Cindy Sheridan is celebrating 26 years of service with the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors – National Association as she prepares for retirement at the end of this year.

Sheridan made history as the PHCC’s first female CEO, and her time with the Association has been shaped by a commitment to collaboration and alignment across the organization and across the plumbing and HVAC trades.

She has worked tirelessly to elevate the PHCC’s profile in the industry, to advance workforce development initiatives, and to create the resources contractors need to grow their businesses. She has also worked to turn the PHCC into a powerful advocate for its members in the halls of Congress and in Statehouses across the nation. Under her tenure, the PHCC has grown to connect more than 3,300 leading businesses representing over 65,000 plumbing and HVAC/R professionals.

A Certified Association Executive with more than 40 years of association management experience, Sheridan became PHCC CEO in January 2023. Before that, she served as the PHCC Educational Foundation Chief Operating Officer. She joined PHCC in 2000, overseeing membership and chapter relations.

CONTRACTOR spoke to Sheridan from the PHCC’s offices in Falls Church, Virginia.

CONTRACTOR: You came to the CEO role after leading the Educational Foundation. What was that transition like?

Sheridan: Coming from the Foundation I understood the industry, and I had the relationships with our members, our chapters, our industry partners. Which meant had a network of people that I knew wanted to see me succeed, wanted to see the Association succeed. That gave me a lot of confidence, going into the new position.

Also, the foundation focuses on workforce development, education, and training—all critical benefits our members need. So I was able to see the benefits of bringing the Foundation and the Association closer together.

CONTRACTOR: Tell me a bit about your time in office, and some of the challenges you’ve faced.

Sheridan: I think one of the challenges, certainly, is growing the membership. It's a challenge for every association. And then, of course, serving their needs. Our members are always looking for resources to make better business decisions. They want to stay on top of trends. And they want to connect with like-minded contractors. So, that's what I think our members are looking for.

Complicating that mission is that PHCC represents the entire industry. We have open shop, we've got signatory, small contractors, large contractors. Certainly, on the signatory side, the data centers are impacting the workforce. We have members that work in residential, commercial, new construction—such a diverse membership.

And so, one of the challenges is: how do you stay relevant to so many different markets? Amid so many changes in the industry, changes in technology, so many changes just in the work environment. Staying relevant and serving the membership, that’s been the main challenge, I think.

CONTRACTOR: “Legacy” is a pretty heavy word, but you are moving on to new things. What would you like your legacy to be for your time at the PHCC?

Sheridan: One of the areas I'm proud of is we've elevated our profile within the industry in lots of different ways, working with our industry partners and being a good partner in the chain. You’ve seen the work we've done with ASA [the American Supply Association], with HARDI [Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International], the work that we're doing with ACCA [Air Conditioning Contractors of America]. Those strategic partnerships are important and I think they've benefited the members and the association.

If we look at just the legislative and regulatory side, I feel like people are calling us. They want our input. When the rules are being written that impact contractors' business, we have a seat at the table now. That’s been very important to me.

We talked before about my passion for workforce development from all my years on the Foundation, all the amazing work we’ve done on education and training. How that focus brought the Educational Foundation and the National Association closer together. Now we're seeing benefits of that in the PHCC Academy. I’m very proud of the work that's been done on that.

We were always known for our plumbing and HVAC apprentice curriculum. Now the Academy has added so much more training and courses to help members upskill, retrain, to do all the things our members have to do as the industry accelerates, as the work itself evolves.

And I am proud of the internal operations that we've improved. We've made a real focus of working more efficiently, more effectively, embracing technology, with the hope that if we're able to spend less time on operations it means we can devote more time to taking care of members.

Lastly, I hope people remember me for succession planning. That's not something we've done at PHCC over the years as much as maybe we should have. Working with the leadership on my succession, in the CEO role, but also succession planning at other senior positions.

We've got several folks in senior management positions that, probably over the next couple of years, will also be looking at retirement. So, how do we provide the leadership development for the incoming folks?

John Zink will be moving into the Executive Director role at the Education Foundation, which is very exciting. Nicole Urizzo, who's our New Jersey Chapter Executive Director, she is going to be doing some work here with the national team on the Academy.

So, being able to elevate those people just feels really good too.

CONTRACTOR: Any plans for your retirement?

Sheridan: I will be in an advisory capacity till the end of the year. Then I think I want to take some time, to see what that next phase looks like.

I’m looking forward to days I can just sleep late and not be on somebody else's schedule. [My husband and I] want to travel, and we have a trip to Italy planned for next year. We'll just see how it evolves.

This is an amazing industry, truly. I feel so fortunate to have been part of it, to have had the opportunity to make so many friends across the country. It’s been a real pleasure.