Q&A With New President of Heating and Air Conditioning Alliance of Indiana

Recently, the Heating and Air Conditioning Alliance of Indiana named Brian Schutt, co-founder of Homesense Heating and Cooling, as president of its organization and Sean Smith of Efficient Systems as vice president.

With that in mind, we thought we’d stand in your shoes and ask Brian what this announcement means for you, the consumer. Here you go:

1. So Brian, what’s the intention of the Heating and Air Conditioning Alliance of Indiana? Why do you exist?

The Heating and A/C Alliance of Indiana is an association of the top heating and cooling providers in the state, committed to providing the top-quality technical expertise, customer service, and business operations in Indiana HVAC.

2. What’s the biggest value add the group provides consumers like us?

While services like Angie’s List, Better Business Bureau, Yelp and the like are great sources of input when making choices as a homeowner, our group provides internal accountability to ensure only the best providers are members. We would love for homeowners to view the Alliance as another source to help filter what HVAC firms they decide to work in their homes.

3. How have you served on the Heating and Air Conditioning Alliance in the past?

I have served as a board member for five years, and the last two as vice president. Within this time, I have been part of many of our industry training activities, but most importantly have helped in our annual event “Bring the Heat,” which is a partner event with INHP to help serve low-income Indianapolis residents with furnace service and repair before the cold winters. This event really shows the spirit of our industry, which is to help those without comfort.

4. What are some of your new responsibilities as president?

As with any boards of director, the primary responsibility is marshaling the efforts of the board in a cohesive direction. Since there are many competitors serving on the same board together, not everyone agrees on all decisions all the time. But I’m proud that we’re working together well and have found some great areas of common ground.

5. Any goals are specific things you’d like to accomplish?

The HVAC industry in Indiana is huge. It produces revenues in the billions each year, employs tens of thousands, yet has little to no voice in the public. What little media there is about the HVAC industry is usually negative. My goal is to shed more light and more positive light on a great industry. More often than not, people in the HVAC industry are working very hard to help people in situations of duress. Those are the stories I want to tell.

Associated with that, is telling the story of what a great career HVAC can be. With workforce participation at its lowest in nearly 40 years, people are hungry for great careers with relative job security. HVAC offers both.