Steve Clinton, Southern California Edison Energy Education Center, Tulare, CA

When it comes to High-Performance HVAC Training, there are few trainers outside of National Comfort Institute (NCI) who put their entire support into promoting and teaching the performance testing, measuring, and diagnostics methods that are the backbone of Performance-Based Contracting?. But one such trainer, Steve Clinton of Southern California Edison’s Tulare Energy Education Center, is such a person.

For years Steve has been a huge supporter of HVAC technician training in general and NCI training in particular. It makes a lot of sense. He is a technician at heart. His background as a field tech on the refrigeration side of the business enables him to relate well to the needs of technicians across the entire spectrum of the HVAC Industry.

‘His focus has always been laser-focused on customer satisfaction as well,’ says Mel Johnson, a former director at Edison who worked closely with Steve for years.

Johnson, who is vice president of utility programs for NCI, describes Clinton as a boots-on-the-ground technical trainer who was hired in 2009 by Edison to run the training at the Tulare training center. Then, the mission of Edison was to train HVAC contractors using programming that more closely aligned with their Workforce Education and Training efforts.

Once Clinton attended an NCI class, according to Johnson, he saw their training approach and methodology focused on the technician. It was a grass-roots, down-to-earth training approach where trainers worked alongside technicians, which was what he loved to do. He was all onboard.

Says Johnson, ‘Because he came from the field, people knew him and trusted him. He would go to his distributors with class information and get them to promote NCI classes. He knew so many contractors throughout the area because of his background and they trusted him. So he convinced many of them to attend.

His success grew and in the process the Tulare center helped to train hundreds, if not thousands in the techniques of Performance-Based Contracting in Southern California. Two years ago, Edison promoted Clinton to program manager. Now he is both a technical trainer and he manages the overall training program.

‘Steve has always been a key to success with performance because he believes it. He advocates it for doing what is right. To his credit, not only does he believe in it, but he embraces it and puts performance into practice for himself.

‘From my perspective, this enables the contractors whom he serves through Edison to be successful as well,’ Johnson concludes.
For these reasons, we are pleased to recognize Steve Clinton as an influencer in the High-Performance HVAC Industry.

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