Leigh Vanneman has announced his retirement from Trane/Ingersoll Rand after 37 years of employment with the company.
A North Carolina native, Leigh moved to Florida in 1971 and earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida in 1976. Upon graduation he worked briefly in the solar industry and managed a small air conditioning equipment manufacturing company in Tampa for several years.

Leigh joined Trane in Tampa as a Territory Manager in 1981 and progressed through Inside Sales, Inside Sales Leader and Regional Commercial Sales Specialist positions before accepting a Residential Sales Leader position in Virginia. He was later promoted to Dealer Sales Office Manager and in 2016 the DSO Manager’s position opened in Pompano so he returned to Florida.

“I had planned on retiring in April but stayed on until the Trane HVAC Parts reorganization was completed and to help work with my replacement as District General Manager,” Leigh said.

Reflecting on his career, Leigh enjoyed helping people advance. “Creating a unique culture and building a high-performance team of employees while helping people get where they wanted to be was the most satisfying to me. I’m not going to miss some of what management entails, but I will miss the relationships and the people. Somewhere along the line I steered from mechanical engineering and towards leading people.”

When asked about his plans for retirement, he said “I’m not sure yet what I’ll do, but hopefully my golf game will get better.”

Contact Leigh by emailing Vannemans@gmail.com.