On June 30, 2026, SMART Southwest Gulf Coast Regional Council President and Fourth General Vice President Billy Kenyon retired, bringing an end to a decades-long career spent serving fellow members.
Kenyon began his career doing a six-month pre-apprenticeship, prior to serving a four-year apprenticeship at SMART Local 54 in Houston, Texas. In a harbinger of things to come, he was awarded the outstanding apprentice award when he completed the program in 1996.
At the start of his journey in the trade, he was employed by various contractors, starting at an HVAC shop, then working at a spiral pipe shop, before finally moving to a heavy industrial shop where he continued working as a journeyperson.
In 2000, Local 54 was accepting applications for an organizing/marketing representative, so Kenyon applied and was appointed to the position. He served the local as an organizer for the next nine years. In June 2009, Brother Kenyon was elected by the Local 54 membership to the position of business representative. He also served on the Harris County AFL-CIO Executive Board from 2012 to 2019.
In 2012, he was elected to serve as Local 54’s business manager/financial secretary-treasurer and continued in that position until 2018. During that time, he was elected president of the Southwest District Council, where he served until the formation of the Southwest Gulf Coast Regional Council in 2016. Kenyon was appointed to the SMART General Executive Council on February 1, 2021, advancing to fourth general vice president before retiring.
“Since the first day I started working with Billy, he would always say, ‘Eddie, I just want to leave everything better than how I got it,’” said new Southwest Gulf Coast Regional Council President Eddie Gonzalez. “Well, my friend: Congrats! Mission accomplished!”
Brother Leingang began his sheet metal apprenticeship on May 18, 1987, with the Hermanson Company after graduating from the Welding Program at Lake Washington Technical College. He spent the first two and a half years of his apprenticeship in the field before transitioning into the shop, where he went on to serve 10 years as a shop foreman. Leingang then launched the Specialty Metals Division at Hermanson, where he spent 12 years managing and selling specialty metals projects. In total, he dedicated 31 years of his career to Hermanson.
In 2018, Leingang was elected to serve the membership of Local 66 (Seattle, Wash.) as a business representative, a role he held for five and a half years. On July 1, 2023, he was appointed regional manager of Local 66, where he served for two years. On September 1, 2025, Leingang was appointed SMART Northwest Regional Council president, a position he continues to hold today.
In addition to his leadership roles within SMART, Leingang serves as secretary/ trustee of the Northwest Pension Trust, trustee of the Northwest Healthcare Trust, vice president of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council and is a member of the Board of Directors for Qualstar Credit Union, where he also chairs the Audit Committee. He additionally serves on the board of the Local 16 Healthcare & Pension Trusts.
On February 9, 2026, SMART General President Michael Coleman announced the election of SMART Local 28 (New York City and Long Island) Business Manager Eric Meslin to the SMART General Executive Council (GEC), following former Fifth General Vice President Bob Butler’s appointment as SMART International representative. In addition, former Local 44 Business Manager Don Dunne was appointed an International representative for the mid-Atlantic region.
Eric MeslinBob ButlerDon Dunne
Eric Meslin is a third-generation sheet metal worker whose lifelong commitment to Local 28 and the labor movement has propelled him through a distinguished career of union leadership.
He began his apprenticeship in 1998, earning journeyperson status four years later. In 2006, he was elected to Local 28’s Executive Board, where he continued to serve through subsequent reelections in 2007 and 2010.
In 2013, Meslin was elected to represent the membership full-time as a business representative. During this period, he was also appointed as a labor-side trustee to both the Joint Labor Management Committee and the Joint Apprenticeship Committee. He was reelected as business representative in 2016.
The members of Local 28 elected Meslin as president and business manager in 2019, reaffirming their confidence in his leadership with reelections in 2022 and 2025. He serves as chairman of the Local 28 Trust Funds and also chairs the Local 28 Political Action League. Meslin sits on the Executive Boards of the New York State Building Trades Council, the New York City Building Trades Council and the Nassau Suffolk County Building Trades Council, and he serves as a delegate to the Metropolitan Association of Presidents and Business Representatives. In 2020, Meslin was appointed by SMART General President Emeritus Joseph Sellers Jr. to the Board of Directors of NEMI (National Energy Management Institute), where he served as a trustee.
