{"id":200904,"date":"2026-03-02T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200904\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:09:06","slug":"lees-air-in-fresno-welcomes-derek-franks-formerly-of-grizzlies-as-coo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200904\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee&#8217;s Air in Fresno welcomes Derek Franks, formerly of Grizzlies, as COO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1140\" height=\"470\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/derek-franks-lees-air.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"man holding a wrench next to a company logo for lee's air\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"attach_desc\">Derek Franks has transitioned from the Fresno Grizzlies to the chief operating officer at Lee&#8217;s Air, Heating &amp; Plumbing. Photo illustration by Israel Meave<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tpublished on March 2, 2026 &#8211; 10:17 AM<br \/>Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/byline\/frank-lopez\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Lopez<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lees Air, Heating &amp; Plumbing has announced Derek Franks, former president of the Fresno Grizzlies, as its new chief operating officer (COO).<\/p>\n<p>Franks comes to the local HVAC company after his <a href=\"https:\/\/thebusinessjournal.com\/franks-to-leave-grizzlies-ending-22-year-run-that-reshaped-chukchansi-park\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">departure from the Minor League Baseball team last week<\/a>. He has more than two decades of executive leadership experience in operations, strategic growth, partnerships and organizational development.<\/p>\n<p>In his new role as COO at Lee\u2019s Air, Franks will oversee daily operations, strategic planning, team development and continued market growth, according to a news release, aiming to strengthen systems and elevate customer experience across the Central Valley.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m honored to join Lee\u2019s Air, Heating &amp; Plumbing at such an exciting time,\u201d Franks said. \u201cI look forward to working with the team to support continued growth and deliver exceptional service to the communities we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Franks started with the Fresno Grizzlies in 2004 as an intern, advancing through leadership roles and playing a key role in making Chukchansi Park a destination for sports and community events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDerek\u2019s proven leadership, operational discipline, and ability to build strong teams make him an outstanding addition to our executive team,\u201d said Damon Bromagem, CEO of Lee\u2019s Air.<\/p>\n<p>Franks guided the Grizzlies through ownership transitions, major stadium improvements and expanded special events and community partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>He oversaw more than $15 million in improvements to Chukchansi Park, including the addition of the Fresno Social section, the splash park, new videoboard and more.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derek Franks has transitioned from the Fresno Grizzlies to the chief operating officer at Lee&#8217;s Air, Heating &amp;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-200904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}