
Acutely aware of the hardship disadvantaged businesses face when trying to compete, Mr. Kernan developed solutions to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit needed to lift entire communities struggling today. He created opportunities within the construction industry’s skilled trades, where training, mentoring and access to capital could have a significant impact on disadvantaged. In essence, Mr. Kernan gives distressed communities a pathway to the American Dream.
By fully embracing all members of society, the US will remain a highly competitive nation.
Private Sector Solution to a Public Sector Problem
Mr. Kernan created Oriska Insurance in 1990 to support disadvantaged businesses within the construction...
Overcoming Obstacles through Innovation
Mr. Kernan is known for an innovative spirit, turning stagnant traditions and bureacratic hurdles...
Mr. Kernan first became involved in apprentice training and the issues of disparate treatment in 1978 when he was recruited to provide assistance in the preparation of affirmative action apprenticeship training to address the Percy v. Brennan Case 73-cv-04279.
Mr. Kernan’s experience with the subject of apprentice training began in 1968 when he enlisted in the US Marine Corps and reported to the Parris Island Recruit Depot assigned to Platoon 1039 for boot camp basic training, graduating on December 8, 1968, reporting then to Camp Lejeune North Carolina for advanced infantry training at Camp Lejeune/Camp Geiger North Carolina.
Upon completion of ordinance/explosives, training, at Quantico, Virginia, Mr. Kernan received orders under the US Secretary of the Navy to report for engineering training for CORDS (Civil Operations Revolutionary Development Support) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under Title 10 §2107 of the US Code.
Mr. Kernan was being trained for deployment to Vietnam to be attached to US Marine Corps CORDS, to rebuild roads and infrastructure damaged as a result of combat, when in the early months of 1971, as the US withdrew from South Vietnam enemy engagement ceased, combat engineering strength went from more than 20,000 to by May 1971 to less than 1000.
Mr. Kernan became licensed as a Professional Engineer in 1976 and founded Kernan Engineering, specializing in engineering design, concentrating on civil, sewer, water, power distribution, transportation and environmental planning, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, mechanical, electrical.
The Calling to Public Service
Mr. Kernan served as Justice for the Village of Oriskany in the early 1980s.
Confronting Challenges to Disadvantaged Communities
Laying the groundwork to assist disadvantaged and small businesses, Mr. Kernan concentrated his law practice on surety bonding, construction litigation and apprenticeship training...
History of Mr. Kernan's Association with the Percy Program
The Percy Program was developed by Mr. Kernan as a plan to fit the framework required of Percy v. Brennan Case 73-cv-04279 and a decision issued by the Appellate Division Fourth Department of the New York...
Creating Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged
Apprentice training programs were registered with the New York State Department of Labor and Department of Education. He developed work processes for On-the-Job training...
Driven by the belief that economic opportunities can create pathways to success for disadvantaged...
The New York State Department of Labor registered Mr. Kernan's initiative for On-the-Job training...
Mr. Kernan uses a private sector solution to address a public sector problem. He made it his...
Geothermal systems incorporate a swimming pool it into their home's heating and cooling system, but Mr. Kernan wanted to make his home and office (both are in the same 1890 Victorian building complex) the most efficient, energy-saving complex possible. His idea was to use his 40,000 gallon pool to provide thermal storage, or a heat sink, for the heating and cooling system. A heat sink transfers thermal energy from a higher temperature source to a lower temperature source. Not surprisingly, as an engineer, Mr. Kernan relished the challenge...
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