Andrew Kanetsky, 39
Senior project manager and technical advisor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Andrew Kanetsky’s pool career has a surprising beginning: as a lifeguard who, by his own admission, was “terrible — really bad.”
What he did love, though, was the more technical side of pools and tinkering in pump rooms. That set him on a path that would define the next two decades of his career. After a supervisor role at a community pool didn’t pan out, he hopped on his bike, flipped through the Yellow Pages and called the first pool management company he saw: American Pool.
Kanetsky wore nearly every hat within American Pool — pool cleaner, supervisor, assistant regional manager, regional manager, sales director, general manager, construction manager, president and vice president of construction. The only role he never took on was lifeguarding again, a promise he kept to himself after that first summer.
He thrives on the fluidity of the commercial aquatics industry. “There’s never a dull day,” Kanetsky says. “Each day is different; each one a chance to learn from yesterday’s mistakes.”
Kanetsky credits technology with helping him lead from anywhere, whether on the road, at home or, as he jokes, “on top of a mountain.”
Among his proudest moments, three stand out: receiving the President’s Award of Excellence from the corporate leadership of American Pool, surprising his mother by secretly renovating her backyard pool and hearing from an employee who tearfully told him he had been like a “work father” during one of the hardest times in her life. “It was the highest honor I could ever imagine,” he says.
One of the most daunting tests of his leadership came during a once-in-a-century flood. Kanetsky stayed behind as the waters rose waist-high in his office complex. Grabbing a novelty cheetah-print rescue tube off the wall, he pulled a neighbor to safety before being evacuated by boat. In the days that followed, he slept in the office, set up a makeshift mobile command center and rallied his team to keep operations running. “It was truly a sight to see, but I grinned and bore it, knowing everyone was looking to me for how they should feel,” he says. “Long story short, it worked. That summer ended up being fantastic, and our clients never saw downtime.”
After two decades with American Pool, it was time for a change. Kanetsky recently accepted a new position as a senior project manager and technical advisor with Stillwater Construction Services, one that will allow him to use his years of construction knowledge and experience but expand his customer base beyond commercial aquatics.
Kanetsky is also a licensed professional skydiver with over 1,000 jumps and an instructional rating allowing him to coach others in the sky, a longtime ski patroller, a state-certified emergency medical technician and a passionate woodworker.
