On November 1^st, Dan Quinonez officially assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer for the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors – National Association.

While exiting CEO Cindy Sheridan leaves him with big shoes to fill, Quinonez has been primed for success following two years as the national association’s Chief Operating Officer, and three-and-a-half years as Executive Director of the PHCC-Educational Foundation.

His experience prior to joining the PHCC included more association work (including the National Association of Home Builders and the Grocery Manufacturers Association) where he developed skills in strategic and crisis communication, corporate coalition building, and legislative advocacy.

Quinonez spoke to CONTRACTOR just prior to this year’s CONNECT conference and trade show in Milwaukee, WI. 

CONTRACTOR: CONNECT is only a few days away. How are things going in the lead up to the conference?

Dan Quinonez: Yes, we’re getting ready for everything, and working with Cindy to make a smooth transition. This CONNECT is going to see a lot of handovers.

You know, being with Cindy for the last three and a half years, both on the Educational Foundation side as the Executive Director, and then about 18 months ago becoming the COO, she was just such an easy person to work with. As her COO, my job was to implement her vision. Now, as I move into the CEO role, it's my turn to promote my vision.

She has been very supportive, particularly where we have had to make tough decisions around budgets and staffing, as well as laying the groundwork for future changes.

When Cindy came in, the organization was in a bit of a dark place. There were issues among the membership, among the chapters, that she needed to address. And she worked to make everybody feel comfortable again, and to get things back on track.

But she allowed me to come in and start looking towards the future—the evolution of this 140-year-old organization. Times have changed. Between the advances in technology, the introduction of AI, changes in the workplace, in the workforce, I think she recognized it was time to let a new generation take over.

You not only see that with me, you can see that with our executive committee and a lot of our board members. Our state chapters are bringing in new leadership that is younger, more tech savvy, more social media savvy, and more understanding of what the younger contractor wants in the industry.

CONTRACTOR: Tell me what your main message is going to be, both to the members and the public beyond the association?

Quinonez: I really want a PHCC membership to be something that's essential for any plumbing or HVAC contractor. That they see the association and say: for my business to succeed, I need to be a member of PHCC. To me, that's first and foremost.

In our other conversations, whether with legislators or the general public, we want people to know that P-H-C contractors are the most dedicated to their craft. They're well trained, they're professional, they're always willing to learn and adapt and grow.

I was a lobbyist for about 15 years, working both at the state and the federal level. I learned to speak the language of elected officials. When I talk to a legislator now, I say to them, wouldn’t you rather have an expert who knows what they're doing? Someone who knows how to fix your plumbing or HVAC system, a person who's gone through a strong apprenticeship training program?

Or do you pick the guy that's in a parking lot at Home Depot? If you say you want the guy who's giving you the lowest price—somebody who has no license, no training—well the joke I like to tell is, that’s the kind of person that enjoys gas station sushi!

You're taking such a financial risk. It is the same risk we’re seeing in the efforts in some states to water down licensure. If you water down these rules, you're going to weaken the standards for the consumer. As a result consumers are going to face systems that break down within a year or two, then have to go out and hire a professional and spend thousands and thousands of dollars on repairs.

If they had just gone to a licensed contractor in the first place they wouldn’t be facing that expense and trouble. My hope is to educate as many legislators as possible, as well as the public. “Are you licensed,” should be the first question a homeowner asks. And that's also our job at the PHCC, to educate the consumer as best we can.

CONTRACTOR: What are some of the ongoing partnerships that you you're looking to strengthen? And what are some future partnerships you might be looking to explore?

Quinonez: We have great relationships with organizations like IAPMO, ICC, and the UA (we have a lot of signatory contractors within our organization). We're stronger together than we are apart. At the end of the day, we're all in the trades, and we need to come up with the best trained folks possible.

There are groups like NCCER, like HVAC Excellence, all these different organizations on the education side and the workforce development side. I want us to work together. We may be going about it in different ways, but at the end of the day, the goal is to get as many people into the industry as possible.

Now, you see a lot of big corporations that are throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into workforce development. I think that's wonderful, but we need to come together to develop a national strategy. That’s where partnerships can make a difference.

What’s happening right now—since it's so hot and trendy—you're seeing these fly-by-night programs opening up everywhere. There needs to be more overview of what we are doing nationally. Maybe that starts at the federal level and then works down to the states. A big issue right now is that we have 50 different states with 50 different rules for licensure and for apprenticeship training— it's all over the place.

On the HVAC side, it's the Wild West. 20 states have no licensing to speak of. There are programs being promoted, online courses being offered, but a lot of them are not supplying the best training. That’s wasted effort for the student, that’s a real cost to the consumer, and it’s a slowdown for the builders and GCs out there when we need this economy to buzz.

CONTRACTOR: Can we expect any changes within the PHCC?

Quinonez: We're working to develop our marketing and social media programs. For a long time, PHCC has relied on some antiquated communication tools, so we’re working with our communications team to change that.

Actually, CONNECT in Milwaukee has become a test-case for an aggressive social media marketing strategy to boost attendance, and I will tell you right now, it's been incredibly successful. This will be the most well-attended CONNECT we've had in a long time.

I wanted people to feel good about, energized about this CONNECT, so we did a lot of targeted outreach. Now we're seeing an influx of people who are not members who I think are going to come to Milwaukee and say, why am I not a member? People who are going to walk out of the conference saying, I think I need to be a PHCC member.

Because I believe strongly that the best salesperson for the PHCC is a PHCC member. After you talk to a few members, you just want to join. It's a real community, and that's one of the things I love about it.