United Aqua Group has a new CEO.
In October, electrical-equipment distribution veteran Kevin Powell took the post, replacing Patrick Walls, who held the position for four years.
As head of one of the most aggressive pool/spa buying groups, Powell brings a unique blend of right- and left-brain abilities. With a farming background, engineering and business education, and an extroverted personality, he offers his technical savvy, people skills and business acumen to making the most of a staff, whether it’s turning a troubled company around or taking a well-performing firm to the next level.
Early turnaround
Powell hails from the Heartland, raised in the Milwaukee area by school-teacher parents and an extended family in farming. So, while growing up, he perfected the volunteer vacation before it became a trend, spending summers at the Madison-area farm of his aunt and uncle.
While a solid work ethic was no doubt instilled in Powell from the get-go, his ambitions didn’t emerge in high school. “I’m a unique story in that I graduated in the bottom 20% of my high school class and the top 20% of my college class,” he says.
It was a matter of setting priorities. He realized in college that he had spread himself too thin by juggling extra-curriculars in high school. “I learned what mattered in life,” he says.
This wouldn’t be the last time Powell turned a situation around by focusing on the important things. After earning an engineering degree from Marquette University, he went to work for industrial-equipment manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand as a controls engineer in its Virginia office. He realized in short order that he was more suited to sales and leadership than working on plans. “Engineers sit behind the computer all day long, and I tend to really love the interaction with people,” he says. “I’m already known around the office here at UAG as being in somebody else’s office a lot more than I am my own!”
His early employers noticed the same thing, so they moved him to sales, where he consistently ranked in the corporate top 10.
After seven years with Ingersoll-Rand, Powell moved his family back to Milwaukee to work for Rockwell Automation, then entered the world of distribution through Rockwell’s Minneapolis-area distributor, Werner Electric. Within two years, after a whirlwind that included promotions, receiving an MBA, the company’s near bankruptcy and change of ownership, Powell found himself company president. “I was 32 years old and had never had a leadership role before,” he says. “I helped them fix some problems, and they asked me to move to Minneapolis to help them fix the whole thing.”
When he started, the company generated $60 million a year, but lost about $3.5 million. After Powell’s 12 years at the helm, it earned $200 million and stood as an industry growth leader. “We did two things,” he says. “First, we focused on our biggest problems and said no to everything else; second, we put a very targeted effort on building a culture of engagement.”
Prioritizing the biggest problems meant putting the bulk of resources toward projects that would take care of the company’s highest-contributing clients. “The question is how do you focus your effort on making sure that the best ideas are implemented today?” he says. “And it’s not always the best ideas — it’s the most relevant and achievable ones.”
The notion of investing in employees and culture was relatively new at the time. Powell got the idea by following more progressive industries and applying their techniques. Culture took priority because the team realized that its staff was at least as important a selling point as the products that passed hands. “The people who added value were our product,” he says. “So we invested in the people like companies who make a product invest in products.”
This included training and courses, financial well-being opportunities and health-and-wellness initiatives. The team also coordinated group activities, such as training for and running a half marathon and sponsored volunteer days. The company was voted Best Place to Work by the Minnesota Star Tribune several years in a row.
After seeing the company double in size and change hands through an employee stock ownership plan, Powell cashed out and took something of a personal sabbatical — as a ski instructor in Breckenridge, Colo. “It was a very educational time in life for me, because I spent a lot of time learning how other people learn,” he says. “Understanding how each individual uniquely picks up a new skillset was really important to success.”
“My customers at the ski hill didn’t care what I had done before being a ski instructor. All they cared about was,‘Have I learned something today?’ It was a great time for me to reground myself in what people really want.”
On top of all these experiences, Powell has served on boards and committees for buying groups for most of his career. “I truly believe in the model, and I like the framework of the UAG relationship with its owner members as well as its vendors. I think we can make it even better.”
