David DeStefano, Founder
David Thomas DeStefano
Founder
David has over 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur. His first venture was at the young age of 6, selling candy on the steps, in front of a corner market in Detroit, MI. After years of delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, he started a roofing company with his HS teammate/College roommate their freshman year of college. That roofing company paved a solid path for five years of college.
While studying for a triple major in Business, Computers, and Psychology at The University of the Cumberland’s, he was captain of the wrestling team and a 3x national qualifier. He was founder of the schools’ chapter and president of Phi Beta Lambda (Business Club), Vice-president of Psi Chi (The International Honor society in Psychology).
In 2003 David was awarded an internship for The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) working for USA Fencing. At the time the USOC was one of the top five internship programs in the country, located at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs.
One of his main objectives while living there was to be able to perform his internship duties and train with the USA Freestyle and Greco Wrestling teams. David succeeded at this objective so well that the USOC Intern director modified the program to allow a percentage of future athletes to
work and train during their internship.
After graduating college David sold his interest in the roofing company to his partner and moved to NYC. While in NYC he worked for his Grandfathers construction company located in Rockefeller Center. During his 8 years he worked in numerous roles eventually becoming Director of Operations & President of the affiliate restoration company. This hard work and discipline helped scale their company to become one of Forbes 5000 fastest growing business in the US.
From 2003 to 2008 David competed for the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) as a Greco Roman wrestler qualifying for the 2007 World Team & becoming the first ever National Beach Wrestling Champion. While wrestling David was able to work and build his career. During those years he saw the need to help his fellow athletes. Each of them, were struggling financially. This financial burden during competition created much stress and even more so after their athletic careers were over. The athletes didn’t have the experience to obtain a career job to support their families even though many had college degrees.
In 2007 David founded
Work2Train -USA. (
W2T USA). White & Case, LLP, a NYC Law Firm, set up the business Pro Bono and by January 2009 became a 501 C3. The mission was to provide housing, employment, and training opportunities to Olympic hopefuls. WTT USA was endorsed by USA wrestling and was collaborating with the USOC to help the restructuring of the Regional Center model.
W2T USA negotiated with the NYC Building Trades Council to place five Olympic hopefuls into union construction positions. WTT USA also secured housing with a developer for each of the athletes. After the economic collapse of 2008/2009 the unions and the developers pulled out of the deal with
W2T USA.
In 2012 David left the NYC construction world and partnered with a nationwide chemical coatings manufacture, TQ3 North America. TQ3 was associated with Dow Chemical’s, Hyperlast Division out of the UK. David spent a couple years growing and expanding the business thru servicing and consulting with architects, engineers, government agencies, institutions, and developers. David saw that the demands and needs of the market called for an innovative business model for the respective industry.
In 2014 David and his partners started TQ3 Technical Services. As President, David ran day to day operations of the turn-key service business that became the nation’s largest installer of Polyureas in the roofing and waterproofing industry. Working on many of NYC’s largest and most prestigious projects. Most specifically the Vessel & Culture Shed at the Hudson Yards Development (USA’s largest private real estate development project in History). TQ3 Tech Service was also involved in projects at the NSA, Pentagon, and most recently P5K (London’s version of the High Line).
In 2016, after an explosive sales growth and grabbing the attention of many of the world’s largest chemical manufactures, the company was approached about being acquired.
In 2017 David and his partners sold TQ3 NA & TQ3 Technical Services to Henry Co. (A leading North American manufacture & supplier of roofing and building envelope products). Henry is owned by American Securities, a Private Equity firm based in NYC.
At Henry Co., David held a role as Director of Technical services. David was responsible for strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting for the division nationally.
During this time David became the President Elect of the Polyurea Development Association (the worlds trade organization that represents Polyurea Technology). David speaks at annual conferences educating the industry on aspects of Polyurea technology.
In 2019 David founded Work 2 Train, LLC. An elite athlete staffing firm dedicated to providing the worlds most dedicated non-professional athletes a platform to build their career after sports & to provide employers with the worlds most dedicated and driven employees.
David will be responsible for new employer recruitment, athlete employer liaison and corporate vision at
Work2Train.