Category: Industry News

Award-winning CEO and entrepreneur Michael Kurland writes about what it takes to be a successful leader in his new book Broken to Better: 13 Ways Not to Fail at Life and Leadership (Scribe Media; July 19, 2022). It’s part business book, part memoir written to motivate and inspire readers to take positive action and become the purpose-driven leaders they desire to be.

 

“Back in the early 2000s, I lacked any sense of purpose. I basically had hit rock bottom in both my personal life and career, and if I didn’t do something about it,” writes Kurland about his early years, “I knew I would never be happy with myself.”

 

So began a journey that led Kurland to a period of self-examination, laying the groundwork for a new vision for his life and guiding him to both professional and personal triumphs.

 

In Broken to Better Michael details how he made informed decisions that would bring about the changes he wanted. He quit his job, adopted a healthier lifestyle and moved from NY to Calif. to launch his business, which would eventually become the award-winning facilities management company, Branded Group.

 

“I had to get out of my old ways of thinking,” Kurland says about these initial actions. “It was definitely a risk to pack up everything and head to the West Coast, but if I wanted to change the trajectory of my life, I knew the changes needed to be radical. I needed to challenge the status quo, get out of my comfort zone and start with a clean slate.”

 

It was during this time that Kurland’s 13 principles for being a successful leader in an evolving business climate began to take shape. Some of these principles include consistently expanding your network of contacts, making a difference through innovative social impact programs and developing a culture of inclusiveness and empathy. These principles would influence every interaction he had with others and every decision he made in his business and personal life.

 

Kurland writes, “One of my biggest realizations at the start of the journey was that I couldn’t separate my personal and professional worlds. When you seek improvement, it’s important to #BeBetter in all aspects of your life—to be a better CEO, manager, employee, friend, coworker, or whatever shoes you fill.”

 

“This is not a book about white-knuckling your way to the top,” he says. “Rather it’s a book about taking a critical look at how you can become the best version of yourself so that you can do good for others. If this book can help someone else rise above their challenges and #BeBetter, then I’ve achieved my goal.”

 

Broken to Better: 13 Ways Not to Fail at Life and Leadership is available at Amazon and BN.com.

National Facility Management Company Ranks #345 in Third Annual Survey

Anaheim, CA. (April 06, 2022) – Branded Group CEO Michael Kurland recently announced that his company has been ranked #345 in the 2022 Fastest Growing Companies in America by The Financial Times and Statista. Recipients include businesses from twenty countries in north, central and South America who have experienced strong revenue growth.

“Branded Group is honored to be among these outstanding organizations who have persevered through challenging times,” Kurland said. “We will continue to focus on delivering our BeBetter experience to our valued clients as well as providing an outstanding workplace for our team.”

The FT Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2022 is a list of the 500 companies in the Americas that have the highest growth in publicly disclosed revenues between 2017 and 2020. Companies who are eligible for the award must have had annual revenues of at least $100,000 in the prior year. Complete results of the 2022 FT’s Fastest Growing Companies in America, including an interactive listing with links to company websites can be found at https://www.ft.com/americas-fastest-growing-companies-2021.

For more information about Branded Group, contact Michael Kurland at mkurland@branded-group.com.

About Branded Group

Branded Group is an award-winning facility maintenance and construction management company servicing multi-site commercial properties. Through its “Be Better” experience, Branded Group provides clients with peace of mind and preserves their brand standards. Services include on-demand facility maintenance, construction management, and special project implementation for retail locations, restaurants, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions, among other industry verticals. The company is a certified Great Place to Work® and been ranked on the Inc. 5000 for multiple consecutive years. For more information visit https://www.branded-group.com

Each year, ConnexFM takes great pride in the quality member candidates nominated and selected for the ConnexFM Board of Directors slate. The ConnexFM Nominating Committee strives for candidates that exhibit leadership qualities such a strategic planning, foresight, innovative thinking, industry expertise, and understand the varying interests of our diverse membership. 

 

ConnexFM is calling on YOU, the primary and/or voting ConnexFM member of your organization, to cast YOUR VOTE for the 2022-23 ConnexFM Board of Directors. The deadline to vote is March 31, 2022 at 5:00PM CT. 

