HG HomeClub

“Elevating the Trades”: AJ Brown Named Among HG HomeClub’s 25 Most Influential Leaders in Home Improvement, Home Services and Outdoor Living

By HG HomeClub October 4, 2026 13 min read

The co-founder, co-chief executive officer and executive chairman of Apex Service Partners is recognized for building the largest residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical platform in the country from a standing start, for engineering one of the largest single-asset transactions in private equity history to keep growing it, and for a leadership pipeline built on tradespeople and military veterans rather than outside hires.

HG HomeClub has named AJ Brown, co-founder, co-chief executive officer and executive chairman of Apex Service Partners, to its list of the 25 Most Influential Leaders in Home Improvement, Home Services and Outdoor Living.

The list, published by HG HomeClub, recognizes 25 leaders who are shaping these three industries in the right way. It spans manufacturing, distribution, retail, technology, franchising, contracting, media, capital and the associations that convene the trades. It is presented alphabetically and carries no numerical ranking, because the leaders on it exercise influence in fundamentally different ways, and comparing a keynote stage to a distribution network, or a franchise system to a product platform, would flatten what makes each of them consequential.

Brown earns his place on it as the executive who took an idea, that the country’s fragmented HVAC, plumbing and electrical trades could be consolidated into a single, people-first national platform, and turned it into the largest business of its kind in the United States. As of the May 2026 agreement with Apollo Global Management, Apex operates 75 local brands across 46 states, with more than 150 locations, over 13,000 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, having served over 16 million homes.

Those are the numbers. The story is in how a Goldman Sachs analyst who never planned on running a national platform ended up building one, and in what he built it to look like once he got there.

How Did AJ Brown Learn to Lead Before He Ever Ran a Company?

Brown’s first job was repackaging broken beer cases at 13 years old at his father’s Budweiser distributorship in Fort Myers, Florida, watching his father run a business with roughly 400 to 500 employees. His other early education in leadership came from soccer: Brown is a former NCAA Division I soccer player and team captain, and he has pointed to captaining teams, where influence has to substitute for authority, as the closest analog to how he leads Apex today.

He began his career at Goldman Sachs as an analyst starting in 2009, after crashing a Goldman recruiting event at Harvard because the firm did not recruit on his own campus at Providence College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in global studies. From there he moved to Deloitte, where he was promoted to manager and, in his own account, learned less about strategy and more about how to communicate, structure an argument and manage people with more tenure than his own.

Why Did AJ Brown Go Back to School Before Going Into Private Equity?

Brown earned an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, but he did not wait for the degree to break into private equity. To solve what he has described as private equity’s chicken-and-egg hiring problem, no deal experience, no deal job, he worked, largely unpaid, three days a week at McNally Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm, while taking classes the other two, trading operational work for deal exposure. He then moved to Frontenac, a lower-middle-market firm operating since 1971, and to Benford Capital Partners, building the operating-focused private equity background that would define the rest of his career.

How Did Running Avitru Prepare Him to Build Apex?

From 2016 to 2019, Brown served as CFO and head of corporate development at Avitru, an Alpine Investors portfolio company serving architects, engineers and building product manufacturers. He inherited a company that, in his words, could not report its own financials at his first board meeting, and spent his early months as the accounts-receivable person, the M&A lead and the technology-implementation lead simultaneously, before making what he calls the most important hire of his career, a VP of finance and accounting who let him focus on the business rather than the backlog.

Avitru grew at nearly a 100 percent compound annual growth rate under his tenure, expanding from roughly 30 to 75 employees, before Brown led its exit to Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP) in December 2018.

Why Did AJ Brown Build Apex Instead of Investing in It?

After the Avitru exit, Brown turned down offers from larger private equity firms and instead rejoined Alpine Investors as a CEO-in-Residence, a program built to place operators, not just capital, at the head of new platforms. Alpine brought him a plumbing and HVAC business it liked, a category Brown has described as large, fragmented and permanently essential, and asked him to lead it. He co-founded Apex Service Partners in June 2019, with Will Matson, whom Brown calls his true co-founder and first hire, as CFO and head of M&A.

How Big Has Apex Gotten, and How Fast?

