Taco Comfort Solutions held a press briefing and presented the Dan Holohan Comfort Award at the 2019 AHR Expo in Atlanta this January. John Hazen White, Jr., executive chairman of the board and owner of Taco, gave the opening remarks. He focused on the company's 2018 changes and accomplishments.

"It's been a year for Taco to sort of reconfigure itself," said Hazen White, Jr. "We've done some acquisitions in the last few years which have pushed us in developing the company into something continually improving and more and more professional.

"It's been some tough times, but some really great times," he continued. "I think what we've ended up with at this point is a company, in terms of Taco, a company that's the strongest it's ever been and positioned for tremendous growth." 

Hazen White, Jr. went on to introduce Cheryl Merchant, the new president of Taco. Merchant detailed why she chose to take on her role at Taco, as well as some of the company's main goals. 

"High efficiency and the new demands that are facing all of us is what Taco's all about," said Merchant. "So, innovation and moving forward in the industry is key to us."

After Merchant's remarks, Taco VP of Marketing Ken Watson presented this year's Dan Holohan Comfort Award to Dan Foley of Foley Mechanical. The annual award recognizes an HVAC professional or company that has made a substantial contribution to comfort technology advancement or training while displaying the same exceptional good humor and love of people exhibited by Dan Holohan throughout his career. 

"It's quite an honor to win an award named after my mentor, Dan Holohan," said Foley. "When I first started putting heating systems in, I didn't know what a boiler or circulator pump was. Dan took me under his wing, and that was probably 30 years ago. He helped me along the way.

"It's a thrill and an honor to win and accept this award on behalf of my talented and skilled craftsman who are back home in the snow in Washington, D.C., fixing peoples' heat, putting boilers in, and putting in Taco products," Foley continued.