promotions and new appointments
Capital Lighting & Supply, an operating unit of Sonepar USA (Alexandria, Va.): Tim McGowan has been promoted to vice president of corporate development. McGowan has served Capital Lighting & Supply in various capacities and has been responsible for creating many of the tools for the company's internal communications and employee development. Some of his most notable recent accomplishments have been the development of Capital Lighting & Supply's intranet, operations manual and training initiative. McGowan's responsibilities will include organizational development, including employee development, recruiting programs and process development; special projects, currently including the company's new CDC and headquarters facility; and strategic vision. Capital Lighting & Supply has added a four-person Energy & Maintenance Service (EMS) department. David Levine, who has been in the lighting business since 1992, is vice president of the EMS division. Other members of the EMS team are: Rick Iammarino, inside sale manager; whose career in electrical distribution began in 1981; Ken Wirtz, outside sales; and Randy Shapiro, analysis and sales support.
Shat-R-Shield (Salisbury, N.C.): Doug Barlen has been hired as Western region manager for Shat-R-Shield's industrial division. Based in Shat-R-Shield's Western region sales office in Arlington, Texas, Barlen will oversee all sales activities for Shat-R-Shield in the western United States. Barlen has more than 25 years of experience in the electrical industry. Barlen comes to Shat-R-Shield from EMKA USA, the American subsidiary of Europe's enclosure hardware manufacturer. He spent four years at EMKA as Southwest regional sales manager. Barlen's prior work includes work with Warren Electric Group, Hoffman Enclosures Inc. and Hubbell Corp.
EiKO Ltd. (Shawnee, Kan.): Mitch Carney has been named national sales manager for the company's large lamp division. As the national sales manager, Carney will manage and work with the current regional managers to drive company growth and increase market share. Carney has 16 years of lighting and electrical industry sales experience. For the past 12 years, he held a variety of sales management and business development positions in the Northeast, Midwest and Southern regions for Philips Lighting Co.
Thomas & Betts Corp. (Memphis): E.F. (Ned) Camuti has joined the company as president of its U.S. electrical business. He succeeds Christopher P. Hartmann, who was promoted to chief operating officer in October 2006. Camuti will report to Hartmann and will have overall responsibility for the company's electrical products marketing, sales, operations, customer service, logistics, finance and human resources in the United States. Camuti joins Thomas & Betts from Ideal Industries, where he was vice president and general manager of the company's connector division.
National Association of Electrical Distributors (St. Louis): Jack Henderson, executive vice president for Hunzicker Brothers Inc. in Oklahoma City, has been appointed the incoming Western region vice president-elect. The Western Region Council elected Henderson by majority approval. Henderson has served in the industry for 36 years and has a long tenure on NAED's Western Region Council. In addition, his company is active in the association, participating in many areas, including PAR, training with the NAED Foundation, and attending conferences. Henderson joined Hunzicker Brothers in 1970. Before attaining his current position of executive vice president in 1989, Henderson served as the company's credit manager, controller and assistant vice president.
The Manufacturers' Agents National Association (MANA, Lake Forest, Calif.): Bryan Colrud Shirley has been appointed president and chief executive officer. Shirley succeeds Joe Miller who retired from MANA in 2006. Shirley was previously the president/CEO of Colrud-Lowery, a manufacturers' representative firm based in southern New Jersey engaged in selling electronic components.
Beacon Products LLC, a subsidiary of Varon Lighting Inc. (Sarasota, Fla.): Edward J. Kramer has been promoted to head of sales nationally for Beacon Products LLC and its Visio Lighting division. Prior to joining Beacon/Visio, Kramer served as marketing director for the Metrolux division of Quality Lighting, a JJI lighting company, now part of Genlyte Group. His manufacturing experience includes progressive sales and marketing positions with Venture Lighting, Cooper Lighting and North American Philips.
Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosures (Belding, Mich.): Ed Atanasoff has been promoted to plant manager. As Stahlin's quality manager, Atanasoff championed Stahlin's efforts to attain ISO certification in 2006. Kristie Walls has been promoted to assistant controller. She was most recently accounting supervisor. Sam Layle has been promoted to marketing specialist. Layle completed his marketing internship with Stahlin in 2005 and was hired on full time as a marketing assistant.
The Conduit Division of Robroy Industries (Gilmer, Texas): The conduit division recently promoted two of its team members. Donna Waterstraat was promoted to operations manager. Reporting to Waterstraat will be the plant production manager along with materials and inside sales. During the past 11 years, Waterstraat has been in different roles, including shipping, inside sales, and was most recently the materials and service manager. Vijay Kumar Tahiliani's duties as the conduit division controller will now include engineering services and payroll. Since coming to the conduit division almost two years ago, Tahiliani increased his skills in accounting, IT and business analysis, all critical for his new role.
Dual-Lite, a subsidiary of Hubbell Lighting Inc. (Spartanburg, S.C.): Julia Davis has joined the company as national brand training specialist. Before joining Dual-Lite, she held the position of vice president of the American Cancer Society, Charleston, S.C., from 2001-2005. Her new position with Dual-Lite includes product training for electrical distributors, sales agents, engineers and specifiers. She will also represent the Dual-Lite product line at trade shows and other industry events.
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson (Columbus, Ohio): Frank Bibens has been named president of the group's service business, that serves as the support arm for all Liebert equipment. Bibens is filling the position recently held by Scott Dysert, who is now president of Liebert North America. Prior to joining Emerson Network Power, Bibens spent 28 years holding various service-related management positions with the General Electric Co. (GE), including general manager of the global operations and maintenance business for GE Energy and general manager of international contractual services for GE Power Generation Services.
supplyFORCE (King of Prussia, Pa.): Dave Achtemeier has joined supplyFORCE as director, industrial supply division. Achtemeier joins supplyFORCE with more than 20 years of experience in the distribution industry. He started his career working four years in sales for WESCO. Achtemeier joined Grainger in 1986 and served in various roles including regional sales manager, senior national accounts manager and operations manager throughout his 18 years with Grainger.
Dialight Lumidrives (King of Prussia, Pa.): Patrick Van Der Meulen has been appointed European OEM technical sales manager. Van Der Meulen joins Dialight Lumidrives with more than 12 years experience in the lighting industry. He spent the previous six years with LED manufacturer Lumileds, most recently as a technical support manager for Europe with responsibility to train and educate customers on how to use high-power LEDs. He will be responsible for focusing on Dialight Lumidrives OEM customers across northern Europe and providing them with sales and technical support.
Obituary
Bill R. Conner passed away on Oct 28, 2006, at his home in Charlotte, N.C. He was 79 years old.
Conner had a 35-year career with Thomas & Betts (T&B) that included many years as Eastern vice president of sales and vice president of sales for the company. He was a mentor to two generations of salespeople at T&B and had many friends among T&B's distributors throughout the country.
Conner is survived by his wife, Betty.