Koala Insulation named Joel Worthington its new brand president on Wednesday, handing a 20-year franchise veteran the job of steering one of the fastest growing insulation franchise brands in the country. The Richmond based company, part of the Empower Brands family, framed the hire as a bet on its next phase of development and expansion.
Worthington steps in to oversee Koala’s strategic direction, with a mandate centered on franchise development, franchisee support and continued brand expansion. The timing tracks with rising consumer demand for home improvement and energy-efficient upgrades, a category that has held up even as other corners of home services cool.
“Joel is an accomplished franchise leader,” Scott Zide, CEO of Empower Brands, said in the announcement.
Zide credits Worthington’s record of building high-performing teams and successful franchise systems. He pointed to his history of growing recognized brands and developing people as the reason he is the right fit to lead Koala’s next chapter.
Worthington’s path to franchising is unusual. Before moving into brand leadership he spent 13 years as a senior pastor, an experience the company says shaped a people-first approach he now brings to franchisee relationships.
That framing matters in a model where owner confidence drives everything from resales to referrals. Worthington said he plans to keep “building a culture centered on service and long-term success,” and to keep investing in the people and systems that help franchise owners grow.
For a development audience, a brand president appointment is more than an org chart update. Leadership stability is one of the factors prospective owners weigh most before signing, alongside unit economics and trust. Putting a known operator at the top can shorten that trust gap for candidates sizing up the brand.
It also signals where Koala wants to compete. A leader focused on franchisee support and repeatable systems points to a brand trying to scale well rather than simply scale fast, protecting consistency as the footprint grows.
Koala has grown quickly by turning a fragmented, unglamorous service into a repeatable franchise offering. Pairing that with a development-minded president suggests the brand sees its next unlock not in a flashy new product but in the quality of its owners and the support behind them. For marketers, that is the quieter story worth watching, since a brand that invests in owner success tends to market itself through results.