Phil Campagna takes helm as Yearout Mechanical CEO
Jan. 21—After more than four decades at Yearout Mechanical, president and CEO Kevin Yearout has retired.
Former Yearout vice president of pre-construction Phil Campagna has taken over Yearout's roles, becoming the first CEO in the company's history who is not related to the Yearout family.
"There's not a Yearout working at the company ... for the first time ever," Yearout said. "There used to be many, many of us. So it's a big change — but it's not a change in the negative. It's just how life rolls on."
The company was founded nearly a century ago by Rankin Yearout. Kevin Yearout's grandfather, Robert M. Yearout and father, Robert "Kim" Yearout, incorporated the Albuquerque-based contractor in 1963. The company was recently acquired by California-based Therma Holdings, now Legence.
When it was founded, Yearout Mechanical was exclusively a plumbing contractor. But by 1986, the company had grown into a full-service mechanical company. Yearout started working at the family business when he was still in high school, and started as a full-time plumbing apprentice in 1981. He became the company's president in 1996.
Marni Goodrich, director of business operations at Yearout, said that Kevin Yearout has been instrumental in growing the company and incorporating new technologies in the 22 years she's worked at the company. Currently, Yearout Mechanical has over 250 employees. Last year, Yearout Mechanical acquired Welch's Boiler Service.
"He's always forward thinking, especially about technology, and things that are going to move us forward," Goodrich said. "We're already leading the charge."
Kevin Yearout said the company was one of the first owners of a fax machine in Albuquerque.
"As a matter of fact, we made one of our suppliers buy a fax machine, so we had someone to fax," Yearout said.
Yearout isn't fully retiring; he's going to continue working as a developer on the Max Q project near Kirtland Air Force Base.
Campagna has been working at Yearout since 2013. He moved to Albuquerque and started at Yearout after working with the company on a collaborative project.
"I was very fortunate ... to participate in a joint venture with Yearout Mechanical," Campagna said. "I was locked in a room with Kevin Yearout and several other members of the staff, and it was an extremely pivotal moment for me because I realized that this was the kind of company that I really wanted to work for permanently."
He said his initial goal as CEO is to keep Yearout on a steady growth trajectory.
"Great things are coming," Yearout said. "It will continue to be what it is. And I'm very, very comfortable with the leadership."
