Dave Russell founded Action Air Conditioning in 1988, and the company still runs on the same idea it started with: serve the customer, tell the truth, and do the job right the first time.
Where Dave Started
Dave has worked in air conditioning since 1974. He learned the trade as a high school student in Key West, bused to the Navy base where retired Navy instructors taught vocational classes, and he was earning a paycheck in the field by his mid teens. In 1979 he joined one of Tampa’s largest air conditioning companies, where his mentor Wayne English put him in charge of four crews and taught him how to run a company within a company. In 1988, Dave and his wife Susan started Action Air Conditioning on a credit card, out of their house, with Susan answering the phone while holding their daughter.
What He Built
From a one man operation, Dave grew Action Air into one of the most established HVAC dealers on Florida’s West Coast, a Lennox Premier Dealer recognized with the Lennox Centennial Award, which places the company among the top 100 Lennox dealers in America and is judged on customer satisfaction rather than sales volume. Along the way the company has never missed payroll and never borrowed money to keep the doors open, through every downturn since 1988 including the 2007 to 2008 crash.
How He Works
Dave holds a Florida mechanical contractor license and EPA refrigerant certification, and he built the company’s hiring around five traits he still teaches: show up on time, every day, with a good attitude, and do the right thing consistently. His operating rule is simple: customer first, coworker second, owner third, and all three have to win. Today Dave is handing day to day leadership to his son Christopher while staying close to the team and the customers who built the business with him.