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Press Release

Rheem President and CEO Gary Tapella Receives GAMA'S First-Ever Distinguished Service Award

August 25, 2003 | New York, NY --The Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association recently paid tribute to Gary Tapella, president and chief executive officer of the Rheem Manufacturing Company, with its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his “significant contributions” to the industries that GAMA serves and to the public interest. This is the first time that GAMA has honored anyone with the Distinguished Service Award, which was presented at the organization’s 68th Annual Meeting on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
In presenting the award, GAMA cited Tapella’s leadership in creating the GAMA Water Heater Division’s Consumer Safety Awareness Campaign, designed to alert home owners to the potential dangers of flammable vapor fires and excessively hot tap water in the home. Over the past 10 years, the campaign developed important alliances with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Fire Protection Association, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, and various gas utilities nationwide. More than 9,000 plumbing and heating contractors enlisted in the SAFE GUARDS Trade Training Program, while the campaign’s educational materials reached a wide range of other audiences including fire departments, civic organizations, teachers, students and parents.
More recently, Tapella played a key role in a concerted effort by all domestic water heater manufacturers to develop new technologies for gas-fired water heaters that would resist igniting flammable vapors that result from the mishandling of gasoline and other flammable products. The result of the effort was a new American National Standards Institute Standard governing flammable vapor ignition resistant (FVIR) water heaters. ANSI Z21.10.1a-2002 went into effect on July 1, 2003.
Tapella has avidly supported North American Technician Excellence (NATE), a training and certification program for HVAC installers and service technicians. He has held numerous leadership posts within GAMA, including the chairmanship in 1996 and 1997. More recently, he held the same position with the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute.
Tapella joined Rheem International in 1969 and spent 17 of his first 20 years in overseas operations, progressing through a series of manufacturing, sales and general-management positions in the United States, Canada and Singapore. In 1989 he was named to head all international operations for Rheem and was later promoted to chief operating officer. Based in New York City, he has been president and CEO of Rheem Manufacturing since 1991.

RHEEM MANUFACTURING COMPANY, headquartered in New York City, is a leading producer of residential and commercial water heaters, with manufacturing operations on three continents, and one of North America’s leading producers of heating and air-conditioning equipment for residential and commercial applications. In addition to Rheem and Ruud brand water heaters and HVAC equipment for the wholesale channel, the company also makes and markets Raypak brand pool and spa heaters as well as Raypak boilers.

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