Standard Electric Co. (Saginaw, Mich.): William Gray has joined the company as executive V.P. Along with Laverne Weber, president, he will oversee the Standard Electric's 24 Michigan locations. A Michigan native, Gray over 15 years of related industry experience, including nine years at General Electric. Just prior to joining Standard he spent five years as an executive in the chemical industry in Cleveland.
Omni Cable Corp. (West Chester, Pa.): John Russ has been promoted to Western Region V.P. and Dan Trotta has been appointed Southeast Region V.P. Russ will manage the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver facilities. He has been with Omni for over 10 years, serving as regional manager in San Francisco. Trotta has worked for more than 25 years in the wire and cable industry, including posts at Belden, Commscope and Berktek. He will have responsibility for the Atlanta, Tampa and Houston facilities. Trotta has a B.A. in psychology from Hunter College.
In other news at Omni Cable, Travis Williams has been appointed regional manager at the Los Angeles facility. Williams most recently served as a branch manager for W.W. Grainger, where he managed three locations. He has a B.S. in economics from the United States Naval Academy and a M.A. in global leadership from the University of San Diego.
National Electric (Albuquerque): David Durbin, a 14-year company veteran, is now the company's renewable energy specialist. He is also close to completing his NABCEP certification for renewable energy design from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP). With the recent addition of its renewable energy division, National Electric now offers design, estimating and technical support to help provide renewable energy solutions for its customers and their clients. Durbin will work one-on-one with customers at each step in the system design and pricing process and will assist with on-site surveys to help determine the best solutions for each energy system as well as provide information and package pricing on products that meet each project's unique requirements.
IDEA (Arlington, Va.): Del Nickel, former president of Pentair's Technical Products global business unit in Anoka, Minn., will serve as the IDEA chairman of the board for 2010-2011. He previously served on the board as the vice chair from 2009-2010 and secretary from 2008-2009. Nickel brings over 40 years of experience in the electrical industry, including an 18-year career at Pentair. He retired from Pentair in March 2010. Outgoing IDEA chairman, Ronald Schlader, vice president of operations and quality, Crescent Electric Supply Co., served in the position from 2009-2010 and will continue to serve on the 2010-2011 Board as a voting director.
Burndy (Manchester, N.H.): Warren Jenkins has been appointed V.P. of sales for the company's U.S. sales organization. During his 17-year career in the electrical industry, Jenkins worked for Ideal Industries and at Cooper Crouse-Hinds, where he was regional V.P. servicing the commercial, industrial and OEM market segments. He was also previously employed by Burndy as the Central regional sales manager from 1998 to 2006 and in a variety of sales territory positions prior to his promotion into management. Jenkins graduated from Texas A&M with a B.S. in industrial distribution from the College of Engineering in College Station, Texas.
Cupertino Electric (San Jose, Calif.): Paul Aggarwal has been appointed to the new position of vice president of pre-construction services. Aggarwal, who was V.P. of estimating, will have an expanded role setting the strategic direction for the company's pursuit of new projects and will oversee all pre-construction activities. Aggarwal joined Cupertino Electric more than 20 years ago as an estimator. He has a bachelor's degree in industrial technology from San Jose University and a master's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University.
Xicato (San Jose, Calif.): Electrical industry veteran Dave Levinson is now with the LED manufacturer as vice president of sales. He will be responsible for leading Xicato's commercial organization in the U.S. and Canada, with specific focus on the development of Xicato's OEM partners, and the end-user and specification markets. Levinson comes to Xicato from Philips Lighting Electronics (Advance) in Rosemont, Ill., where he most recently served as V.P. and general manager of the Fluorescent Electronics Business line. Prior to this role, Levinson held senior executive leadership positions with Philips over the past 18 years, including V.P. of marketing and product management and V.P. of distribution sales.
Federal Signal Corp. (Oak Brook, Ill): Charles Avery Jr. has been appointed to the position of vice president, information technology and controller. He will report directly to William Barker, chief financial officer of the company. In addition to serving as the company's principal accounting officer, Avery will have enterprise-wide responsibility for information technology.
Bud Industries Inc. (Cleveland): Josiah Haas has been appointed director of sales. He will manage Bud's internal and external sales organizations and have a major role in the company's strategic planning. Haas had been the company's national sales manager. He is a graduate of Hawken School and Indiana University.
Border States Electric (BSE) (Fargo, N.D.) Jason Seger has been appointed V.P. - operations and inventory. He will also serve on the company's executive council. Seger joined BSE in Nov. 1999 as part of the Utility Marketing team. He has worked as director of inventory and operations, material requirements planning specialist, sales and marketing coordinator for the utility market and purchasing manager. In addition to his regular duties, he has played major roles in the company's integration of acquisitions.
In other news at Border States, Jason Stein has been appointed V.P. of sales. He has worked in various positions including product manager, automation account manager, and Northwest region industrial sales manager. In 2009, he was named director of sales.
General Cable (Highland Heights, Ky.): The Wire & Cable Manufacturers' Alliance (WCMA) has named Mike Murphy, V.P. of sales, Gepco Brand Products, as a recipient of one of its 2010 Distinguished Career Awards. WCMA's 26th Annual Awards Dinner and Investiture Ceremony honoring Mike took place on April 24 in Hartford, Conn. He has held a variety of executive posts at General Cable since coming to the company in 2002. Murphy attended Indiana University and the Columbia Management Institute MBA program, where he specialized in sales and marketing management. He also attended the Earlham Institute for Executive Growth and is a veteran of the United States Air Force.