LAS VEGAS — Troy Meachum, president of ACR Supply based in Durham, North Carolina, has officially taken over as the new Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) president for 2018.

Outgoing president Tom Roberts passed the gavel to Meachum on the final night of HARDI’s 2017 Annual Conference: NOVA in Las Vegas.

Roberts capped off his HARDI presidency with a few milestones credited to his service, including the HARDI Mexico expansion and record attendances at multiple HARDI events in 2017.

“This is not an abrupt change moving president to president,” Roberts told conference attendees. “I have had the pleasure of serving for a handful of years with the others on the board, and I can tell you our progress is a deliberate, calculated process intended to keep us steered toward the long term."

Speaking of the long term, Meachum opened his presidency with a message of legacy.

"I believe we are standing on the shoulders of giants," Meachum stated during his speech to the closing ceremony crowd, referencing the nature of many HARDI businesses as multigenerational family businesses.

To drive his message home, Meachum presented a high-production, documentary-style video that captured the legacy story of three HARDI distributor members: APR Supply, Lenanon, Pennsylvania; Munch's Supply, New Lenox, Illinois; and Crescent Supply, St. Louis.

"It is our duty to preserve the legacy of those who came before us and built our companies," said Meachum. "Let me ask you this, are we going to let some e-commerce giant come and take that all away from us? I don't think so."

For more information, please contact Anthony Lagunzad at alagunzad@hardinet.org.

Publication date: 12/13/17