COLUMBUS, Ohio - Heating, Airconditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) announced the board’s unanimous vote of the first members in the recently developed affiliate partner and Energy Efficiency Partner membership categories.

William Blair & Co., an independent, employee-owned global investment firm, is HARDI’s first Affiliate Partner member. Recently ranked No. 2 in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” Analyst Survey, William Blair & Co. provides services in investment banking, asset management, equity research, institutional, private brokerage, and private capital.

“HARDI believes it is vital that trends, opportunities, challenges, and expectations for our industry are accurate and reasonable, so I couldn’t be happier to welcome our first affiliate member, William Blair & Co., who is the first to recognize the role HARDI can play in giving them a deeper understanding of what’s really happening in residential and commercial HVACR,” said Talbot Gee, HARDI executive vice president and chief executive officer.

Resource Solutions Group (RSG), the first member as a HARDI Energy Efficiency Partner, was founded in 2006 as a consulting firm specializing in the design, development, strategic marketing, and delivery of resource efficiency programs for a wide variety of market sectors and clients. The new membership category, developed to facilitate and encourage collaboration between distributor members and those who run and implement energy efficiency incentive programs, will provide California-based RSG with a platform to communicate with HARDI manufacturer and distributor members who have played an integral role in the success of many past energy efficiency rebate programs.

Published:January 2012