Page 54 - BusinessWest May 2, 2022

Tessa Murphy-Romboletti
Executive Director, EforAll Holyoke/EparaTodos; Holyoke City Councilor; Age 32
Nick Moynihan
President, Quality Fleet Service Inc.; Age: 37
Nick Moynihan believes success comes to 50 people.
those who aren’t afraid of hard work. Since childhood, Moynihan had an interest
and an ability to fix mechanical things. At age 20, while working as a fleet mechanic, he bought a business that was about to close. Included in the sale were two trucks — only one worked — and a list of a dozen customers. When he reached out to the customers, all but two doubted this young man could handle their business.
“It was always my plan to go out on my own,” he said. “When the opportunity came at age 20, I thought, ‘even if I fail, I can recoup the lost years.’”
Mobile service for industrial fleets is a niche business, and servicing heavy equipment in the field presents its own set of challenges. That’s why Moynihan put in the work seven days a week at all hours to establish and grow his business.
“I had two choices: either get it done, or my customers would find someone else who would,” he said.
The hard work is paying off. Moynihan is president of Quality Fleet Service (QFS) and oversees two dozen mobile crews to repair heavy-duty trucks and industrial equipment for customers all over New England.
While mobile service is the main part of the business, Moynihan opened a state-of-the-art repair facility in 2016 that employs more than
eventually led to taking an internship with then-mayor Mike Sullivan while she was in college, which led to a job in the mayor’s office and, later, another job with the Planning and Economic Development department.
Her love of Holyoke and desire to build its business community took a different path when, in 2016, she became director of SPARK, a nonprofit that was part of the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, and merged it into EforAll, now a national organization.
In just over five years, she’s helped more than 50 businesses launch and expanded EforAll Holyoke with a program in Spanish, EparaTodos. Her work to build EforAll earned the organization recognition as one of BusinessWest’s Difference Makers in 2021.
But her passion for Holyoke runs even deeper. Indeed, for many years now, she has been a member of the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, and has served as chair of MassHire Holyoke.
Two dozen years after getting that traffic light working, she’s still looking for things to fix, and for ways to make her city a better place to live, work, and operate a business.
— George O’Brien
“Visitors to QFS always remark how busy the service bays are,” he said. “That actually represents about one-tenth of what we’re working on at job sites all over New England.”
The crews are so spread out that he plans to open service facilities in Central Conn. and Eastern Mass.
Mechanics at QFS receive certified training
to repair any piece of equipment from the major manufacturers. This designation brings in business from area dealers who insist on service that meets the manufacturer’s standards.
QFS has partnered with Smith Vocational High School to teach students workplace skills, and one student is a part-time welder with the company.
“This is our way of introducing the next generation to the business,” Moynihan said. He also serves on the board for Clinical &
Support Options in Northampton because of its emphasis on holistic services to people throughout Western Mass.
Moynihan strongly believes in leading by example and that no one is above any job, including him.
“We have a successful company because we do the work,” he said.
— Mark Morris
Tessa Murphy-Romboletti says she was just 8 years old when she had her first experience with effecting change in Holyoke. Telling the story, she said she had a real affection for Friendly’s ice-cream treats. To get to the Friendly’s, she had to cross busy Route 5, which wasn’t a problem until a certain traffic light stopped working as it should.
Missing her ice cream compelled her to ask her grandfather what could be done to get the light fixed, and upon being told that she should call the mayor’s office ... she did just that. And her phone call promoted some action.
And it did more than that. Much more. It empowered her, and, in many ways, it put her on a path to occupying an at-large seat on her hometown’s City Council; she won election last fall.
“From that traffic-light experience, I was like, ‘what else can I fix?’” she recalled, adding that she quickly moved on to the vacant field across from her house. When
a candidate for City Council knocked on the door, she informed him that she would like to see it turned into a park. It took a while, but that’s just what that space became.
“I always had a deep love for local government, and I’ve always cared about improving my neighborhood,” said Murphy- Romboletti, adding that this passion
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