Authority Brands Names Steve Clemente to Lead Trade Brands as President and COO

New leader takes the reins at Trade Brands

Authority Brands announced that Steve Clemente will become president and chief operating officer of its Trade Brands division, effective immediately. Clemente will report to Authority Brands’ senior leadership and take operational charge of the trade-focused businesses that sit under the Trade Brands umbrella. The move was framed in the company’s release as a step to sharpen day-to-day operations and support franchise growth across the division’s service-focused brands.

Why Steve Clemente was chosen

Clemente arrives with a long résumé in home services and franchising. He has led operations and growth teams at several multi-brand companies, with experience running field operations, franchise support, and scaling service networks. Colleagues and past employers describe him as a hands-on operator who focuses on systematizing processes—hiring, training, tech adoption, and consistent service delivery—so local franchisees can run more predictable businesses.

Among his relevant strengths are a track record of building franchise training programs, tightening service standards, and leading cross-brand integration after acquisitions. Those skills matter in a portfolio like Authority Brands’, where growth often comes through buying existing chains and folding them into a larger support platform. The announcement highlighted Clemente’s experience with both organic expansion and post-acquisition integration—signals that Authority Brands sees operational cohesion as a priority.

The release also emphasized his people-management style: visible in the field, focused on franchisee relationships, and pragmatic about the steps needed to raise performance. For a role that mixes daily operations with franchise strategy, that mix of practical leadership and franchise know-how fits the brief Authority Brands laid out.

What this hire likely means for Trade Brands

Putting a senior operator in charge suggests Authority Brands wants faster, steadier execution across its trade-focused brands. Expect a push to tighten core operations—standardize training, streamline scheduling and dispatch systems, and push technology that makes franchisees’ lives easier. Those are the typical low-gloss changes that often matter most for service businesses: better repeatability, fewer customer complaints, and smoother onboarding for new franchise owners.

On the strategic side, Clemente’s background points to two likely priorities. First, build a stronger playbook for franchising so new units scale more predictably. Second, work on integrating recent or future acquisitions so they adopt shared systems and branding more quickly. This isn’t about flashy new services; it’s about execution, which can unlock growth by making each location more profitable and easier to manage.

Operational leaders like Clemente also tend to focus on unit economics—how each franchise performs month to month. That can mean pushing for clearer performance reporting, more consistent pricing or service packages, and targeted investments where they will move the needle. For customers it may translate into more consistent experiences across the division’s brands; for franchisees it could mean clearer support but also higher expectations for compliance and results.

Where Trade Brands sits inside Authority Brands

Authority Brands operates as a multi-brand franchisor. Its Trade Brands division groups businesses that deliver on-site services—think plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and other home trades. The company’s playbook is to provide shared back-office support, brand marketing, and franchisee training while letting individual brands keep their customer-facing identity.

This model relies on centralized systems that lower costs and speed growth for small local operators. Over recent years Authority Brands has expanded by acquiring established regional chains and folding them into its platform. That makes a seasoned operator for Trade Brands especially useful: the division has to balance local franchise autonomy with the benefits of scale—centralized billing, tech tools, and national purchasing power.

For readers unfamiliar with the setup, think of Authority Brands as a parent company that provides the infrastructure, and Trade Brands as a cluster of service names that use that infrastructure to run local franchises. The success of the model depends less on headline innovations and more on steady improvements to how services are delivered and supported.

Leadership comments and the road ahead

The company’s statement quoted Authority Brands’ CEO praising Clemente’s operational focus and franchise experience, saying he will help accelerate growth and improve service consistency across trade businesses. Clemente’s brief remarks stressed working with franchisees and rolling out practical improvements to daily operations.

Watch for early signs of change over the coming months: announcements about new training programs, upgrades to field tech, or reorganized franchise support teams. Those steps will reveal whether this hire is mainly cosmetic or the start of a deeper push to tighten operations and scale Trade Brands more reliably.

Sources

• prnewswire.com