David Skidmore

Monsen Innovation Award - 2025

Account Manager

Wheat Ridge, CO

David Skidmore exemplifies the true spirit of the Monsen Innovation Award through his entrepreneurial mindset, technical leadership, and unwavering dedication to building a business from the ground up. Much like the award’s namesake, Jon Monsen, David combines deep market understanding, innovation, and knowledge sharing to elevate Valin’s technical reputation and commercial success.

David joined Valin in 2019 with a singular and ambitious objective: to develop a commercial roof and gutter heat trace business in Colorado—a market where Valin had historically struggled to gain traction. While Valin possessed a strong product portfolio and an installed base in Utah, entry into the Colorado market had proven elusive due to entrenched competitors and prior unsuccessful attempts. David embraced this challenge with the mindset of a business owner, fully accountable for outcomes and long-term success.

Prior to Valin, David served in a director role and minority ownership position at a pharmaceutical startup, where he developed critical skills in marketing, financial acumen, problem-solving, and innovation. Those skills proved invaluable as he approached the Colorado heat trace market not simply as a salesperson, but as a builder of sustainable business infrastructure.

David began by doing what many considered the hardest task: developing trust-based relationships with key roofing contractors. Understanding that many were small, independent businesses and were hesitant to engage with an unproven supplier, David invested time in education, responsiveness, and consistency. As the business gained momentum, he expanded the foundation by developing a distributor network to ensure contractors had reliable local access to inventory and support.

Recognizing the importance of thought leadership, David attended and presented at roofing conferences, positioning both himself and Valin as experts in roof and gutter heat trace applications. These efforts significantly increased Valin’s visibility among engineers and specifiers, resulting in greater inclusion on engineering specifications and access to larger, more complex projects. This mirrors Jon Monsen’s legacy of elevating technical understanding through education, presentation, and industry engagement.

David also worked closely with Valin’s marketing team to modernize and strengthen the company’s digital and physical presence. He contributed to updates on the Valin website, development of new marketing content, improved branding and packaging, and broader geographic reach. These efforts not only enabled growth in Colorado but also generated renewed momentum in Valin’s legacy Utah business.

Innovation extended deeply into David’s supply chain strategy. He forged stronger relationships with key suppliers, negotiating improved costs that directly enhanced margins. He also identified and partnered with new suppliers, including a Colorado-based specialty metal fabricator. By sourcing materials locally rather than from Utah, David reduced shipping costs, improved lead times, and increased overall profitability. Additionally, David partnered with a new and innovative snow melt control manufacturer, collaborating on the development of new homeowner-focused product offerings.

Internally, David exemplifies collaboration and servant leadership. He worked closely with the commercial heat trace team to manage suppliers, inventory, customers, and projects as a unified operation. This team-based approach resulted in smoother sales execution, improved customer experience, repeat business, and sustainable growth. David routinely went above and beyond his role, even assisting in the warehouse during peak seasons and coming in on weekends to ensure contractors received materials when deadlines mattered most.

Despite the highly cyclical, weather-dependent nature of the commercial roof and gutter heat trace market, David’s strategy produced consistent double digit year over year growth with margins approaching 50%. This level of performance is a direct result of his innovative thinking, disciplined execution, and relentless ownership mentality.

David embraced the challenge of growing a near nonexistent business with passion, resilience, and creativity—never once complaining, always finding solutions. His work reflects the values embodied by Jon Monsen: deep expertise, technical credibility, education-driven growth, and lasting impact. For these reasons, David Skidmore is an exemplary and highly deserving recipient of the Monsen Innovation Award.

About the Monsen Innovation Award

The Monsen Innovation Award recipients are recognized for their outstanding accomplishments and dedication to our company. The inspiration for this award (and the first award recipient) was Jon Monsen. Jon F. Monsen, Ph.D., P.E., was a control valve technology specialist at Valin for many years. Jon wrote a book titled, Control Valve Application Technology, Techniques and Considerations for properly selecting the right control valve. This book was published by Valin and is currently sold on our e-commerce site. Monsen possessed 35 years of industry experience and lectured nationally and internationally on control valve sizing and application.