Rental Management magazine has named their 12 to Watch Under 40 for 2019. Congratulations to everyone on the list of rental leaders and to everyone working to improve the future of the industry! We’d like to give a special shout out to our Point of Rental customers on the list:
- Scott Alexander of Alexander Party Rentals in Kent, Wash.uses his microbiology background to help him run his business, analyzing data and using his math skills to create great events. The recession of 2008 changed his career trajectory – with his dad’s company struggling, he joined as a manager for a year. That turned into five years, and now, at 33, he’s the owner of the company. Having been a member of ARA since the beginning, he’s passionate about attracting and retaining talent in the industry.
- Nor-Val Rentals’ GM Troy McDonald started his Nor-Val career at 18 years old to raise some money for a trip to Australia with his friends. Instead, he fell in love with the local parts girl in Armstrong, British Columbia, and got married. He also got married to the rental industry, and is now in his 16th year with the company. During that time, the company has grown from eight employees to 54 and has expanded into four locations. He has continued the company’s leadership locally within rental associations, setting up the local rental trade show and golf tournaments.
- Blake Menning started his first business at age 12, selling $1 candy bags in his closed-campus school until the school shut him down. At All Choice Rentals in Alberta, Canada, he draws on his entrepreneurial, accounting, pipefitting and welding, and sales backgrounds to tackle the plethora of problems that can come at the owner of a rental business. He’s expanded the company’s services, added two locations, and managed to do it at 35 years old – All Choice used Alberta’s recession of 2016 to refocus on superb customer service as its focal point.
- It turns out teachers make excellent rental leaders. Lindsay Smith left her job teaching first grade and has risen from working part-time in summers to become the GM of Abbey Tent & Party Rental, a full-service tent and party rental company that’s been family-owned and operated since 1956. The owner, George Szondy, got her into the ARA, where she built her own network and is now part of the Connecticut board as well as the Insurance Member Risk Management Committee and the Party and Event Shared Interest Group.
- Chad Wagner of A-1 Minnetonka Rental in Wayzata, Minn., was a teacher, too. He taught for 11 years before joining the family business full-time, becoming a third-generation owner in 2016. He’d managed the party and event segment of the business since 2014 before his dad was convinced to hand the reins over, though. He appreciates the ever-changing nature of the business and the variety between being an adviser on a lot of general tool rental projects and a key part of some of the biggest days of people’s lives on the event side.
Other stars to watch include Franklin Cloninger of Triangle True Value Hardware, Emmanuel Georgoudis of Coates Hire, Amanda Jones of Tyler Tents & Events, Nathan McCutcheon of McCutcheon Enterprises, Trevor Richman of Sunstate Equipment Co. and Amanda Withee of Sully’s Tool & Party Rental.
To read more about all of the 12 to Watch Under 40, read the article in Rental Management.
