Still in the Game

After more than five decades of leadership, Bill Kent is stepping away as CEO at Team Horner — but not from the industry he’s spent a lifetime building.

This past January, Kent officially passed the baton to longtime leader Mike Dooley, completing a transition that took years of preparation.

From aerospace to aquatics 

Kent grew up in Cincinnati and earned a degree in physics before spending six years at General Electric, where he worked on rocket motor components, including projects tied to the Saturn V moon rocket. Eventually, he decided he didn’t want to spend his career in the defense industry and began looking for the next opportunity.

He then took a role with a company manufacturing aluminum swimming pools, where he spent more than two years working on installations across the country. During that time, he “fell in love with the swimming pool industry,” Kent says. The turning point came while watching children swimming in one of the company’s pools in a city park, an experience he says reshaped how he viewed his work and its impact.

In 1972, the swimming pool business was rapidly expanding, and Kent saw potential. He moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a plan to build a franchise model for pool service.

He started a small pool service company, then joined a young wholesale distributor, HornerXpress. Within a few years, he bought into the business, and by 1975, he was the sole owner. 

Over time, the company expanded far beyond service into manufacturing, distribution and international markets, while maintaining a focus on employees and long-term stability.

As the business grew, Kent served in roles with the National Swimming Pool Foundation, the Florida Swimming Pool Association and the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals (now the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance), where he was named national president in 1996. He contributed to industry standards and safety initiatives, including leadership roles on national technical committees and water safety programs. He has also remained active with the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Rethinking ownership and impact

In 2016, Kent transitioned Team Horner to an employee stock ownership plan, making it an employee-owned company. 

“I started thinking about the responsibilities of ownership in a different way,” explains Kent, now 83. “In a privately held company, the owner has a lot of responsibility in terms of making sure that the employees are taken care of properly and that the business is being operated properly.”

He calls the ESOP transition the best decision he ever made. 

“If you’re a private business owner, your personal value system comes into play in terms of how you treat your customers, your employees and your suppliers,” Kent says. “I’ve always believed in continuous improvement and the idea that we’re all equal in the eyes of God.”

Those beliefs carry through in Team Horner’s mission: Working Together, Growing Together, and Winning Together. It also shows up in the company’s emphasis on trust and what Kent describes as a “bottom-up culture,” where employees are encouraged to make decisions and take ownership of their roles.

“I wanted to create an environment where every employee, every single day, jumped out of bed in the morning and said, ‘I can hardly wait to get to work today,’ ” he says. 

Those values trace back to Kent’s upbringing in Cincinnati and his Catholic education.

“Bill enjoys the human experience,” says Laura Castanza, Team Horner’s director of education. “He just wants to make things better. He has a strong faith and is driven to be of service to others.”

As chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Kent has been a leading advocate for water safety, particularly through the Every Child A Swimmer initiative. Originally active decades ago, the program was revived under his leadership and now supports hundreds of swim schools nationwide, providing scholarships for children to learn life-saving skills. 

“Every Child A Swimmer is his legacy,” Castanza says. “Any proceeds we collect from our Team Horner classes are donated to Every Child A Swimmer, and the Bill Kent Family Foundation matches it. Bill is philanthropic by nature, and it shows in whatever he is involved in.”

Kent has also been active in advancing legislation tied to water safety and continues to push for broader adoption nationwide.

Staying involved

While stepping down as CEO marks a major milestone, Kent still serves as chairman of the ESOP board, supporting Team Horner’s employee-owners and offering guidance as the company moves forward.

He is also looking ahead at how new technology could impact the industry.

“I’ve actually thought about doing a seminar about AI in the swimming pool industry and how it can be applied better,” he says. “There’s some real benefit to it in terms of creating operating efficiencies.”

Kent still maintains a presence at the company’s headquarters and is a resource for employees and customers. 

“I would hope they stay green and growing,” he says. “It’s a different world now, but that’s really in their hands, not mine. They have a great history here, but how they choose to manage it is up to them.”

Kent’s role may be changing, but his connection to the industry hasn’t. His focus remains on service, innovation and giving back.

“We all have an obligation to do our best in whatever it is that we take on,” he says. “And I’ve been the luckiest guy you ever met. I found my passion at the age of 27 when I stumbled into the pool industry and fell in love with it, and I’m still in love with it.”