Sarah Garrahan joined Blithe Sales, an independent manufacturer rep group, soon after getting her bachelor’s degree from Towson University, double majoring in marketing and e-business. She wanted to work for a company that had a diversity of brands, and came on board with Blithe to help modernize the company’s marketing. This year, Blithe Sales launched…
Alex Tyler’s coast-to-coast employment history is a testament to his love for design. After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in zoology, Tyler worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, which led him to pursue a master’s in landscape architecture. He then moved to Alaska to work on high-end residential design and build projects, followed…
Duane Witter had been out of a job for some time when he saw a Now Hiring sign on a B&B Pools truck. The company hired him in April 2007 as a warehouse helper. After Witter proved an honest and hard worker who put quality above everything else, he was promoted to pool service apprentice….
When you’re part of the pool industry, you are well aware of the dangers a swimming pool can present. What’s harder to imagine, however, is tragedy striking within your own family. But in 2019, Daniel Morris, president of Morris Pools in Mesa, Arizona, received the devastating news that his 3-year-old daughter, Lillian, had drowned in…
Coming from the hotel and leisure industry where she specialized in operations and business management, Shaina Wan was hired by United Aqua Group in June 2017. “I remember learning about UAG’s values during my interview — family, innovation, service excellence, accountability and quality — and I knew that I had found my home,” she says….
In high school, Tim Bolden worked for a pool company, where he learned to build and maintain pools. “It was simply a way to earn extra cash after school,” he says. “I never could have imagined I would build a lifelong career in the industry.” After graduation, Bolden joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed…
When Dustin Maherg’s friend Ryan Pope was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Pope was no longer able to operate his pool service company, Integrity Pool Solutions, located in Alabama. While Pope was undergoing chemotherapy, Maherg and another friend stepped up to do the work for him. Fortunately, Pope recovered and returned to his business, and Maherg…
When Kelli Clancy started her pool service company, Legacy Pool & Spa, she knew education was going to be important. She’d grown up in the pool industry, helping with her parents’ store, route and repairs, and worked at Leslie’s for a season during college. She joined her local IPSSA chapter right away to learn as…
Michael Gesmond was 8 years old when he sat in his father’s lap inside an excavator as his father dug a new swimming pool. Gesmond spent years helping at his father’s construction company: running for parts, holding a string line, connecting pipes. “I was soaking up all the information I could,” he says. “The most…
After serving in the United States Navy from 2008 to 2012, Jay Brakefield wasn’t sure what his next steps were. He moved to Denton, Texas, to be near family and started working for a property management company. Brakefield overheard his boss speaking to someone about a large pool company that had been out to his…
Brian Schoen started in the Haviland labeling room at 16 years old. It was a summer job that turned into several summers in that role, followed by transitions to maintenance and liquids. In college, Schoen worked at Haviland on school breaks, graduating with a teaching degree in 2010. That December, he was promoted to inventory…
In 2006, Michael J. Baker was a jack-of-all-trades: He was a bartender, selling gym memberships and cleaning pools. His ambition was to be a business owner, so while he worked his other jobs, he started building a pool service company. By 2009, Baker had 50 service accounts and quit his other jobs. In 2011, he…