When Vic Garcia wanted to build a pool in his backyard, he started calling different industry companies. But the operational issues he encountered — high-pressure sales, flakiness, lack of follow up and low design creativity — made him realize change was needed. As an engineer for the Department of Defense, Garcia manages fleet readiness of…
In 1982, the year Brooke Rossi was born, her parents Mike and Michelle DesRochers started DesRochers Pools. She spent her adolescent and teen years heavily involved with the business and has since taken over as second-generation owner, alongside her brother Brian DesRochers. After graduating from Illinois State University in 2005 with a degree in kinesiology,…
“The pool industry is surprisingly lucrative and complex,” says Brian Fernandes, business development manager at Poolwerx. Fernandes oversees multiple Poolwerx franchise partners, helping to enforce best practices and coach business growth via technical excellence, customer service, local area marketing, profit-and-loss management and organizational strategy. Fernandes began working in the pool industry as a retail associate…
As president and founder of Patriot Pool and Spa, Hal Denbar has good things to say about Robert Johnson and Travis Spearman. “Having the two of them on the team for more than four years each has absolutely brought Patriot to where we are now,” Denbar says. “These two are the model of what swimming…
Joshua Buzzell cleaned swimming pools for about three years and started learning pool repairs before he found his calling. And while he still loves maintenance, Buzzell says his real passion is in the swimming pool design/build aspect. Regal Pools builds about 120 pools a year and averages between $100,000 and $150,000 for full backyard build-outs….
Rosenberger started in the pool industry as the general manager at Pennsylvania-based Fronheiser Pools, where he got to experience all the industry had to offer from retail, sales, marketing, service and hot tub deliveries. “While working at Fronheiser Pools, I helped bring in new products and introduce a CRM system with email automation campaigns, which…
After a high school teacher recommended Eric Cassidy for a sales manager job at a friend’s pool store, Cassidy left his post at a potato chip company and never looked back. “I love growth, I love challenges,” he says, “and love seeing those around me grow and succeed with the ideas I have had on…
Brittany Puryear strives to bring in the most five-star Google/Yelp reviews possible to her company. Her nominator says, “Brittany is one who gets it. She had taken customer service back in time to the days when it was all providing a next-level customer experience. She may just have rediscovered the tool that enables an industry…
When Kelly Michael Skelton started in the industry, he didn’t know if he’d be staying for long, but he says opportunities have continually opened up and he’s enjoyed it. Skelton started at South Shore Gunite Pools as an admin assistant and eventually started the company’s marketing department. He says hard work and being in the…
Sitting in a cubicle 40 hours a week at an engineering firm quickly lost its appeal for Rance Schindler. He saw his brother, Reid Schindler, find success in the pool industry and work on exciting projects, and thought he could potentially do the same. In 2018, he found a sales/design job at an established Dallas/Fort…
Jamie Braddy and her husband started Parrot Bay because there were no companies building fiberglass pools in their area. “It was a long road to convince people that fiberglass may be better for them over a vinyl pool,” Braddy says. They started the company out of their garage and have grown to two retail stores…
Mark Jones told himself that he was young and smart enough to figure out how to maintain his own backyard swimming pool. It took him a full summer, he says, to understand the basics: He made a lot of mistakes and asked a lot of questions at the local pool store. In 2017, Jones’ neighbor…