The early-bird deadline for nominations for the inaugural PaintSquare Prestige Awards, honoring the top people, products and innovations in the protective, marine and industrial coatings industry, has just been extended until May 10, and as nominations continue, PaintSquare Daily News is introducing readers to the judges who will be selecting the honorees.

Next up: Greenman-Pedersen Inc. vice president and regional director of coatings Tony Serdenes.

Courtesy of Tony Serdenes

Tony Serdenes, a judge for the inaugural PaintSquare Prestige Awards, has decades of experience in the protective coatings industry.

Serdenes’ tenure in the coatings business began at a company founded by his father in 1972. The family business primarily took on bridge- and tank-painting projects. He left the family business in 1991 to work as a coatings inspector on bridge paint contracts in Maryland for a local engineering firm, then began managing coating contracts in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Connecticut.

When Serdenes joined Greenman-Pedersen Inc. (GPI) in 1999, he managed the Mid-Atlantic region, overseeing all contracts for coating-related services. He developed new bridge paint inspection contract markets for GPI in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. Serdenes is now a vice president/regional director of coatings for GPI, managing Department of Transportation contracts for bridge-painting project coating inspections in multiple states for various DOTs.

He is an SSPC Protective Coatings Specialist, C-3 Supervisor/Competent Person for Deleading of Industrial Structures, SSPC Bridge Coatings Inspector Level 1, NACE Certified Coating Inspector Level 3 and C-2 Planning and Specifying Industrial Coating. Serdenes is presently on the SSPC PCCP Advisory Committee and has served as committee chair for the SSPC – PA Guide 5, “Maintenance Coating of Steel Structures in Atmospheric Service.” He has also served as the SSPC Chesapeake Chapter chair and has been part of many national SSPC committees over his career.

Serving as an overview for local agencies, Serdenes developed an introduction to coatings course (specifically pertaining to bridge projects) that he has been teaching at the SSPC national conferences for more than a decade. He has also provided training for government officials, consultants and contractors. Serdenes was selected as one of five industry specifiers to participate in the first PaintSquare Press specifiers’ round table—“The Right Specs: Project-Saving Tips from Coating Industry Engineers and Consultants”—a live discussion later profiled in the inaugural print issue of this new publication.

He has presented at several regional and national conferences and conducted “Coatings 101” workshops SSPC Conference. Serdenes’ hobbies include fishing and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys for the past 40 years.