Adam Quenneville

Adam Quenneville

Age 37: Owner, Adam Quenneville Roofing and Siding

Adam Quenneville has June 18, the date of this year’s 40 Under Gala, circled on his calendar. Problem is — and it’s not really a problem — there’s a bigger, bolder circle around June 19.

That’s the day his wife, Rebecca, is due to deliver a baby boy. “I’m hoping he arrives a little early,” joked Quenneville. “If he does, we might just bring him with us to the party.”

If the newest member of the Quenneville member is present, he’ll witness his father being honored for a combination of entrepreneurial spirit — Quenneville first went into business for himself at age 10, selling nightcrawlers — and community involvement, including work with several area chambers of commerce and the Chicopee Rotary Club.

At 25, he was working in Quenneville’s Sons Roofing, the business started by his father, when he decided to work for himself. He started with a truck given to him by his father, a few critical leads, and a good amount of entrepreneurial pluck. Over the past 12 years, he’s grown and diversified the company, which now boasts 50 employees, a siding division, and a relatively new gutter-protection component with a colorful mascot, ‘Bucky.’ Meanwhile, Quenneville, who started with residential work and still specializes in that area, is also making strong inroads in the commercial-roofing sector.

And while the company is expanding, it’s also taking the lead in ‘going green,’ with a shingle-recycling effort that has given the company another edge in a highly competitive field.

Over the years, Quenneville has been helped by a catchy jingle in his radio commercial and an easy-to-remember phone number that is part of that tune — 1-800-NEW-ROOF — but his success has come mostly from his own vision and drive to succeed.

Hopefully, he’ll be in attendance on June 18 at the Basketball Hall of Fame, but if not, it’s because he has more important things to attend to.

—George O’Brien