HARDI Implements Governance Changes to Board of Directors, Association
COLUMBUS, Ohio, December 19, 2018 – Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) has officially transitioned to a new governance model for the first time since its inception more than 15 years ago. The transition was announced as pending during the recent HARDI "Legacy" Conference, and is now official.
“The HARDI Board of Directors realized that we were functioning as an operational board,” said newly-appointed 2019 Chairman Brian Peirce. “This was necessary and important in the early years of HARDI when we had limited staff. However, with the growth and changes we’ve seen in HARDI over the past five years, we determined that this model was no longer conducive to sustaining future growth.”
These changes were determined and analyzed by a task force of HARDI Board Directors over the course of the past few years, and the rollout officially began in the summer of 2018 with the change of the "President" role on the Board of Directors to now be the "Chair". The association bylaws were also analyzed and rewritten in coordination with this initiative.
The HARDI Board of Directors makeup now also entails Committees overseeing governance of certain aspects of the organization. These are the Finance, Membership, Compensation & Nominating Committees, which replaces the functions of the previous five-member Executive Committee.
“These changes to the governance of the HARDI organization allows the Board to give broader approvals for strategic initiatives while maintaining strong governance oversight. This will provide the HARDI management team the latitude to implement those initiatives in the most effective way possible.” Peirce continued.
"Board meetings were not making the most of our Directors' time and expertise," said CEO Talbot Gee. "Now our Board and Management have clear and distinct roles and responsibilities, and our Board Members are constantly engaged, evaluating and guiding HARDI’s strategic direction."
"Not only is this going to raise the association’s game, it’s also providing excellent governance experience to help our members continue to grow their own leadership models as they scale to ever-greater heights," Gee continued.
HARDI members market, distribute, and support heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration equipment, parts and supplies. HARDI Distributor members serve installation and service/replacement contractors in residential and commercial markets, as well as commercial/industrial and institutional maintenance staffs. HARDI proudly represents more than 480 distributor members representing more than 5,000 branch locations, and close to 500 suppliers, manufacturer representatives and service vendors.