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Strategic Advisor·Home Services

Eddie McFarlane

Chair of Board of Directors / Learning Chief & Development Officer at Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) / Sila Services

Lititz, Pennsylvania, USA

EM
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Why they matter

As Sila Services' Chief Learning & Development Officer and ACCA's sitting board chair, McFarlane sits at the intersection of workforce strategy and industry policy for HVAC roll-ups.

Background

Eddie (Edward) McFarlane is Chief Learning & Development Officer at Sila Services, a Goldman Sachs Alternatives-backed multi-brand HVAC/plumbing/electrical roll-up operating 30+ brands across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, and he is the sitting 2025-2026 Chair of the ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America) Board of Directors. He began as an HVAC service technician in 2003, rose to President of Haller Enterprises by 2023, and along the way co-founded Schedule Engine, a contractor scheduling platform later acquired by ServiceTitan — giving him a rare mix of field, executive, and founder experience in the trades.

Notable deals

  • 2016
    Co-founded Schedule Engine, a contractor scheduling/CRM platform for home-services businesses, later acquired by ServiceTitan
  • 2024
    Promoted to Chief Learning & Development Officer at Sila Services, overseeing Sila University's training pipeline across the company's 30+ acquired home-services brands
  • 2024
    Built out Sila University, a tuition-free, debt-free technician training program (e.g., Project LiveFire) to address the industry-wide skilled-trades labor shortage
  • 2025
    Elected Chair of the ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America) Board of Directors for the 2025-2026 term

Call-prep brief

Background

  • HVAC veteran since 2003; rose from service technician to President of Haller Enterprises (Lititz, PA) by 2023.
  • Co-founded Schedule Engine (2016), a contractor scheduling platform later acquired by ServiceTitan — rare operator + founder experience in the home-services trades.
  • Joined Sila Services (a 30+ brand HVAC/plumbing/electrical roll-up, majority-owned by Goldman Sachs Alternatives since Nov. 2024, previously Morgan Stanley Capital Partners) in May 2023; promoted to Chief Learning & Development Officer in July 2024.

Current focus

  • Building "Sila University," a tuition-free, debt-free technician training pipeline (e.g., Project LiveFire) to address labor shortages across Sila's acquired brands.
  • Serving as 2025-2026 Chair of ACCA's Board and a NATE board trustee — a central voice in HVACR workforce policy.

What he cares about

  • Technician recruitment/retention, apprenticeship-style training, and giving contractors a unified policy voice (ACCA PAC, ACTion Alerts).

Recent moves

  • Navigating Sila's ownership transition from Morgan Stanley Capital Partners to Goldman Sachs Alternatives (Nov. 2024) while scaling training infrastructure across newly integrated brands.

Sensitivities

  • He's a workforce/operating executive, not a corp-dev contact — frame outreach around integration and talent, not deal terms.
  • Active in trade-association policy; may be wary of anything that reads as leveraging ACCA relationships for commercial advantage.

Questions to ask

  1. How does Sila standardize training/culture across 30+ acquired brands, and where does integration typically break down?
  2. What changed in retention or hiring metrics after the Goldman Sachs Alternatives investment closed?
  3. What lessons from founding and exiting Schedule Engine apply to tech-stack choices for platform companies in home services?

Outreach draft

Subject
Workforce strategy in HVAC roll-ups — quick call?
Hi Eddie, I've been following your work building Sila University and your leadership at ACCA — the tuition-free technician pipeline you've built stands out as one of the more thoughtful workforce plays in home services right now. I'm on the deal team at [Firm], and we're spending time in the HVAC/home-services roll-up space. Given your vantage point as both a Sila operating executive and a Schedule Engine co-founder, I'd value 20 minutes to hear how you think about training, retention, and integration challenges as platforms scale through acquisition. Would you have time for a short call in the next couple of weeks? Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidenceStructured data7 public sourcesVerified2026-08-10How the grades work