Finlay Leadership Team

Barbara Barrett, Co-Owner

  

Barbara is a successful serial entrepreneur who has built an outstanding reputation for growing and transforming three different companies in Bergen County. Her customers know that she stands by her word and brings a keen sense of urgency and follow through to every customer relationship. Her mission is to delight every customer and treat everyone - employees, vendors, contractors alike with respect, fairness, and compassion. She is a multi-tasker extraordinaire and keeps track of all the administrative, financial, staffing, scheduling details for Finlay Floors. She regards Finlay’s customers as key assets that have been painstakingly nurtured to help fuel Finlay’s exponential growth over the last thirty years.

 

Prior to Finlay, Barbara co-owned a local gym serving close to two thousand members in the greater Waldwick, Ridgewood, Ho-ho-kus, Allendale communities. Under her five-year stewardship, this business grew its market share and membership by 25%, despite a crowded, highly competitive market and inherited, history of attrition. To accomplish this feat, she and her partner invested in the business and listened, intently, to their customers to guide improvements in key areas that mattered most: cleanliness; customer engagement, equipment, programming and staffing upgrades. 


Her first business was in the health care industry, where she quickly moved from a startup mode to becoming the top, outsourced diagnostic transcription agency used by a leading Bergen County health care system. In a matter of eight years she grew this business 30x, and was endorsed and respected by numerous departments, physicians, and hospital administrators for her reputation in hiring top quality people and delivering impeccable service. Her business model emphasized turnaround speed and in her tenure she reduced average client turnaround from 1 week to 2 hours. This metric shows her commitment to innovation, efficiency and client satisfaction. 


Barbara’s community work includes active involvement in Bergen based chamber of commerce and fundraising for the American Cancer Society.

Barbara Barrett, Finlay Floors

Barbara Barrett, Finlay Floors

Peter Candela, Co-Owner

  

Peter is a consummate client partner and trusted adviser. He earns people’s respect within a matter of minutes and communicates well at any level. Peter is open to hearing clients’ needs, sharing his knowledge and opinion and helps guide first time, homeowners through empty nesters through the various options for wood flooring and refinishing. He sees every project as a different, unique challenge but is also straightforward in helping homeowners understand the pros/cons of different materials and what might work best for a given budget, preference, design situation. He is honest and upfront, and clients respect him for that.


  

Peter comes to the hardwood flooring business with a sharp, objective, analytical mind, artisanal craftsman edge, and finely, tuned service delivery skill set. He brings over twenty years’ experience in building and managing high performance teams, designing custom solutions, and managing complex client relationships with such companies as JPMorgan, Xerox, PWC, and Bank of New York Mellon. Throughout his career he has been known for asking the right questions, sizing up a client’s needs, providing advice and insight, developing a relevant plan, staffing and training the right talent, and managing client expectations.

With micro attention to detail and experience in building scalable operations, Peter can tackle any design challenge, aesthetic upgrade, or large-sized project that a residential or commercial customer might have. 


Peter was born and raised in Ridgewood. 

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