Twenty years after founding Service Roundtable, President Matt Michel and Senior Vice President David Heimer announced they are stepping down at the end of the year. The announcement came during Service World Expo, held Oct. 18-21 in Tampa, Florida.
In their stead, Tom Peregrino will take over leadership of the organization. Peregrino joined Service Nation Alliance as a contractor, was named Contractor of the Year, sold his business, joined Service Nation and built the Alliance Premier program.
Service Roundtable was launched Sept. 12, 2002, during another conference and tradeshow. Michel and Heimer built the contractor organization from the ground up. Today, Service Roundtable has more than 5,000 member companies.
Throughout the years, the organization has had many milestones, including the launch of the Retail Contractor Coalition and Roundtable Rewards in 2008, the launch of Service National Alliance in 2009, and the launch of Service World Expo in 2016.
The duo sold the business five years ago, but continued to work in the company.
“With a compound annual growth rate of 39.5% over 15 years, the company was attractive,” Michel said. “More than 60 companies expressed interest in us. With our investment bank, we narrowed it to four finalists and chose PaySimple, which became EverCommerce because of the fit, culture, and financial strength.
“Our mission has always been ‘to help contractors improve their business and financial performance, leading to a profitable exit strategy,’” he added. “One of the things we are most proud of is how our members have consistently outpaced the industry growth rate.”
Heimer explained that shepherding contractors through the pandemic was one of the organization’s most challenging periods. “In early 2020, ours was the lone voice of optimism stressing the growth opportunities for residential contractors. Not only were we optimistic. We were right.”
“Now, we have emerged from that dark period and our work is done,” Michel added.
Joining Peregrino on the leadership team will be Jim Hinshaw, vice president of vertical market; Pete Danielson, vice president of market development; Bob Viering, vice president of programs; Andrew Kissel, head of IT; Peter Galanek, vice president of strategic partnerships; Stephanie Fritz, director of sales; Sarah Blackhall, vice president of creative; and Carol Longacre, director of affiliate relations.
“It is because of this team that Service Nation has been recognized by the Dallas 100, Fort Worth’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies, Aggie 100, and Inc 5000, including multiple times as one of the top 75 business service companies in the nation,” Michel said. “This is the team who will drive Service Nation forward to an even better future as part of Evercommerce, a publicly traded company. The future is bright for this team and bright for Service Nation, including the Service Roundtable, Retail Contractor Coalition, Service Nation Alliance, Alliance Premier, Roundtable Rewards, the Service World Expo, and all of you. For all of the support and patronage over the past 20 years, thank you.”
Heimer will be spending his new free time launching a new podcast, app and building a business around those new endeavors. Meanwhile, Michel stated he will continue writing for trade press, including Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, and working on a few books.
