Elite Roofing Supply, an independent distributor headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, was started seven years ago and to date has 16 green field locations in 5 states. Elite branches are run by Managing Partners who are empowered to make their buying and pricing decisions at the local level to provide a high level of service to their customers, and this model is unique in the distribution world. In order to remain in control of the company’s growth strategy and desired level of customer service, Elite has remained privately owned and is funding their own growth. Expanding companies need to grow their leadership team as well, and Elite has been able to do that organically in an intentional way. Their founding CEO, Brian Torry, will move into the Chairman role January 1. For the past several years he has been grooming founding partner, Sarah Weiss, to assume the CEO seat and in January 2020, that will take place.

This transition is yet one example of how Elite mentors and grooms future leaders. Elite did not choose Sarah to be the next CEO/President because she is a woman, she was chosen because she was the right person for the job. The same can be said of the many men and women Elite has provided growth opportunities for. Elite believes that a big barrier to upward movement and employee development is when we look to promote people who have the same background or interests as ourselves. When that happens, you create carbon copies of a certain type of employee, but you don’t foster diverse thought and various types of abilities.

Cornerstone to Elite’s success is their dedication to hire the right people for the position, regardless of gender, age or race. Elite’s founders, Brian Torry, Sarah Weiss and Greg Russell, attribute their own personal successes in the industry, to having been given opportunities by close mentors who saw potential in each of them. In building Elite, they kept their own personal experiences in mind, and each have intentionally hired and mentored team members based on their potential, regardless of boundaries that may have limited careers in other organizations. For that reason, Elite actively looks to mentor and grow our team with driven, results oriented individuals who take responsibility for how their actions impact their teammates, our customers, the company’s results, and the community at large.

Mentoring at Elite isn’t a formal process, it happens organically, through seeing ways to provide team members with growth opportunities. Sometimes that occurs through asking someone to head up an event to grow in their leadership skills, sometimes mentorship looks like taking an interest in a younger salesperson’s goals and sometimes it looks like casual conversations in the yard with drivers and loaders about their dreams and aspirations.

“Elite Roofing Supply is comprised of an “Elite” group of seasoned professionals and we pride ourselves in finding the most qualified individual for each and every position we have. Sarah Weiss is a shining example of the talent and professionalism that Elite strives for and that the National Women in Roofing represents.” – Caryn Baudean (Commercial Sales, Louisiana)

The announcement regarding Sarah Weiss becoming CEO/President of Elite in January 2020 came of no surprise to the Elite family, as this is a transition that has been in the works for some time and has been openly discussed within the Elite family. Under Sarah’s leadership the company will continue to grow in a thoughtful, crawl, walk, run manner, with a focus on continued expansion into new markets, adding talented individuals into our existing markets and meeting contractors where they want to be met from a technology standpoint. In an industry where women make up only 0.5 percent of the roofing professionals in America and where kids are being told that you only succeed if you go to college, Elite is bucking the trend and is hiring based on talent.

“We are an inclusive company, who looks for the right person for the right seat, regardless of gender, religion, education level or race. Some of our top team members are female.” – Sarah Weiss, CEO/President.

Sarah’s primary focus has been on building teams and designing processes that allow branches to focus on serving professional roofing contractors better than any other distributor out there.

Elite Roofing is a proud platinum sponsor of NWIR; providing opportunities for women and men alike, to find ongoing successes working together in the roofing industry.