Max Marrero

Max Marrero has a lot of experience navigating change. Born in Cuba, his family fled to Venezuela when he was seven. Nine years later, his family made its way to Miami to be close to family. As a 15-year-old high-schooler, the transition was welcome, but challenging. “I went to a private Catholic school and had a rough couple of years with language. It was straight up English immersion,” he says.   

Marrero’s perseverance is a testament to his determination to master the tough stuff, including a keen interest in engineering. “I’ve always been very hands-on. I love to fix my own cars and motorcycles, and always wanted to be a mechanical engineer. That was always my focus. I never had a doubt about what I wanted to be.”

Florida International University set his professional path in motion.

“During my senior year, I became good friends with my thermodynamics professor. He had experience in the HVAC industry and helped find my first job after graduation. It was with a very small HVAC company in Miami. I was the third person to join the company and was there for 12 years. We became like family. I helped them expand the company, but over time the owners lost interest in new growth. The atmosphere became restrictive and I realized I had to move on.”

Moving on meant partnering with his long-time family friend, David Fernandez, who’d spent nearly a decade at Trane. The two men realized the Miami commercial HVAC market could benefit from a rep firm that offered everything under one roof. After careful planning, the duo launched Integrated Cooling Solutions in 2009. “It was the two of us, an accountant and a coffee pot,” Marrero recalls.

Fast forward to 2023, and the duo’s entrepreneurial venture had grown in an $85-million-a-year company and attracted the attention of Meriton.

“David and I have complementary skills — that’s why we’re so successful,” Marrero admits. “I’ve always been more involved with the executing part of the business, and David has always been focused on the executive part.”

With the acquisition by Meriton, Marrero is now leveraging his hands-on expertise to expand the company’s lines of business. “Meriton’s support has allowed ICS to be more focused on new ventures,” he notes.

Those new ventures include ICS’s expansion into cooling tower reconditioning and a new plumbing division. “It’s very gratifying to champion success — for our people, our manufacturers and our clients,” he adds. “Seeing happy customers who chose to do business with us again and again because we served them well and everyone benefited is inspiring. And it affirms my motto: Do things right, work hard and the reward will come.”

 

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