In 2024, SMART General President Coleman appointed Meslin as a trustee of SASMI (Stabilization Agreement of the Sheet Metal Industry). The following year, in 2025, Meslin was elected president of the New York State Council of Sheet Metal Workers, representing Locals 28, 38, 46, 58, 71, 83, 112 and 137.
Meslin is married and the proud father of three daughters. His commitment to family mirrors the dedication he brings to the members of Local 28, and he often credits his wife and daughters for their unwavering support as he continues to serve our union and the broader labor community.
Newly appointed International Representative Bob Butler has been a member of Local 17 (Boston, Mass.) for 40 years. He stepped into local leadership in 1997 as trustee and was subsequently elected to the local’s Executive Board. Butler was elected as a business representative in 2002, a position in which he served until his election as business manager in 2012.
With Butler’s extensive knowledge of the trade and his experience in union leadership, he was elected president of the SMART Northeast Regional Council (NERC) in 2021 and led the four locals within this region. In 2022, Butler was appointed as a general vice president on the GEC, where he served until transitioning into his new role.
Alongside Butler, former Local 44 (Northeastern Pa.) Business Manager Don Dunne was also appointed an International representative in February. Dunne has been a member of Local 44 since 1998 and graduated from the apprenticeship in 2002. Shortly thereafter, he served as a trustee until his election as recording secretary in 2006. That same year, he expanded his contributions by becoming a part-time welding instructor for Local 44’s apprenticeship program, sharing his knowledge and skills with the next generation of sheet metal workers.
Dunne’s leadership continued to grow as he was elected business representative in 2012. His commitment to the membership was further recognized in 2018, when he was elected business manager. In 2021, he was reelected to serve as both business manager and financial secretary-treasurer.
Dunne also served as trustee for Local 44’s Funds and the Joint Apprenticeship Training Center. In 2021, he was appointed co-chair of SASMI. Beyond his roles within Local 44, Dunne has held several prominent positions in related organizations.
Following the retirement of Thomas DeBartolo and Lance Deyette’s hiring as assistant to the general president, the SMART General Executive Council (GEC) voted to elect two new members.
Bryan BushCorey Beaubien
Local 19 (Philadelphia) Business Manager Bryan Bush, 10th general vice president, began his career as a sheet metal worker in 1989, entering Local 19’s four-year apprenticeship program in 1991 and successfully graduating as a journeyperson in 1995. Bush has demonstrated active labor leadership throughout his career: He was a site steward on numerous jobs, a foreman on many occasions, and in 2009 he successfully ran to be a Local 19 business representative. He served as business rep. from 2009–2017; assistant business manager from 2012–2024; financial secretary-treasurer from 2017–2023; and, since 2024, has represented Local 19 members as business manager.
In addition to his local union leadership, Bush has served on the Washington Township Economic Development Board, the Governor’s Transition Committee for Labor and Management, as South Jersey Transportation Authority commissioner, Building Trades chairman for Center City Philadelphia, delegate for the Bucks County AFL-CIO and the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, and many other positions. He is also active in various community service efforts, including career days and job fairs, City of Camden Drug Awareness Walks, the City to Shore MS Bike Ride, volunteering at Camden County Homeless Shelters and more.
Born and raised in New Jersey, where he is now raising his own family, Bush’s family history dates back at least 90 years in the labor movement. Today, he carries that legacy forward by proudly representing Local 19 members across aspects of the organization: helping and overseeing business agents with jurisdictional and contract situations, organizing efforts, growth strategies and, most importantly, fighting for members.
Local 33 (Northern Ohio) President and Business Manager Corey Beaubien, 11th general vice president, began his career in the sheet metal industry as an apprentice in July of 1999. Beaubien worked for various contractors in and around the Toledo, Ohio, area for 13 years before being hired as a local organizer in September of 2012. Before working as an organizer, he was elected to the Local 33 Executive Board in 2010.
In March 2015, due to his success as an organizer, Beaubien was elected as a business representative for the Local 33 Toledo District, serving in that position for eight years. During this time, he served as the financial secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, as well as a trustee on the Toledo Health & Welfare and Area Pension Funds. After many years of service as a trustee, Beaubien is now a chair or trustee on four pension funds; he was most recently appointed as trustee on the SMART Local Unions & Councils Pension Fund.
