Aurelio Sierra
Aurelio Sierra, vice president, Yennis Party Rentals, Anaheim, Calif., was appointed recently to the ARA of California board. He will fill the vacancy left by Ben Bradshaw, with H&E Equipment Services, who moved to Louisiana.
Sierra, a second-generation rental operator, is thrilled to be taking on this new role. “I’m excited to join the ARA of California board. I have a strong passion for rentals and want to continue to network with other rental operators and develop new ideas that can be of great use to our fellow rental companies. I look forward to being part of a team where we can come up with new ideas to enhance the experience of our rental peers and make the industry better,” he says.
When asked what he brings to the board, Sierra bursts out, “a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. That is for sure what I bring along with my willingness to work and innovate. I might not be the most knowledgeable, but I seek to learn and grow.”
That enthusiasm is evident when he talks about his family rental business, which was started by his parents in 2008. “They had humble beginnings. They provided jumpers, tables and chairs and mainly small residential party items. I had a vision to build upon my family’s foundation and make it bigger,” he says.
That is exactly what he has done. With a lot of hard work and the assistance of his wife, Arlenia, his parents and his team of 15, he has expanded the company’s services to where it now caters to weddings, corporate events, nonprofits and trade shows. “We did that mainly by expanding our inventory and building strong relationships with our partner, catering companies, wedding coordinators and such where they can recommend us and have us be a preferred provider. Simultaneously, we have worked at ensuring we give our customers amazing rental experiences, from the reservation process to the teardown. That goes hand-in-hand with building relationships and providing that ‘wow’ experience for our customers,” he says, adding that they want to continue growing for their customers while also providing “a great culture” for their employees.
That vision took a while to manifest. While Sierra always loved helping out in the business growing up, he initially moved into the financial industry, working as a personal banker and then into mortgaging. He soon realized it was not satisfying his entrepreneurial spirit.
“At that point, I was praying for guidance. That is when I had the vision of building on what my parents had started,” he says. Soon, with the encouragement of his boss at the bank, he left to focus only on his family’s rental business.
“I realized there was more potential in rental than I even knew. It took a lot of long days and nights, but it has grown very much since then. It has been a blessing. And now my parents, my wife and I, along with our team, are working to build something together. We have the vision to make this business bigger and better,” he says.
In his new role on the ARA of California board, Sierra looks forward to helping out in any way possible. He is particularly excited about attending the ARA of California’s State Legislative Day on April 19.
“I am looking forward to that and very excited to meet everyone. I have not connected with state legislators before, so this will be my first time doing that. My wife will be joining to network as well. It is very nice to be able to be working with each other and involve your family in activities. That is something amazing I have learned about ARA,” he says.
As far as other goals during his board tenure, Sierra would like to “be a mentor and someone who people look up to and know that they can count on for resources or assistance,” he says.