Last month, Barcelona-based “Big 3” manufacturer Fluidra announced the retirement of its president, Troy Franzen, and the hiring of Lennie Rhoads to lead the company's North American operations.
Lennie Rhoades, the next president of Fluidra North America, will succeed Troy Franzen, who retires next month after a 12-year tenure that included playing a key role in transitioning the firm from Zodiac to Fluidra.
Here, we take a look at the outgoing and incoming presidents.
Lennie Rhoades
Rhoades grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and earned an undergrad degree in industrial and systems engineering from Ohio State University.
"I love product," Rhoades says. "I like the specified nature of a product. And I like innovation. At the end fo the day, what delivers the experience to the customer is a really excellent product."
His love of products and innovation earned him about five patents throughout his career.
But early in his career, he took to the business side of things, causing him to re-enter Ohio State and earn his MBA.
He has held various senior leadership roles including senior vice president of JELD-WEN, vice president and general manager for the retail division of Husqvarna Group, and director of marketing for Electrolux.
In his last position, serving as CEO of Big Ass Fans, he shepherded the company as it transitioned from being founder-owned to operating with private equity backing. During his tenure, the company expanded into new marketing segments, fine-tuned its marketing and weathered Covid while the world tried to figure out how air circulation impacted the pathogen's spreading or prevention.
Moving forward, Rhoades plans to continue making product focus his priority. “I’m a huge product guy,” he says. “Part of what I really like about this industry is it’s a products-driven industry... They’re not commodities. Depending on what you’re trying to do, there’s some art that goes into building that system. There’s some knowledge that goes behind specifying those items."
Troy Franzen
Franzen will continue with Fluidra on a part-time, on-call basis through the end of the year, and perhaps into 2023, he said. He then will spend time traveling with his wife, visiting with family and doing volunteer work.
He joined Fluidra as a vice president of business development in April, 2010, when the company was called Zodiac and hadn't yet merged with Fluidra. Before that, he had worked with another company for more than 22 years. In his dozen years with the manufacturer, he progressed to executive vice president, then managing director, then president.
At the beginning Franzen's tenure, the company was more fragmented and less focused on pool and spa products, as it also had divisions serving the marine, airline and several other industries. In his tenure, the company tightened its focus.
As the company's president, Franzen played a key role in transitioning the company once it merged with Spanish manufacturer/distributor Fluidra and adopted its name.
Through the merger and six sizable acquisitions that have taken place since then, Franzen has seen the company grow from a $250 million business in 2010 to an over-$1 billion global juggernaut. Where it almost exclusively served the residential market, it has made gains in the commercial space. And it went from being the third-largest of the "Big 3" manufacturers to what Franzen now characterizes it as "a solid second."
"I think the company is coming from a position of stability," Franzen says, looking forward. "I think the company is coming from a position of maturity. So I think you’ll see a lot of the same push and focus from Fluidra in the years to come."