Apex began as roughly a $40 million business with 250 employees. As of the Apollo transaction announced in May 2026, it had scaled to 75 local brands across 46 states, more than 150 locations, over 13,000 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, with more than $500 million in EBITDA and over 16 million homes served, making it the largest residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services platform in the United States.

What Was the $3.4 Billion Continuation Fund, and Why Did It Matter?

In October 2023, Alpine Investors closed a $3.4 billion single-asset continuation transaction to extend its hold on Apex rather than sell it on a typical private equity timeline. Backers of the vehicle included Blackstone Strategic Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Lexington Partners and Pantheon, and the deal was later named Secondaries Deal of the Year in the Americas at Private Equity International’s 2023 PEI Awards, recognized as one of the largest transactions of its kind ever closed. For Brown, it was validation that Apex was being treated as a generational asset rather than a business built to flip within a standard three-to-five-year hold.

What Does the Apollo Partnership Signal About Apex’s Next Chapter?

In May 2026, Apollo Global Management agreed to make a minority investment in Apex, alongside an additional investment from Alpine. Reuters reported the investment at roughly $2 billion, with people familiar with the matter valuing the whole company at approximately $10 billion, including debt. Goldman Sachs and Evercore advised Apex and Alpine, while William Blair and J.P. Morgan advised Apollo; the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

“Seven years ago, our team founded Apex on a simple conviction that the best way to build a national platform in the trades is to invest deeply in the people who power it,” Brown and Matson said jointly in announcing the deal. “The platform we’ve built alongside Alpine, and the results our teams have delivered for technicians and homeowners across the country, validate that belief.”

How Does AJ Brown Build Leaders Instead of Cutting Costs?

Brown’s operating philosophy at Apex runs against the standard private equity playbook of cost extraction. The company’s talent and development programs have supported more than 8,000 technicians and placed over 300 Apex-trained operating leaders, and roughly 65 percent of the company’s senior leaders come from military backgrounds, a pipeline built in part through Apex’s partnership with ForgeNow, a seven-week accelerated HVAC training program aimed at both new technicians and transitioning veterans. In 2025, Apex was recognized as a Top Veteran-Friendly Employer by U.S. Veterans Magazine.

Where Else Does AJ Brown Share What He’s Learned?

Brown is regarded as a thought leader on middle-market M&A and corporate roll-ups, and has appeared as a panelist for ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) Tampa Bay, the regional chapter of the trade association for the middle-market dealmaking community, sharing the operating lessons from Avitru and Apex with the next generation of private equity professionals.

Why Does AJ Brown Belong Among the 25 Most Influential Leaders in These Industries?

Influence in these industries takes several forms. Some leaders influence through a keynote stage or a book. Some through a franchise system that creates business owners. Some through a distribution network, a software platform, or the price of a pallet.

AJ Brown influences through the roll-up itself, and through what he insisted the roll-up be built on. He took an industry of family-owned plumbing, HVAC and electrical shops and, alongside Will Matson, built the single largest platform of its kind, then structured its ownership through the largest single-asset continuation fund and one of the largest minority capital raises the sector has seen, all while keeping the leadership pipeline rooted in the technicians and veterans doing the work rather than in outside hires.

That combination, unprecedented scale in a fragmented trade, a capital structure built for decades rather than a standard hold period, and a people-first model that turns tradespeople into executives, is exactly the kind of influence this list was created to recognize.

About HG HomeClub

HG HomeClub is a national media platform serving the home improvement, home services and outdoor living industries. Created to champion media back to its original purpose of informed transparency, HG HomeClub curates the top stories, headlines, rankings, videos, podcasts, webinars, events and professional recommendations across the industry and presents them in one consolidated, easily consumable destination, helping both homeowners and professionals make better-informed decisions. More information is available at hghomeclub.com.

About Apex Service Partners

Apex Service Partners, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, is the nation’s largest residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services business. The company operates 75 local brands across 46 states, with more than 150 locations, over 13,000 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, and has served over 16 million homes. Apex is backed by Alpine Investors and, pending close, by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management. More information is available at apexservicepartners.com.

