Marsillo has driven rapid growth at Fords Outdoor Power Equipment, expanding the dealership from roughly $ 3 million in annual sales to more than $ 12 million over the past eight years. In a competitive market, he has combined aggressive sales execution with a strong customer-service focus while mentoring staff and sharing the systems that have fueled the dealership’ s expansion.
Distribution leadership was represented by Nelson, who was honored for building strong dealer relationships rooted in trust and support rather than transactional sales. With 10 years of dealership experience before joining Power Distributors, Nelson has focused on helping dealers navigate parts availability challenges, understand programs and train new counter staff to be more effective from day one.
“ Relationships earn trust,” Nelson said.“ The relationship between the vendor and the customer is vital to growing sales.”
On the manufacturing side, Noland and Gray were recognized for driving operational improvement and cross-functional collaboration at a global scale. Noland’ s work at Kubota has strengthened product development, launch execution and dealer feedback loops, while his involvement with academic and professional organizations helps bridge engineering innovation with real-world application.
Gray, meanwhile, has played a key role in Husqvarna Group’ s portfolio optimization and business transformation initiatives, drawing on experience that spans territory sales, manufacturing transformation and global project leadership. His approach emphasizes clarity, resilience and helping teams succeed through periods of change.
While the honorees’ roles vary, common themes emerged across their stories: visible leadership, a willingness to invest in people and an emphasis on building sustainable operations rather than chasing short-term wins.
Following the Under 40 awards presentation, OPE + convened a roundtable of dealers, distributors and manufacturers to examine the challenges facing the industry today. The discussion that followed explored technician shortages, pricing pressure, technology adoption and the growing need for mentorship across the dealer network.
Chad Hutchens
Scott Nelson
Justin Noland
www. OPE-Plus. com March 2026 OPE + 15