Charlie Wallace, chief operating officer and vice president of Quality Service Contractors has formally announced that he will retire in March 2016. QSC, an enhanced service group of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors-National Association, meets the specialized needs of members in the service and repair industry.

Wallace will culminate his career with QSC at the annual Power Meeting, March 17-19, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Fla. With extraordinary vision and leadership, Wallace has guided QSC through more than 16 of the organization's 20 years, building an affordable and continually expanding inventory of programs and resources for both contractors and Industry Partners.

Most notably, Wallace spearheaded QSC's popular Business Coach Program, hiring the first business success coach. Today, three full-time coaches not only travel the country to help members fine-tune their businesses and reach their goals, but they also present seminars to PHCC chapters nationwide. Wallace expressed his personal satisfaction in witnessing the power of this program: "It has helped market QSC and PHCC to prospective members and gives business owners and their employees the opportunity to learn the latest tips to make their businesses better." As testament to that success, many QSC members are "long-term members," he added, "some of whom have been with us for the entire 20 years."

In addition to the Business Coach Program, Wallace was instrumental in launching QSC's webinar program to create an online learning experience for members, as well as in forming online tools for human resources, safety, Customer Service Relations training, management training, and technician training. Through the years, QSC has grown into an organization that, to Wallace, is "more of a family ... a group of people that genuinely cares about helping each other succeed."

Serving contractors has been Wallace's call since the beginning of his career, when he sold products to painting contractors. Approached by those contractors to serve as executive director of their association, The St. Louis Painting & Decorating Foundation, he faithfully led them for 11 years and got the "association business in his system." He also served six years in the United States Army and was honorably discharged as Staff Sergeant.  He attended Southeast Missouri State College.

The opportunity to steer QSC, Wallace admitted, seemed like the "perfect fit" and provided more growth opportunities. "It has turned from being just a job into defining the passion I have for helping contractors and Industry Partners achieve their goals," he said. "The value of QSC to me is that, over the years, I have developed life-long friendships with our members. That is something I will cherish forever."

QSC Chair Bob Macca echoed the transformative power of the group: "I am proud to be a part of a group of people that are willing to share their successes and failures in order to benefit their fellow QSC members, and Charlie [Wallace] has cultivated that. He has formed a family that is bound together by the common goal of being the best plumbing-heating-cooling company possible."

A Search Committee has been formed and has begun the process of identifying and interviewing candidates for the QSC Executive Director position. Anyone interested in submitting a confidential application may send it to hr@naphcc.org.