Rental Management magazine announced their annual 12 to Watch Under 40 list in their September issue, highlighting young leaders in the rental industry from throughout the world.
Congratulations to this year’s featured leaders (in alphabetical order): Kerrigan Ambers, Shawn Blaisdell, Natalia Sanner Cristofoletti, Andrew deVries, Matt Gilbertson, Lee Hutchinson, Victor Manuel Matta Jr., T.J. McQuaid, Rose Reck, Cindy Seiter, Justin Wharton, and Heather Wismer!
As unabashed homers, however, we’d like to share more from the article about the honorees that are part of the Point of Rental family:
- Shawn Blaisdell (pg 47) started off as an assistant manager at Bunce Rental’s South Puyallup, Wash. location right after graduating college. In 2017, he became the branch manager and revenues have continued to grow every year since. He’s served on the ARA Young Professionals Committee and he’s a big fan of the technological advancements taking place in the industry. Overall, though, it’s customer satisfaction that remains his favorite part of being in the rental industry: “I love seeing the satisfaction on a customer’s face when they drop off the equipment and tell me that everything worked great.”
- Andrew deVries (pg 50) of All Star Rents, which has 13 locations in northern California and Sparks, Nev, dedicated himself to a rental career in 2010. His passion for racing cars works with a mechanical aptitude that helps him as the owner and lead fleet mechanic for the company. The best part of the rental industry, for him, is that no two days are the same – as customer needs change, rental companies need to continue to improve. “It’s exciting to always be evolving,” he said.
- Lee Hutchinson (pg 51) of Mississippi Tent & Party Rental in Madison, Miss., is the company’s general manager. COVID has impacted the business dramatically, but he’s taking it as an opportunity to identify places to cut costs and figure out how to produce the same end results while spending less money. He helped get the ARA of Mississippi state chapter up and running again recently, becoming the chapter’s president for the past two years. “One of my biggest accomplishments so far is the growth of our company, but another is building relationships with customers and colleagues across the state of Mississippi and throughout the country,” he said. “I’ve been able to build these relationships through ARA, which in turn has allowed my business to grow in a way we didn’t think was possible.”
- Heather Wismer (pg 56) of George’s Tool Rental in Hatfield, Pa., told herself that she’d never work for the family businesses as a kid. Now she’s the company’s communications manager. She joined the company at the end of 2018 with a goal of giving the GTR brand a facelift, reworking the website, creating new letterhead and business cards, rewrapping the fleet of trucks and working on new on-site signs. The company is a tool-only rental establishment and mostly serves repeat, time-honored customers made up of contractors and homeowners. She’s also involved with the ARA of Pennsylvania, helping the ARA create a community among business leaders and planning events.
You can read more about all of these leaders and everyone else in this issue of Rental Management. Congratulations again to everyone listed; it’s always great to get a peek into the future of the industry!
