Conner Gibbs is a third-generation pool professional — his grandfather started Gib-San Pools over 50 years ago. “My journey started at the end of grade school,” Gibbs says. “I began painting fences, sweeping the yard and taking apart broken pool pumps for parts.” In the years to come, Gibbs would work in a variety of…
Jeff Martens entered the pool industry seasonally in 2011, helping customers with chemical and equipment purchases at an outlet store called In the Swim. He was promoted to the call center as a parts rep, taking phone calls from all over the country to help customers troubleshoot and locate parts for their pool systems. From…
In 2009, Sean Kochendorfer was laid off from his job as an auto mechanic and started filling in at his friend’s pool service company. Soon after Kochendorfer started his own pool company in California, accruing over 60 accounts within a year. However, he wanted to learn more about pool repair. Another pool company owner Kochendorfer…
When Tyler Rasmussen was passed over for a promotion at his job in 2013, he started Brothers Pool Service in pursuit of his dream of working for himself. Greg Villafana joined Brothers in 2014 after he and Rasmussen reconnected; they were close friends in high school. Together they grew the company to 400 pool contracts…
Campbell started selling above-ground pools and hot tubs at a local Joplin, Missouri-based company. When hopes of buying that business fell through, an opportunity with United Aqua Group, the buying group for the company, came available. Over the next 36 months, Campbell visited over 126 retail, builder and service locations in 42 states. Campbell has…
Fresh out of college, Palumbo joined Clear Comfort as a marketing specialist. Five years later, she’s the company’s director of marketing. She has led marketing efforts to help introduce a new, patented advanced oxidation (AOP) treatment technology to the pool and spa industry with an eye toward storytelling and educating around this new approach. Palumbo…
Knight, a former competitive swimmer, got into the aquatics industry because he was tired of poor air quality at indoor pool facilities. He started with Paddock Evacuator, which packaged Orenda enzymes with installations. He briefly left the industry, but came back after once again getting sick swimming indoors. “Orenda was an opportunity to make an…
Morgan took the family way into the pool industry: His then-girlfriend, now-wife’s family owned a pool business, and Morgan worked part-time cleaning pools to make extra money during college. While doing pool startups for a local pool builder, the company stumbled upon Orenda Technologies. Harold Evans, his father in law, started selling Orenda products around…
Matt Lopez was an outsider in the pool industry, manufacturing and marketing products for the landscaping industry, until he and his business partner, Dave Sargent, identified a need for a higher-quality portable pool vacuum system. Since launching in 2017, he and Sargent continue to listen and evolve their product based on customer feedback, and are…
Frustrated with the specialty chemicals he was using as the sole proprietor of a pool service company, Chris Galvan began developing some himself. In 2014, he launched Blueray XL, an adjuvant formulation with mineral salts such as silver, copper and zinc. Galvan overcame two lawsuits brought against the company, one from a competitor and the…
Hoping to find a job in the science field, Petra Hayes joined Taylor Technologies. “This position is very chemistry based, which was what I was looking for,” Hayes says. The prospect of doing customer service, in which she had a background, while learning about the pool and spa industry excited her. Hayes has always been…
Tired of routine equipment testing as a technician in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, Janine Rhodes found a job in product development with Taylor Technologies, which brought her into a new world of creative scientific thinking. Since joining the team in 2014, she has expanded her work within the company, including as a chair of…