PODS Appoints Kathryn Marinello as President and CEO

Story originally posted by Sparefoot.

Portable storage provider PODS has announced the appointment of Kathryn Marinello as president and CEO of the Clearwater, FL-based company.

Marinello succeeds John B. Koch who held the role for eight years.

Marinello comes to PODS with over 20 years of executive leadership experience, including roles as CEO of Hertz, Ceridian, and numerous divisions of General Electric.

The SpareFoot Storage Beat spoke to Marinello about her new role at PODS and her biggest priorities.

“I just love being here,” Marinello said, “It’s a great innovative highly charged group of employees, I think it is a space in critical demand right now and we are dedicated to getting people where they need to be during this pandemic”

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected PODS over the last year?

Kathy Marinello: Well, I’ve been a here a whopping four to five weeks, but it is clear that the PODS employees have done a Herculean job at responding to the incredible uptick in people moving. Given they are on the front line, they are unsung heroes. They are interacting with people, and putting themselves at some risk of covid. But people are needing to move, and they are making sure the customers go to where they need to get.

How has the pandemic affected demand?

Kathy Marinello: The California exodus has been huge. We have been scrambling to keep up with that volume and those needs. However, the increase in demand is pretty much across the country. Overall, there has been an increased impact of peoples’ need to relocate.

What are your biggest priorities as you step into the new role?

Kathy Marinello: My priorities number one through five has been let’s make sure we have as many containers as we need to have in all the locations where they need to be, and let’s keep our employees safe in the process and make sure we are safe for the customer.

How did your past experience with Hertz prepare you for your role at PODS?

Kathy Marinello: At Hertz, what I am most proud of s for the first time in 16 years, we won the JD Power award for best customer service for two straight years. We did that by truly understanding how critical the Hertz employees were for providing great service and meeting demands of the customer

It’s really the same situation at PODS. People here take it very personally and care about the individuals they are moving. They understand the high stress people are under when they are moving, I can personally tell you it’s a stressful situation. The employee here listen to the customers, personalize the service, and the customers rave about the understanding and service provided by our individual employees.

What else should we expect from PODS in the coming year?

Kathy Marinello: I have a deep technology focus, my focus beside maintaining the great service that PODS is known for, is to continue to innovate with service and capabilities. I think we’ve made improvements to the website, and we are seeing a lot more people going to the website to book, versus calling in. So I think it’s continuing to work on the tools we have and expanding capabilities. There are always opportunities to improve logistically.

Thumbnail: PODS Author: Alexander Harris