Beaubien was named president and business manager of SMART Local 33 in November 2023 and elected to the position the following year in June. Since his election, Beaubien has successfully negotiated, along with his committees, multiple contracts in four of the nine contract areas within Local 33.
After years fighting for thousands of sheet metal workers and their families as the president and business manager of SMART SM Local 19 (Philadelphia, Pa.) — and for SMART members across North America as a general vice president on the SMART General Executive Council — Gary Masino retired in early 2024.
A third-generation sheet metal worker, Masino’s career began in the field, where he worked with the tools for approximately 20 years before becoming an organizer in September 2002. In 2006, he successfully ran for local office as a business agent, and in July 2011, he became president and business manager of Local 19. Several years later, former General President Joseph Nigro appointed him to serve as a SMART general vice president.
“I was honored to serve in that capacity and represent Local 19 at the table,” Masino said. “But after looking back on everything, by far the proudest moments of my career were when my two sons Gary and Eric decided to join Local 19, where they both served apprenticeships and are now working in the trade as journeymen.”
Masino took on a variety of leadership roles throughout his career: president of the Pennsylvania State Council of Sheet Metal Workers, president of the Mechanical Trades District Council of the Delaware Valley and vice president of the New Jersey State Council of Sheet Metal Workers. He also served as an executive board member of the Pennsylvania State Building Trades and the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.
His leadership and industry expertise led former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to appoint him to the Philadelphia Department of Licensing and Inspection’s Board of Appeals in 2012, as well as the city’s zoning board in 2014. In 2015, then-Gov. Tom Wolf appointed Masino to his Transition Committee for Labor and Industry, later appointing him as a commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority Board to lend his expertise in revitalizing the city’s historical ports. Current Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro later named Masino to his transition team as well, on the Workforce Development Subcommittee.
“I believe that everything I have, from the day I was born, wouldn’t have been possible without Local 19.”
Throughout Masino’s time as president and business manager, Local 19 organized aggressively to bring in new members, take on low-road contractors, elect pro-worker champions and pass legislation that benefited SMART members and working-class families. Masino’s tenure included historic, challenging times for workers: the aftermath of the Great Recession, during which Local 19 had 800 members out of work, and the COVID-19 pandemic. But years of organizing, strategic financial decisions and the appointment of full-time Political Director Todd Farally helped achieve membership growth, financial security and legislation that created work for members, putting the local in a position to secure its future.
In a retirement message to Local 19 members, Masino noted several of his proudest accomplishments: establishing a Local 19 holiday fund for out-of-work or injured members, which evolved into a program that offers qualified members a $1,000 benefit; the creation of a retiree family benefit that increased the local’s death benefit; growing the local’s sub-benefit; significantly increasing the contribution into the local’s annuity in some areas; securing the pension fund; and negotiating some of the strongest contracts in the local’s history.
Masino brought the same drive to the SMART General Executive Council, working with fellow leaders at the International to pursue growth and legislative wins that are benefiting SMART members across our two nations.
“I’ve had a great career,” he concluded. “I believe that everything I have, from the day I was born, wouldn’t have been possible without Local 19.”
In December 2023, 30-plus-year sheet metal worker Lance Deyette was elected a general vice president on the SMART General Executive Council.
Deyette is a graduate of Bates Technical College and started his apprenticeship with SM Local 66 (Seattle, Washington) in 1988. Deyette turned out as a journeyperson in 1992 and worked at Olympia Sheet Metal, US Sheet Metal and Sunset Air as a journeyperson, foreman and superintendent. In 2005, he was elected to serve the membership as a Local 66 business representative, and on June 1, 2020, Deyette was appointed regional manager of Local 66 and vice president of the SMART Northwest Regional Council. Three years later, Deyette became president of the Northwest Regional Council, winning election to the position on July 1, 2023.
Deyette serves as a trustee on the Northwest Sheet Metal Workers Pension, Northwest Sheet Metal Workers Healthcare Trust, Northwest Sheet Metal Organizational Trust and the Western Washington Sheet Metal Training and Apprenticeship Program, along with the Oregon Master Pension Plan for Local 16. He also serves on the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Executive Board and is the president of the Olympia Building and Construction Trades Council.