The 25 Most Influential Leaders in Home Improvement, Home Services and Outdoor Living

Presented alphabetically. There is no numerical ranking; each leader is recognized for influence exercised in a distinct way.

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

  1. What is HG HomeClub, and what is this list?

HG HomeClub is a national media platform serving the home improvement, home services, and outdoor living industries. It was created to return media to its original purpose of informed transparency, curating the industry’s top stories, headlines, rankings, videos, podcasts, webinars, events and professional recommendations in one place for both homeowners and professionals. The 25 Most Influential Leaders in Home Improvement, Home Services and Outdoor Living is one of HG HomeClub’s editorial rankings, recognizing the people shaping these industries in the right way across manufacturing, distribution, retail, technology, franchising, contracting, media, capital and the associations that convene the trades.

  1. Is the list ranked from one to 25?

No. The list is presented alphabetically and carries no numerical order. The leaders recognized exercise influence in genuinely different ways, through enterprise scale, growth, product innovation, franchising, capital, authorship, keynote stages, advocacy and media, and HG HomeClub declined to impose a hierarchy on work that is not comparable. Every leader on the list is recognized equally.

  1. Who is AJ Brown?

AJ Brown is co-founder, co-chief executive officer and executive chairman of Apex Service Partners, the largest residential HVAC, plumbing and electrical services platform in the United States. He began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, later worked at Deloitte and in private equity at McNally Capital, Frontenac and Benford Capital Partners, and served as CFO of Avitru before co-founding Apex with Will Matson in June 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree in global studies from Providence College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

  1. Why was AJ Brown selected for this list?

Because he co-founded and built Apex Service Partners from roughly $40 million in initial revenue into a platform generating more than $3 billion annually and $500 million in EBITDA across 75 brands in 46 states, structured one of the largest single-asset continuation funds in private equity history to sustain that growth, and secured a minority investment from Apollo Global Management that values the business at approximately $10 billion, all while building a leadership pipeline rooted in tradespeople and military veterans.

  1. How large is Apex Service Partners today?

As of the Apollo transaction announced in May 2026, Apex operates 75 local brands across 46 states, with more than 150 locations, over 13,000 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, and has served over 16 million homes.

  1. What was the $3.4 billion continuation fund?

In October 2023, Alpine Investors closed a $3.4 billion single-asset continuation transaction to extend its ownership of Apex rather than sell it on a typical private equity hold period. The deal, backed by Blackstone Strategic Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Lexington Partners and Pantheon, was later named Secondaries Deal of the Year in the Americas at the 2023 PEI Awards and is regarded as one of the largest transactions of its kind.

  1. What is the Apollo Global Management investment, and has it closed?

In May 2026, Apollo Global Management agreed to make a minority investment in Apex, reported by Reuters at roughly $2 billion, alongside an additional investment from Alpine Investors, at a reported valuation of approximately $10 billion for the whole company. The transaction had not yet closed as of this writing; it is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

  1. How does AJ Brown describe his leadership philosophy?

Brown has built Apex around heavy investment in its frontline workforce rather than traditional cost-cutting, including management-training frameworks such as the ForgeNow program that fast-track civilian tradespeople and military veterans into leadership roles. Roughly 65 percent of Apex’s senior leaders come from military backgrounds, and the company was named a Top Veteran-Friendly Employer by U.S. Veterans Magazine in 2025.

  1. What did AJ Brown do before co-founding Apex?

Brown began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, moved to Deloitte as a senior consultant and manager, and then worked in private equity at McNally Capital, Frontenac and Benford Capital Partners while earning his MBA at Kellogg. From 2016 to 2019, he served as CFO and head of corporate development at Avitru, an Alpine Investors portfolio company, where he helped grow the business at nearly a 100 percent compound annual growth rate before leading its sale to Roper Technologies in December 2018.

About HG HomeClub

HG Homeclub is the premier source for home improvement industry intelligence, covering the leaders, innovations, and strategic developments shaping the future of residential and commercial building markets. Our analysis helps industry professionals understand the forces driving transformation across the home improvement ecosystem.

This analysis reflects HG Homeclub's perspective on industry developments and is based on publicly available information. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from expectations.

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