In the pool industry, it’s well-known that a clear pool doesn’t always mean a clean pool. But customers often don’t know the difference. “One thing I’d like to change about the pool industry is how consumers are educated on what it means for a pool to be good,” says Darren Post, president of The Pool…
A millennial with a love of computers and competitive swimming since the age of 6, Lindsey Lawless says she absolutely loves getting to impact customers directly as digital marketing manager for pool equipment manufacturer Hayward Holdings. “I am committed to providing the best digital experience for all our customers, whether it be distribution partners, builders…
A summer job that becomes a lifelong career is a story often told in the pool industry. That’s not quite how it went for Albert Melo, but it’s close. He grew up in the pool industry as his father cleaned pools. “He went on to start remodels,” Melo explains, “and when I went to college…
Kara Weed started running the register at her family’s pool and spa retail store, Ultra Modern Pool & Patio, at the ripe old age of 9. She worked summers in the store, performing water tests and stocking shelves, but started full-time as the company’s marketing manager in 2015 when she left an accounting career at…
If you ran into Janey Chakalis on the street, you might be surprised to learn the woman sporting a diamond swimming pool-shaped ring doesn’t spend her time lounging by one. “I do a bit of everything, from regular cleaning to installing full automation, heaters, acid washes, tile cleaning etc.,” Chakalis says, “basically everything but remodeling…
Brad Dieterich has seen the good and the bad working in the pool industry. In his first job, he started as a laborer, working his way up until he was under the owner, with no more advancement options. Though the company was a good builder, Dieterich then wanted to move into 3D design — and…
There’s always something new to learn when you work in the pool industry, Megan Walraven says — even with almost 20 years under her belt. Walraven started her pool industry career in 2003, working a summer job at Beattie Master Pool and Spa in Saginaw, Michigan. Sixteen years later, she moved on from that summer…
Angela Moss traded pine trees for palm trees when she and her husband moved from Janesville, Wisconsin, to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2014. But Moss, who had been working for her parents’ pool and spa business, Nelson’s HomeTowne Recreation, didn’t trade in that experience. Instead, she began working for Certified Pool and Spa as its…
Working in the pool industry you often wear many hats — plumber, electrician, laborer — but not many add manufacturing to that list. At least not all at the same time. Joe DiAnna Jr.’s father, Joe DiAnna Sr., has owned his pool service company, J DiAnna Pool & Repair, for more than 30 years. DiAnna…
When someone invents an innovative product, there’s a likely path that is followed. Usually after selling people on the idea, then scaling operations to fulfill orders, there’s a point where the entrepreneur can’t make all the sales themselves. They need help. Some companies will hire a salesperson or two, train them and send them out…
Not many in the pool industry wear their World Series ring to trade shows, but Alexander Jacobs knows that such accomplishments matter to people, even if he himself considers such things secondary. “Titles and individual accomplishments are cool but in the whole scheme of things are meaningless to the greater good,” says Jacobs, who in…
Ravi Kurani can still recall the hot summer days he spent in Southern California as a child, watching his father, an immigrant with little money to his name, work tirelessly to grow their small pool and spa supply business into what would become a sizable company with more than 30 locations. As Kurani got older,…