What a year it has been

It has been an honor serving as your ASA president this year.

When ASA CEO Mike Adelizzi first came aboard, I told him, naively, some day I wanted to be ASA president.

Never in my wildest dreams when I started my ASA journey nearly 20 years ago, did I believe that day would come and now here I am.

It’s been an amazing year. What has made this year so special for me is the amazing people from around the country I have been fortunate to meet — the people who make our industry so great.

Looking back at this past year, I want to leave you with a few notes about some of the ASA events I thought were extra special for me and also some other things that make ASA so special as our industry’s only national trade association.

My favorite event, and no disrespect to the other great ones ASA’s produces, was the Women in Industry ELEVATE conference in April in Miami. Wow. I have to say it was more than a little intimidating to walk into a room with 420 women, get on stage and have something meaningful to say to them.

I was blown away by the event. Women in Industry is not only our largest special-interest division in ASA, it also continues to be our fastest growing. They are anticipating 450-plus attendees this coming April in Boston. It was the best networking event I have attended. Everybody raised each other up.

I came back to our office and announced every woman in my company will have an invitation to attend next year’s event in Boston. My advice to ASA companies: If there are women in your firm who have never attended ELEVATE, give them the opportunity to go. It doesn’t matter if you are the CEO or a clerical person, everybody is treated equally and included.

The other event that was very meaningful for me was the Emerging Leaders EMERGE conference in May in Las Vegas. I was a member of Emerging Leaders back when they called it Young Executives. I obviously aged out, but it remains a great group. If you have up-and-coming leaders in your company, send them to EMERGE this coming May in Arlington, Texas. It’s a great way for like-minded folks to be under the same roof for a day-and-a-half of education, best practices sharing and networking.

Five of the last seven ASA presidents — myself included — came out of the Emerging Leaders group. I have made a lot of relationships in ASA that have come from this group. I have friends and mentors that I met 20 years ago at Young Executives meetings. It’s a great launching platform for anybody you have in your company that you think has that potential and could be a future leader for you.

Workforce Development

The great work ASA continues to do for its 650-plus member companies is linked to its four strategic councils — the engine that powers the association and all the good it continues to do. Let’s start with the Workforce Development Council, which encompasses the ASA Education Foundation/ASA University education and training platform.

My son, Joe, finished the ASA University Master’s of Distribution Management program this year. I was lucky enough to be his mentor and go through it with him. I also had the opportunity to grade and judge some of the other participants.

MDM is a 12-month program that finishes with a capstone project where students solve a real-world problem for their company. We had a specific problem at Tri-Star that Joe was able to address. It goes without saying, MDM is a great program for those high-potential, high-ceiling people in your company — those Emerging Leaders.

And speaking of ASA University, you will find no better source for training and educating your employees in their job-specific roles in your company. There are courses and other vital resources that can benefit all ASA-member companies whether you have no employee training program, the beginnings of one or the great training program ever invented.

Also within the Workforce Development Council is the Project Talent platform that supports our industry by increasing awareness of the PHCP-PVF industry among job seekers, while equipping ASA members with valuable recruitment resources. My company uses Project Talent resources, particularly when we go to local job fairs. It’s been a helpful tool for us when we are trying to recruit people into our company.

Advocacy

If you attended NETWORK in Ft. Lauderdale last month, you saw attendees with special white lanyards on, which signify those who have contributed to the ASA Political Action Committee, or PAC, which is the PHCP-PVF industry’s voice in Washington that empowers members to impact policies that affect your company and our sector.

In the last three election cycles, 91 percent of candidates supported by the ASA PAC were elected to federal office. As the only federal PAC exclusively dedicated to electing pro-PHCP-PVF candidates, the ASA PAC leverages annual individual contributions to support members of Congress who share your priorities.

If you have not contributed to the ASA PAC, which is at its highest point it’s been in 25 years, please strongly consider doing so.

Embracing the Future

ASA’s Embracing the Future Council has been hard at work, particularly with the recently introduced Industry Product Data Standard project. Hopefully, you’ve seen the literature on it, and if you haven’t, you will in short order.

The standard is a uniform template for how data is transferred between manufacturers and wholesalers. I know as a wholesaler, we deal with hundreds of manufacturers and everyone has a different format they send information in.

What ASA and the Embracing the Future platform has done is developed this Product Data Standard so information can be passed the same way for everyone. It’s a huge benefit for both manufacturers and wholesalers. The standard is available on the ASA website to check out.

Another hot-button topic in our industry is cybersecurity, which the Embracing the Future Council has taken a leadership position on by creating a resource center that will be your trusted hub for safeguarding your business.

This webpage offers timely insights, expert guidance and actional tools tailored for our industry. Whether you are preparing for threats, responding to an incident or recovering from an attack, you will find critical elements you need to stay secure because it’s not a matter of it, but when cybersecurity will affect your company.

Operational Excellence

I have been part of the Operational Excellence Council since its inception and the work this council continues to do on the business intelligence front is impressive. The economic update webinars ASA Chief Economist Dr. Chris Kuehl does with his Armada Corporate Intelligence Partner Keith Prather each month are amazing. I think we can agree those are elite and are loaded with a lot of great information.

This is also the strategic council that oversees the longstanding Operating Performance Report (OPR) that has been the PHCP-PVF industry’s financial benchmarking gold standard for more than four decades now. It’s huge. There is no place else where you are able to thoroughly benchmark your company’s performance against so many financial data points and against so many industry peer categories.

Before I go, I must thank my wife, Carol, for her support during my time as ASA president and really over the last seven years or so. For those who don’t know, seven years ago, I quit my job and decided to buy a plumbing supply house.

Most people probably laughed at me and questioned if that was a smart move to make. Carol supported me through that process, which has turned out great.

We have an amazing family business now with two sons working in the business. Speaking of which, I owe a debt of gratitude to my two sons, Joe and David, who have been rockstars while I have been gone traveling the industry as ASA president this year. They were nice enough to tell me recently the company runs better when I’m not there!

I would like to leave you with this quote, which is something I have tried to live by, and most times, it hasn’t gotten me in too much trouble:

Be scared, and do it anyway.
Be under-qualified, and get in the room anyway.
Be messy, imperfect, and unsure and show up anyway.
Comfort is the enemy of growth. Get uncomfortable.

The more uncomfortable we get as an industry, the stronger, ultimately, we will become.

Thank you again for allowing me the honor to serve as ASA president in 2025.