Ever since the very first issue of PPC was published in 1991, the magazine has been a place for professional painting contractors to learn how to up their painting game, both in the office and out on the job site.

It was in that spirit that our Ask Your ProPartner™ column was born. In an informative and user-friendly question-and-answer format, the quarterly column drew on the experience of Sherwin-Williams experts to answer reader questions about products, application and any other technical issues they were encountering on the job.

Bill Allman was the first Ask Your ProPartner columnist, followed by Rick Watson. Now, with Watson’s retirement, the torch has been passed to Dennis Fiorilli.

Fiorilli is Director of Product Excellence at Sherwin-Williams. Born and raised in the Cleveland area, he has a long history in the trades and service to the painting community.

“I grew up working for my family’s remodeling company, but wanted to learn about business from a different perspective,” he says. Looking for an opportunity to live in an even larger city, he went on to college in New York City, and graduated from Fordham University in 2001.

He first joined Sherwin-Williams in 2003 as an assistant market manager at their Brunswick/Lakewood store, working his way up the ladder to Architectural Product Manager in 2017 before starting his current position in January 2023.

“Growing up in Cleveland, Sherwin-Williams has always been respected and I thought it was a great fit,” he says. “I spent 15 years in the field managing stores and as a sales rep in multiple territories. This was a great opportunity to learn the painting industry and work closely with small and large painting companies.”

That constant contact with paint pros was full of valuable lessons.

“I learned as much about running a business as I did about the industry itself,” he says. “I could relate with many of the contractors because of my experience growing up in a small business – the everyday challenges as well as the importance of a great relationship with a vendor.”

Dennis is looking forward to fielding reader questions in the Ask Your ProPartner™ forum.

“I think the goal of the column is to allow painters to ask questions that many have but are afraid to ask,” he says. “Sometimes a question that sounds simple really isn’t, and it’s nice to have confirmation or a reminder of best practices. Our team hears a lot of questions each day and many times they are very similar and trending. Responding to a larger group will hopefully bring more confidence to all our readers out on the job site.”

In his debut as our new Ask Your ProPartner columnist, Dennis answers frequently asked questions about one of the hottest topics right now for residential painting contractors and their customers: repainting cabinets.

You can read his first column here

This article was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of PPC. ©2023 Randall-Reilly.