Cirilli is quick to spread the credit, saying that colleagues at Star, such as inside sales, technical support, marketing, and management, are essential to his success.  

“It’s easy to do this stuff when you have a great team,” he said during a recent phone call. 

FINE TUNING: When he's not on the road as a territory manager for Star Supply Co., Tony Cirilli sings with That Guy Larry, a cover band that he says “started out as a goof.” Band members are, from left, guitarist Ron LaRosa, Cirilli, vocalist Caitlin Verhave, drummer Jason Milohnic (standing), guitarist Chris Boccardi, and bassist Larry Garris. (Courtesy of Tony Cirilli)

Cirilli was nominated by colleague Chris Perley, a sales and training manager and licensed HVAC technician who said Cirilli has “the most accounts in the most demanding part of the world” — Fairfield County, Connecticut, a busy, affluent part of the New York City metropolitan area. 

Perley said Cirilli is hard-working, personable, and has an infectious positive attitude. 

“He is ‘on’ 24/7 and has spent his life serving the HVAC community and his customers,” Perley wrote in his nomination. “His deep personal relationships and get-it-done attitude are second to none.” 

Star is a privately owned distributor with roots in a 1930s sheet metal shop owned by Sam Cohen, the great-grandfather of Star’s current president. The company does a “good mix” of residential and commercial business, Cirilli said, and has a contractor customer base that includes three-man shops as well as those with hundreds of employees. Star services all of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. 

Cirilli sees himself as more of an educator than a salesman. 

“Always been my theory with this stuff is, give them a great education, teach them about your products, and then you will sell the products,” he said. 

He started out as a plumber’s helper, working summers while still in high school, and later attended college for a while, then went back to plumbing. He probably would have stayed in college, he joked, if he had worked winters in the plumbing trade first. 

“In the summer, you’re working with water, life is good. It’s hot; you get cool,” Cirilli said. “In the wintertime, everything’s cold and freezes, and it’s not as much of (a) nice job.” 

Soon, Cirilli was working directly with the owner of the business, collecting payments and doing in-home sales calls.  

“At an early age, I started getting into the sales side of it,” he said. 

Cirilli later worked for a supply house and then for Honeywell, which, after he was on the job for a few months, sent him to Star. 

“The first day I walked in there, the sales manager offered me a job after about an hour, and I said, ‘Nah, I just started here six months ago. I can’t leave,’” Cirilli said. 

But he had an open invitation to return and, about six years later, he did. 

“It’s been a never-look-back, you know?” said Cirilli, who now has been with Star for nearly 23 years. “It’s a tremendous, tremendous industry ... I do love what I do.” 

“Tony is such an important asset to not only the Star Supply team, but also to the many customers that he works with every day,” said Star President Greg Cohen, who represents the third generation of Cohens to manage the distributor.  

“His tireless work ethic and passion come through with every interaction, and he truly embodies what we strive to accomplish every day here at Star Supply, which is providing the best possible customer experiences for our partners,” said Cohen. 

Several mentors have influenced Cirilli’s career, in particular his late father, John Cirilli, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, and a quality control engineer, who took young Tony along on many of his visits to various plants. Cirilli also cites the late Ralph Malile, who was in sales at the first distributor he worked for and recognized his aptitude for that side of the business. 

Cirilli spends a lot of time on the road. His home in Poughkeepsie, New York, is about 80 miles from Star Supply headquarters, and Fairfield County, where he makes most of his client visits, is one county west of New Haven. He gets to work from home on Mondays. 

He’ll take phone calls after hours, he said, and even while on vacation. His wife, Julie, is “good with it most of the time,” he added. 

When he’s not busy working, Cirilli sings in a band, That Guy Larry, named for bass player Larry Garris. 

“We go from Fifties to current stuff ... We have a genre for everybody,” Cirilli said. “We started out as a goof, and last year we played out 40 times,” he added. That Guy Larry already has 25 shows booked for this year. 

“Believe it or not ... I’m on my way to band practice after this call.”