Crescent Electric Supply Co. (East Dubuque, Ill.): The company has added to its management team with several appointments and promotions. Robert Settle has joined Crescent as V.P. of marketing. Prior to joining Crescent, he served five years as a V.P. at Cognex Corp. He held other sales and management positions at DVT Corp., Siemens Energy & Automation and ABB. Settle will report to Chris Breslin, senior V.P. and COO.
Timothy Kehoe has joined Crescent in a newly formed position of director, e-business strategy and commerce. In this role, he will lead Crescent's internet and e-commerce business initiatives. Prior to joining Crescent, Kehoe served as internet marketing director at Hearth and Home Technologies, director of web marketing at Adaytum/Cognos Software, and internet business manager at AOL Time Warner. Over the past five years, Kehoe managed his own consulting business and has authored a series of children's books. He also reports to Breslin.
John Gunderson has been promoted to a newly formed position of director, field marketing. In this role, he will be focus on local marketing initiatives and value-added branding and will work with regional and district managers to improve the integration of sales and marketing activities and develop sales tools and drive value-proposition selling. Gunderson has been with Crescent Electric Supply for 10 years, most recently serving as manager, communications services. Gunderson will report to Bob Settle.
The company also has added two members to its board of directors: Dick Waterman, former CEO of International Electric Supply Co., and Mary Schmid Daugherty, associate professor of finance at the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, who is also the 17th grandchild of Titus and Josephine Schmid, the founders of Crescent Electric Supply.
Lenox (East Longmeadow, Mass): Myra Lee is the company's new director of marketing communications and is responsible for leading efforts to enhance brand equity and consistency and build marketing programs in partnership with product and channel teams. Lee previously worked at United Technologies Corp. for 10 years in several positions including product management, strategic planning, investor relations and corporate communications. She has also worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Russia. Lee received her BA from the University of Chicago and her M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Susan Spalding, the former director of marketing communications for Lenox, has moved to the Rubbermaid Commercial Products division of Newell Rubbermaid where she has taken the position of director of marketing communications.
GE Lighting (Cleveland): Jaime Irick will lead GE Lighting Solutions as its president and CEO, reporting to Michael Petras, president and CEO of GE Lighting. In his new role, Irick drives the development, growth and management of GE's global light-emitting diode (LED) product business for both the household and professional market segments. Brian Sroub has also joined the company in the newly created global role of chief marketing officer for GE Lighting, also reporting to Petras. GE Lighting Solutions was formed in early 2010 with the combination of GE Lighting's LED systems operation, Lumination, based in Cleveland, and the commercial and industrial fixture business, GE Lighting Systems in Hendersonville, N.C.
Irick comes to GE Lighting Solutions from GE Power Sensing — a global unit of GE Energy that designs, makes and sells power equipment products — where he most recently served as the business' general manager. His GE experience includes a sales leadership role with GE Security's Homeland Protection division. He served five years in the U.S. Army, and has earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a B.S. degree in system engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Sroub most recently served as V.P. of marketing and product management at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. He has founded more than 10 entrepreneurial ventures and earned an M.B.A. from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and both an M.A. in economics and a B.A. in economics and communications from Boston College.
Allied Wire & Cable (Collegeville, Pa.): Chuck Meyers has been hired as district sales manager for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. He has more than 25 years of experience in the wire and cable industry, including posts with Alpha Wire and Olympic Wire.
North Central Electrical League (Bloomington, Minn.): Jeff Keljik, who manages program development for Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, is the 2010 chairman of the North Central Electrical League (NCEL). This year's board also includes Chuck Healy, V.P., Electrotech, Minneapolis (vice chair); Dan Paulson, partner and CFO, Paulson & Clark Engineers, St. Paul, Minn. (treasurer); Dale Yohnke, NCEL executive director (secretary); and Michael Lamb, managing director and assistant CIO, Xcel Energy, Minneapolis (past chair). In other news at NCEL, Tony Blinkhorn, V.P., Rouzer Sales Co., New Hope, Minn., is now president of the North Central Electrical Manufacturers Club.
United Copper Industries, Inc. (UCI) (Denton, Texas): Thomas (Andy) Blanchard is now president and CEO and will be responsible for overseeing and directing all operations for the company. He comes to UCI from RevWires LLC, a manufacturer of cored welding wire, and has served in top leadership positions within the metals, welding and tire industries over the past 25 years. Previous to his position with RevWire, Blanchard served as president of the Processed Metals Group of Gibraltar Industries. He received a B.S. degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and a M.B.A. from Michigan State University.
Greenlee ( Rockford, Ill.): The company announced the realignment and enhancement of its sales team structure to provide a greater focus on the electrical and utility channels, according to Matt Sisco, vice president of Electrical, Retail and Utility Sales. Chera Ellis has been promoted to director, North American Utility Sales. In her new role, Ellis will be responsible for establishing the vision and executing a strategy for the utility channel. Ellis has been with Greenlee for nine years and has held increasingly responsible positions throughout her tenure. Joel Smith has returned to Greenlee in the position of regional sales manager, Western Region. Smith had worked for Greenlee in the sales group for over 13 years. Neil Burns continues in his current role of national sales manager, Canada, with additional responsibilities covering the Northeast U.S. region. Richard McCulloch now has responsibility for the East region and Randy Shook leads the Central region, which is a combination of the company's former Midwest and Southwest regions. Scott Swift has accepted the position of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) accounts manager. Swift will develop and implement a sales and marketing plan for OEM/private label opportunities, Sisco said.
Service Wire Co. (Culloden, W.Va.): Travis Cutler and Jacob Barger have joined the company's sales team. Cutler earned his B.A. and A.A.S. from Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. Barger will join the Service Wire sales team in Phoenix. He earned his B.S. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Both have years of sales experience outside the electrical market.
Western United Electric Supply Corp. (Brighton, Colo.): Dave Mele has been hired as director of business development for the New Mexico and Arizona electric utility markets. Prior to joining Western United, He spent 30 years with WESCO in various management capacities, including the last 17 years as manager of their branch operations in Albuquerque. Mele will continue to reside in the Albuquerque area. Western United is a distributor serving the electric utilities in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas and Utah.