Jim Caruana:

...is the engineer slash brains behind Beyonce's successful albums:

According to Mr. Caruana:

By 1994, Caruana found himself working as a staff engineer for Sony Studios, a position he held for 12 years before he decided to become an independent engineer.

“I was lucky,” Caruana said. “I knew not everyone gets to work like I did and I knew that it might not last forever, so I always conducted myself like I was an independent engineer a little bit.”

With much of music recording taking place in computer-based systems, Caruana said he is able to work at home a great deal and he can pick and choose the projects he works on. Meanwhile, he can help encourage his 8-year-old son Samuel's interest in music.

Through his career, Caruana has been able to work with a wide variety of artists in a number of ways. His collaborators have come from all genres, from Jeff Buckley to Jay Z to the Black Eyed Peas to Harry Connick Jr.

“As an engineer I've done a little bit of everything,” Caruana said. “I've recorded whole bands, just the vocals. I've mixed.”

It was while he was working at Sony Studios that Caruana first met singer Beyonce Knowles in what turned out to be a fortuitous event.

Caruana said that Knowles entered the studio to work on her first solo album and he was chosen to be engineer on the session.

When Knowles returned to do more work, Caruana was again asked to return to the studio.

He went on to work on Destiny's Child's final album and has since worked extensively with Knowles on her solo efforts.

In 2006, Caruana received his first Grammy when Knowles' album “B'Day” was selected as Best Contemporary R&B Album, something Caruana said came as a great honor.