30 Under 40

  • Sarah Bess, 33

    ByPoolPro

    With over a decade of experience in pool and home improvement financing, Sarah Bess has built her career on fostering strong partnerships and helping families bring their backyard dreams to life. She spent seven years at Lyon Financial as director of marketing and dealer services before joining Viking Capital, where she now serves as director of business development. She supports contractors nationwide by showing them how financing can help close more jobs, educate homeowners and make pool ownership more accessible.

  • Olivia Powell, 27

    ByPoolPro

    When Olivia Powell graduated from Florida State University in 2020, she entered the workforce at the height of the pandemic — when job opportunities were scarce. She found a job at Viking Capital as an assistant under the company’s director of marketing.

  • Blayr Lignoski, 33

    ByPoolPro

    Blayr Lignoski has spent more than a decade building his career in nearly every corner of the pool industry. He started in retail with A&M Corson’s Aquavalue, worked in repairs with the same company, then served as warehouse manager at Tropical Water Pools before moving into service management with National Pool Partners/Aquaman Pools.

  • Mara Gillott, 38

    ByPoolPro

    When Mara Gillott joined National Pool Partners in 2023, she brought more than 20 years of experience in the real estate sector and a fresh perspective on operational excellence. Initially hired as a consultant, she focused on improving efficiency, streamlining processes and shaping procedures to support a rapidly growing company.

  • Sam Pizzo, 33

    ByPoolPro

    Sam Pizzo’s career in the pool industry has spanned residential and commercial construction, design and sales — all experiences that laid the foundation for starting his own company. He began in residential construction supervision, gaining hands-on experience managing builds and learning what it takes to deliver a quality backyard project. From there, he transitioned to commercial projects, tackling the complexities of large-scale pools before ultimately returning to the residential market, where his passion for design and client collaboration took root.

  • Walker Draeger, 25

    ByPoolPro

    Walker Draeger started in the industry with his own company, D’s Pool Cleaning, before joining Avree Custom Pools in 2019 as an assistant project manager. Within a year, he was promoted to project manager, and by the end of 2020 he had moved into pool design — where he brings backyards to life.

  • Trese Huss, 39

    ByPoolPro

    For Trese Huss, the pool industry is family history. Her father founded Pool Care Specialists in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1984, and by 2005 she was working alongside him. Over the years, she held nearly every job in the business, from riding along with service crews and working in the retail store to overseeing scheduling, billing and operations as service manager. That experience gave her a 360-degree view of how the industry works and the confidence to build her path forward.

  • Jonah Gonzales, 39

    ByPoolPro

    For Jonah Gonzales, the pool industry is both a livelihood and a legacy. In 2012, after years of struggling as a single father, he accepted an offer from his longtime neighbor and mentor, Rick, who owned AllPro Pools. “For years he had been telling me that whenever I was ready to start a [pool] career, he would teach me everything,” Gonzales says. He began as a technician, moving into repairs, and after five years was ready to branch out on his own. Rick gave him his first 10 pools, and Blue Whale Pool & Spa was born.

  • Kyle Erwin, 39

    ByPoolPro

    Kyle Erwin’s career in the pool industry began while in college, building pools for his family’s company, Hawaiian Pools and Landscape, in Memphis, Tennessee. After graduation, he transitioned into retail management and sales with the same company. A brief detour into the insurance world didn’t last long — Erwin found his way back to aquatics with Zodiac Pool Systems (now Fluidra), serving as a territory sales manager in the Atlanta market. Seven years ago, he joined United Aqua Group, where he now serves as vice president of sales.