 

There are five Multi-Site Corporate Member candidates that the ConnexFM Nominating Committee believes are strong potential board members. From these candidates, three Multi-Site Board seats will be filled based on your votes. There are two Multi-Site Alternates that will be selected this year with a separate ballot and voted on by the 2021-22 Board of Directors. 

 

There are five Supplier Corporate Member candidates that the committee believes are strong potential board members. From these candidates, one Supplier Board seat will be filled based on your votes. There is also one Supplier Alternate that will be that will be selected this year with a separate ballot and voted on by the 2021-22 Board of Directors. 

 

Visit vote.connexfm.com to learn more about the candidates. 

 

As demand from the industry grows, SMG Holdings LLC has announced the launch of a new energy and sustainability solutions division – SMG Energy Solutions (SMG Energy).

Led by Jason Menser, Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, the vision is to integrate technology capabilities with core services and strategic alliances to meet the growing demand for “greener” solutions and newer sustainable technologies that will offer clients unique opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint while improving operational efficiencies and mitigating risk.

SMG Energy, which will focus on the wide range of energy and sustainability initiatives, is the vision of Shannon Prato, SMG Holdings LLC’s CEO, who for over 25 years has overseen the industry-leading integrated facilities management company – SMG Facility Services.

Shannon Prato commented: “SMG Facility Services has been supporting multi-site clients for over 25 years; we are in an excellent position to start this new division based on our broad experience in the space, the industry’s growing focus on “green” and our keen ability to provide energy and sustainability solutions and services that can greatly help reduce a client’s carbon footprint.”

“With the increased sense of urgency for companies to establish tactical ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategies, it’s becoming increasingly important to direct our efforts to address the challenges of reducing carbon emissions and curbing waste across our clients. By analyzing all stages of the energy and sustainability journey more efficiently, we can provide a single source or strategic service that helps companies raise the Sustainability bar while reducing overall costs.

Areas of concentration that SMG Energy will offer are as follows: electrification / electric vehicle (EV) charging (ex. installation, repair services), energy management systems, energy procurement, ESG, utility and equipment rebates/incentives, waste & water analysis and solar installation and service.

The move follows SMG’s recent announcements of opening a state-of-the-art Center of Excellence in Roanoke, Virginia that greatly expanded the company’s capabilities in professional services and client support, as well as SMG Facility Services’ upcoming step to international expansion to support existing clients who have a global presence.

About SMG Energy Solutions (SMG Energy) 

SMG Energy delivers multi-site companies customized energy and sustainability solutions that lower costs, manage risk, and improve brand position. We partner with clients to establish and achieve proven energy saving and sustainability strategies (ex. decarbonization targets) while maintaining a unique focus on driving down energy spend, increase visibility, and improve overall operational cost savings. Understanding our clients’ sustainability goals, cost drivers and consumption profiles, we help to identify, analyze, and achieve sustainability targets that meet their financial targets.

SMG Energy is the energy and sustainability division of SMG Holdings LLC, a privately held facility services, real estate and investment firm focused on energy and sustainability solutions and services, strategic sourcing, and procurement. Learn more at www.SMGEnergy.com

The leader in multisite energy management and smart building technology, ENTOUCH, has dramatically expanded on their existing machine learning (ML) algorithms with predictive failure results. This added functionality is designed to assist facility managers’ decision-making about their sites by predicting failure events within weeks of it actually occurring. 

 

ENTOUCH has long been a pioneering innovator and launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative focused on using machine learning algorithms in 2018. Initially focused on HVAC equipment efficiency and diagnostics, the ENTOUCH algorithms analyze years of raw data from over 70,000 devices to identify HVAC and refrigeration issues, potentially leading to component failure. More importantly, the technology can identify these potential failures with at least a 90% confidence level weeks before the failure. 

 

Now, as part of the ENTOUCH.cloud and ENTOUCH.360 managed services platform, ENTOUCH customers can learn more about their building systems operations by giving extraordinary insight into how facilities operate while reducing energy consumption, decreasing maintenance costs, and preventing downtime. The overall benefit has an eye on predicting failure while informing facilities management teams of potentially imminent issues. 

