Air Pros USA Founder is Entrepreneur of the Year
Anthony Perera, the founder and chief growth officer at Air Pros USA, has won Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 Florida Award.
Courtesy of Air Pros USA
DAVIE, Fla. — Anthony Perera, who in just six years took the HVAC contracting company he founded, Air Pros USA, from a single truck and two employees to a multi-location business with 800 trucks and more than 1,000 employees, has won Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 Florida Award.
Perera, the chief growth officer at Air Pros USA, was selected by an independent panel of judges; the Entrepreneur of The Year program, sponsored by the business management consulting company Ernst & Young (EY), celebrates visionary business leaders, recognizing them for going above and beyond in their ingenuity and devotion to innovating their ideas.
“I am honored and grateful to be recognized as a winner by the Ernst & Young Florida team for this prestigious award,” Perera said in a press release. “I would not be in this position without the support of each and every member of my teams over the years, and this is a testament to all of their hard work and dedication as much as it is to mine."
Perera founded Air Pros USA in 2017 in Fort Lauderdale and has expanded it to 16 service locations — in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Washington — that together serve more than a million customers.
Air Pros USA is also involved in several community outreach projects, working in partnerships with the Broward County Boys and Girls Club, the Miami Dolphins, and numerous nonprofits in communities in which it has locations.
Perera has successfully built multiple business ventures. At age 19, he launched his first business, an off-road publication called Mud Life Magazine and its parent company, Extreme Media Group. The magazine became a nationwide bestseller and he expanded the brand to include online media and a retail marketplace.
During the pandemic, Perera launched Inspected.com, a remote platform that uses a simple user interface to help contractors schedule, inspect, and clear municipal permits securely, saving small businesses and city governments time and money.
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“I nominated Anthony for this award because his personal character and business strategy epitomize what it means to be a great entrepreneur,” said Adam Talbot, a vice president at Cresa, a commercial real estate firm. “In all his ventures, Anthony is first and foremost motivated by integrity and honesty. His focus on human–centered policies and procedures that center the needs of his customers and colleagues will continue to lead him to accomplish great things.”
Regional award winners were announced on June 8, and the winners from each region will be considered by national judges for the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year National Awards, which will be presented in November.
The overall national Entrepreneur of the Year winner will then move on to compete in June 2024 for the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
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