This past summer, two members of the Georgia equipment and event rental community — Paula Taylor and Lee Pierce — accepted leadership positions on the ARA of Georgia board of directors.
Taylor, owner, A Mane Event Party & Tent Rental, Decatur, Ga., launched her company in 2017 as an expression of her longtime passion for event design. “I have always had a love and passion for décor,” she says. “My family and friends would always ask me to decorate for their events. Later, I began helping a friend with her events. I started in the event rental industry out of my garage in South Carolina with 50 white folding chairs and 10 tables. In 2017, I married my best friend and moved to Georgia where I started A Mane Event Party & Tent Rental with 200 gold chiavari chairs and those same 50 folding chairs and 10 tables. I am proud to say that I now have more than 2,000 chiavari chairs and tons of unique merchandise.”
The American Rental Association (ARA) came on Taylor’s radar when she attended The ARA Show™ 2020 in Orlando, and she jumped at the chance to get involved on a deeper level.
“I attended the show and thoroughly enjoyed myself, thinking that I would love the opportunity to assist with such an organization,” Taylor says. “I was blessed to be asked to serve on the ARA of Georgia board. I am confident I will be an asset to the team and bring creativity, spunk and a fresh set of eyes to the organization. I follow rental trends as a hobby, which aids in my knowledge that can assist with rebranding the industry. I would love to see more businesses interact with one another to build innovative ideas.”
On the heels of Taylor’s election to the board, the ARA of Georgia leadership team appointed Lee Pierce, outside sales representative with Sunbelt Rentals’ Norcross, Ga., location, to fill a vacant spot on the board of directors.
Pierce’s rental pedigree stretches back to his grandfather, who helped open Nickell Equipment Rental in Newnan, Ga., in 1999, and his father, who helped grow the company. “In high school, my first job was at Nickell, cleaning the shop. After high school, I worked in hospitality while attending Georgia State University for economics. I joined the equipment rental industry in a career capacity in March 2021. I concentrate on climate control in my role with Sunbelt Rentals,” he says.
A casual dinner with longtime family friend Josh Nickell, ARA vice president, equipment segment, led to Pierce’s connection with the ARA of Georgia board of directors and, ultimately, his acceptance of the invitation to join the team. Pierce says he looks forward to bringing a fresh perspective to the state chapter while learning from his peers.
“This is a wonderful opportunity,” Pierce says. “While I have been around the industry my entire life, others’ experiences are not my own. The ARA of Georgia board position allows me to accelerate my growth in the industry by learning from longtime professionals and understanding their challenges and successes. I want to help everywhere I can. My peers will have more experience than me, but what I can provide is fresh insight and problem-solving for existing challenges. I really enjoy looking at practices and asking, ‘How can we do this better?’”