Durante Rentals Co-Founder Jones Wins Prestigious “Thinking Big” Award
Chris Jones, Durante Rentals co-founder and chief financial officer, was honored with the 2017 Small Market Companies: Thinking Big Award at the 2017 CFO Innovation Conference. The awards ceremony and dinner were held before hundreds of executives at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and honored some of the sharpest CFO minds in the country. CFO’s received recognition in fourteen CFO-focused categories with finalists and award recipients selected by an independent panel of judges.
The Thinking Big Award celebrates the CFO who has overcome the small company mind-set, has instilled a sophisticated management style into the company, and has inspired leadership, employees, and partners to grow and succeed despite limited resources and against larger and more formidable competitors.
“My journey as CFO of a construction equipment rental company has been an interesting one, with many learning curves along the way, especially since my background is in tech, media, and not-for-profits,” said Chris Jones. “Being honored with this prestigious Innovation award is something near and dear to myself, my partners and my staff as Innovation is one of our company’s four core values. We take extreme pride in each department’s innovative approach to running the day to day business and are grateful for the recognition by CFO Studio and their business development partners.”
Jones holds a degree from the College of New Jersey in Business Administration and Accounting. His career journey began when he founded Progressive Solutions, an accounting and consulting firm that specialized in assisting start-ups and distressed companies. As the leading consulting CFO to more than 30 accounts, he was instrumental in their progression to healthy and profitable businesses. Chris eventually sold the company paving the way to his partnership in Durante Rentals.
Jones teaches and competes in Judo and has trained with the national teams of the United States, Barbados, and Argentina. As a soccer coach, he led his team to an undefeated season. He teaches his “Meditation for Professionals” class in NYC and Westchester and is a featured speaker on Western Buddhism. His students learn the mental and physical benefits for health while also using meditation to find their creative centers, peak performance, and to understand the discursive emotions that prevent most people from achieving their dreams.
Durante Rentals was founded in 2009 by three entrepreneurs: Jones, John and Anthony Durante, and now is a leading player in construction equipment and tool rentals in the New York Tri-State area. Construction professionals look to Durante for all their equipment needs including excavators, skid steers, light towers, generators, compressors, forklifts, air tools, boom lifts and more. Now with eight locations and counting, the Durante Rentals geographic footprint continues to expand while servicing all five boroughs of NYC, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties, Connecticut and New Jersey.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.