 

In discussing the expanded solution Jon Bolen, CEO of ENTOUCH, commented, “It’s always been our vision to transform buildings into data-generating objects, and we have done that. This enhancement to our platform transforms that data into truly actionable intelligence by detecting anomalies and trends virtually impossible for an individual to detect at scale across an entire enterprise. With these analytics in hand, our customers will appreciably expand the ENTOUCH value proposition beyond energy efficiency and drive an even more significant impact on their company’s operational expenses.” 

 

ENTOUCH’s ML algorithms use four types of analytics to turn insights into actionable items. Each analytic type gives a different approach and answers questions about your facilities, specific enough to the RTU level, making data more useful than ever before.

1.      Descriptive analytics – “What is happening?” Descriptive analytics is the measure of how an event affect your facility. It provides clear and concise information about what’s happening within your facility that can be used to improve or troubleshoot aspects of your operations, such as energy usage metrics, for example.

2.      Diagnostic analytics – “Why is it happening?”  Diagnostic analytics helps identify the root cause of any issue and determine the source, deeper analysis, including historical data and correlated with other data points.

3.      Predictive analytics – “What could happen if left unattended?”  Predictive analytics applies mathematical models to predict future behavior by examining past data sets, focusing on how these patterns may reveal insights into what’s yet to come. This is critical to mitigating customer comfort and operational cost impact.

4.      Prescriptive analytics – “What options are available?” With prescriptive analytics, you can use the power of predictability to your advantage. Decision options are provided to take advantage of a future opportunity or mitigate future risk, additionally providing implications for each option.

 

The future of building management is now available thanks to smart technology and machine learning. “Technological advancements, especially within the sphere of AI, are finally becoming commercially practical. With our latest predictive failure models, ENTOUCH continues to demonstrate our commitment to provide meaningful applications that positively impact members of our client community,” said Frank Menocal, ENTOUCH CTO. By using advanced analytics platforms with these capabilities, increasingly resource-constrained facilities managers can significantly improve their decision-making skills as well as the performance of their locations. 

 

 

About ENTOUCH

Founded in Dallas, Texas, in 2008, ENTOUCH is the pioneer in energy management as a service and smart building technology. Our turnkey solution digitally transforms and optimizes operations while reducing energy usage to drive profitability for multisite businesses. We are the only provider that owns our entire technology stack and can take over heterogeneous systems and manage them from a single cloud solution. We lead the industry in speed and deployment quality, and the ENTOUCH.360 service has earned a 100% renewal rate.

Damien Romeo, owner of long-time ConnexFM Member, Retail Maintenance Specialists & Construction, has sadly lost his battle with cancer. Romeo fought hard and inspired many. Before he passed, he encouraged his friends and family to make every moment count. 

His family appreciates the industry’s kindness and support. In lieu of flowers, his family asks for donations to the Fighting Children’s Cancer Foundation in honor of our brother Damien’s name. 

CoolSys™, the market-leading refrigeration, HVAC, engineering, and energy solutions company, announced it has acquired Triangle Refrigeration, a leading provider of commercial HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, and monitoring services in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. With this acquisition, CoolSys expands its market presence throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, complementing service coverage areas strengthened by prior acquisitions in those regions.

 

“As CoolSys continues to grow its market presence across the country, we’re excited to have Triangle Refrigeration join our other CoolSys companies in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions,” commented Anesa Chaibi, CEO of CoolSys.“A market leader in its region, Triangle Refrigeration and its management team have developed a strong reputation built on industry expertise, operational efficiency, and excellent customer experience, which are values integral to us at CoolSys.”

 

Based in Leola, Pennsylvania, Triangle Refrigeration has highly trained and experienced technicians across four states. It provides maintenance, repair, and installation services to leading supermarkets, industrial customers, convenience stores, and other retailers. Triangle Refrigeration was founded in 1969 as a one-man operation by Cleo Weaver and has grown to become a leading service provider, known for its in-depth knowledge and exceptional service of HVAC and refrigeration systems across commercial and industrial businesses.

