Leaders
John Marshall Cheary, Founder, Chairman
“I wanted to be a rock star,” confesses founder and CEO John Marshall Cheary. Instead, he found himself drawn to the "other side of the glass", putting him in the audio engineer's seat and he soon found himself excelling in a new art with amazing business potential.
After earning a B.M. from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and a successful stint as a digital audio editor, Cheary launched John Marshall Sound in 1995. In under a decade, he built a one-man operation into a leading independent audio production company. With the acquisition of Paul Ruben Productions in 2008, he began to focus on emerging areas of the education field.
One of Cheary’s core goals is to up the fun factor in educational media productions. “One of the most important things in life is a great education, and one of the best ways to educate is to entertain,” he believes. “Kicking media up a notch is a way to make things engaging.”
Kevin Fecu, Senior Engineer and Digital Editor
Kevin Fecu, John Marshall Media’s mastermind of post-production, joined the company in 2000. As the senior engineer, he oversees digital editing, scheduling and sound effects, creating everything from handclaps to full-blown Foleys. He also manages the painstaking quality-assurance protocols. He works directly with clients, ensuring that every recording is delivered on time and on target.
Before joining John Marshall Media, Fecu was an audio engineer, recording and mixing R&B, hip-hop and jazz. He earned his B.A. in music, with a specialty in audio engineering, from the City College of New York. Outside the JMM studio, he continues to mix and DJ, focusing on Caribbean music.
Paula Parker, Casting and Sales
Paula Parker joined Paul Ruben Productions in 1993, transitioning to John Marshall Media’s Head of Operations when the companies merged. She is an award-winning director of audiobooks and has developed an outstanding pool of vocal talent, describing herself as a “walking casting file.” Parker is also a key architect of the educational media sector of the business, working with publishers on ESL, FLT and other literacy projects.
Parker is accomplished on the other side of the microphone as well, having worked as a voice actor, singer and actress. She holds a B.A. from Southern Illinois University and has done post-graduate study in education at Columbia University. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Association of Educational Publishers. Her long-held dream: to play the nurse in a production of “Romeo and Juliet” at the Old Vic in London.