things, which eventually led him off the sales floor and into building maintenance. He started as a preventive maintenance assistant and later became the preventive maintenance technician responsible for his own Sears store in Riverside.
More than 30 years later, Mattox is the City of Moreno Valley's fleet and facilities maintenance division manager. He joined the city in 2013 as a vehicle/ equipment technician before moving into a supervisory role and eventually taking responsibility for both fleet and facilities.
"In many ways, facilities management found me twice," Mattox says. "There is even an interesting full-circle connection today because the city is renovating the former Moreno Valley Sears, where I started my career, into the new Moreno Valley Museum. It is rewarding to see my career reconnect with where it began more than 30 years ago."
His willingness to try something new has followed Mattox throughout his career and is a big part of what he enjoys about facilities management.
"There is rarely just one discipline involved," Mattox says. "On any given day, the challenge might involve HVAC, electrical systems, construction, security, energy, technology, regulatory compliance, budgeting, procurement or personnel — and often several of those at once.
"What keeps the profession interesting to me is that it never stops evolving. Technologies change, regulations change, organizational needs change and the expectations placed on our facilities continue to grow. I enjoy taking complicated, tangible problems and finding practical solutions that make the organization work better."
Mattox is one of eight facility professionals to be named to FacilitiesNet’s fifth annual Facility Champion award. The Champions play a critical role in ensuring the efficient and effective operation of buildings across the country, all while exhibiting strong leadership and pride within the industry.
For Mattox, though, the award is not really about him.
"I am incredibly grateful for the recognition, and it truly means a great deal to me," he says. "Although the award may carry my name, I see it as validation of our entire team and the program we have built together.
"One of the interesting things about facilities management is that good work is often invisible. When the lights come on, the building is comfortable, the plumbing works and problems are prevented before they become emergencies, people do not necessarily think about the team behind it. In many ways, that is exactly how it should be, but that is why recognition like this is particularly meaningful. It provides an opportunity to shine a light on the people whose work often happens behind the scenes."
If there is one theme that runs through Mattox's career, it is his belief that a good team can solve just about any problem.
One of the accomplishments he is most proud of is not a particular building or flashy project. Instead, it's the culture his team has created. His goal has been to build a group that is not afraid to ask questions or try a different approach.
"If a process is not working, we change it," Mattox says. "If a traditional procurement method cannot meet the city's needs or timelines, we seek an alternative compliant approach. If an unusual problem does not have an obvious solution, we work together to develop one."
That teamwork approach has paid off in some very practical ways for Mattox. When he took responsibility for facilities, the department was managing more than 62 individual service contracts across approximately 39 buildings. The sheer amount of paperwork and administration required to keep all those contracts moving was taking time away from the actual work of managing the facilities.
So, Mattox looked for another way.
"Rather than simply accepting that as the way the process had to work, I researched the applicable procurement requirements and worked to develop a different model," he says. "We competitively solicited licensed general contractor services that could self-perform many different trades and subcontract specialized work when necessary. That ultimately allowed us to reduce our contract portfolio from more than 62 contracts to approximately 10. The result was significantly less administrative workload, greater contract utilization, stronger relationships with our contractors and, most importantly, a much more responsive facilities operation."
Mattox has also learned that leadership means knowing when to step back.
"Earlier in your career, success is often measured by what you can accomplish yourself," he says. "Leadership requires a very different mindset. At some point, I realized that I had a highly capable, well-trained team around me and that my role had changed. My success had become directly tied to their success. That means supporting their decisions, providing insight and guidance when needed, removing obstacles and then giving them room to perform. It also means accepting that someone may approach a problem differently than I would."
As facilities management continues to expand, Mattox believes the profession will require people who are willing to keep learning and look at the bigger picture.
"I want to leave behind a team that is prepared to succeed without me," he says. "Developing talented people, giving them opportunities to grow, supporting their decisions and preparing the next generation of leaders is ultimately more important than any individual building or project I could complete.
"Facilities, technologies and processes will continue to change. If I can leave behind people who are confident enough to question what no longer works, capable enough to develop better solutions and committed enough to leave things even better for the people who follow them, that would be a legacy I would be proud of."
Mattox is one of eight 2026 Facility Champions who will be profiled on FacilitiesNet leading up to the webcast, "The State of Facilities Management: Insights from 2026 Facility Champions" that will honor the recipients. The webcast will air on November 24 at 12 p.m. CST on FacilitiesNet. You can register to view the webcast here.
He will also be a panelist on the "Facility Aces: What Happens When You’re Dealt a Bad Hand?" panel at NFMT West in Las Vegas on Nov. 4, 2026. You can register for the conference here.
Elaina Myers is the assistant editor of the facilities market. She has covered various topics from pest management to resilience to sustainability and covers all holidays and special days in the facilities field. She also manages the FacilitiesNet social media accounts.