 

“Our goal has always been to provide service that exceeds expectations and provides the greatest value to our customers,” commented Cleo Weaver, founder and owner of Triangle Refrigeration. “We’re looking forward to joining CoolSys where our team can continue to service our customers at an outstanding level, while bringing them new resources and capabilities from a national service provider,” added Dan Harris, president of Triangle Refrigeration.

 

 

About CoolSys

CoolSys is the market-leading refrigeration and HVAC solutions company, specializing in a full spectrum of best-in-class service experiences and solutions for customers in the retail, foodservice, commercial, and industrial market segments. CoolSys and its operating businesses cover every stage of mission-critical systems from engineering and design, installation, service and maintenance, and energy optimization. Headquartered in Southern California, CoolSys has more than 3,000 employees nationwide, serving the daily needs of more than 45,000 customer locations across North America. For additional information, please visitwww.coolsys.com.

 

 

About Triangle Refrigeration

Triangle Refrigeration is a leading provider of fast and reliable commercial HVAC and refrigeration service and installation solutions, supporting customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. With over 50 years of HVAC and refrigeration experience, Triangle alsoprovides a large selection of state-of-the-art food service equipment.

Kellermeyer Bergensons Services, LLC (“KBS”), a trusted partner to leading operations and facility managers across North America, today announced the acquisition of BRAVO! Building Services and two other related companies, BRAVO! Facility Services and BRAVO! Innovative Solutions (together “BRAVO!”). KBS is a portfolio company of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”), a global leader in alternative investing.

 

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in New Jersey, BRAVO! is a leading provider of facility services to major brands in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, higher education, commercial business, and other industry verticals. Operating in 17 states and known for quality control, the company offers essential services, including commercial janitorial and healthcare environmental services, with a focus on sustainable janitorial solutions. 

“BRAVO! is a recognized industry leader and we are excited to welcome their talented team to KBS,” said Mark Minasian, CEO of KBS. “BRAVO! has built trusted relationships with global clients across its business and industrials end-markets. I see this partnership as truly synergistic. BRAVO! enhances our service capabilities in regulated industries and KBS brings the scale to best position them to serve their customers’ needs across North America.”

Karen Martinez, founder and CEO of BRAVO!, commented: “We are excited to join forces with KBS, a company that shares our deep commitment to quality and service, and provides professional growth opportunities for our employees. BRAVO! customers will benefit from enhanced resources, cutting-edge innovation, and a broader service portfolio.” 

 

The acquisition of BRAVO! follows KBS’ recent acquisitions of American Maintenance and Olympus Building Services in August. Over the prior four years, KBS has acquired a total of 14 companies, consolidating its position as the nation’s largest privately held facility services company. BRAVO! will operate independently as a KBS company. 

 

Bob Warden, Global Head of Private Equity at Cerberus, added: “Organizations continue to place even greater emphasis on maintaining healthy operations for their customers and employees. KBS and BRAVO! have each become trusted partners through a shared commitment to the highest standard of performance and compliance. This combination expands their ability to deliver tailored, technology-driven solutions to industry leaders at scale.” 

 

About KBS

Kellermeyer Bergensons Services, LLC (“KBS”) is a trusted partner to leading operations and facility managers across 75,000 client locations throughout North America. We provide essential facility services that deliver healthy operations to businesses through scalable solutions customized to meet client-specific requirements. Our expertise and technology enable our teams to anticipate issues, ensure quality, and maximize efficiency. With decades of experience in facility hygiene, including being on the front lines throughout the COVID-19 crisis, KBS is committed to partnering with clients to Stay Ahead of the Curve™ with the latest advances for maintaining healthy operations. For more information, visit www.kbs-services.com. 

About BRAVO! Building Services

BRAVO! Building Services is one of the largest, privately held facility support companies in the nation, providing commercial janitorial, healthcare environmental services, and other solutions. The company is headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey, with offices in Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. For more information, visit www.bravobuildingservices.com.

About Cerberus 
Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a global leader in alternative investing with over $55 billion in assets across complementary credit, private equity, and real estate strategies. We invest across the capital structure where our integrated investment platforms and proprietary operating capabilities create an edge to improve performance and drive long-term value. Our tenured teams have experience working collaboratively across asset classes, sectors, and geographies to seek strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors. For more information about our people and platforms, visit us at https://www.cerberus.com/.