Graybar Electric Co., (St. Louis): Randall Harwood has been elected senior V.P. and CFO, effective Jan. 1. He has worked for Graybar since 1978 and has served on Graybar's board of directors since 2009. Harwood is currently district V.P. in the company's Dallas district. His appointment follows the announcement that Beatty D'Alessandro resigned from Graybar as senior V.P. and CFO and as a member of Graybar's board of directors at the end of 2012.
Cape Electrical Supply Co. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.): Ali Fartaj will serve as interim CEO and Kyle Thoma is now president. Fartaj is the managing director for AMF Partners and has been engaged in a consulting role with Cape Electrical Supply since Aug. 2012. His background includes over 20 years of experience with Walmart, Nike and Thomas & Betts.
Thoma, a 17-year company veteran, most recently served as senior V.P. of sales and marketing. In business since 1953, Cape Electrical Supply is a regional distributor operating 24 locations in seven states. The company provides equipment and supplies in business segments that include the construction, industry, communications, utility, and residential markets
Arlington Industries (Scranton, Pa.): Nick Montalbano has been appointed Eastern regional sales manager effective Jan. 2. He will be based in Warwick, R.I. Montalbano began his career in the electrical industry with Dual-Lite in 1980. He joins Arlington following a 26-year career with AFC Cabling Systems (now part of Atkore), where he held increasing positions of responsibility in purchasing, manufacturing and sales management. Montalbano most recently served as the national sales manager for Kaf-Tech. In his new role he will work with rep agencies in promoting and selling Arlington's products to distributors, end users and installers from Maine to Virginia.
This position became available because Ray Kennedy, Arlington's national sales manager, who also functioned as regional sales manager for the Eastern Seaboard, wanted to reduce his 2013 travel schedule. Kennedy, a well-known industry veteran and the leader of Arlington's sales efforts for more than 24 years, will remain with the company focusing on special projects, product positioning and strategic actions for Arlington President Tom Stark. Don Ambrose, formerly Southern regional sales manager, will assume Kennedy's position as national sales manager effective Jan. 2.
Barron Lighting Group (Phoenix): Phil Henry has joined the Barron team as the new Trace Lite brand director. He comes to Barron Lighting Group with 30-plus years of lighting experience and an extensive background in LED manufacturing. He started in the industry in 1979 with Stonco Lighting as an inside sales manager and stayed on with the company after it was purchased by Philips in 2008.
Mayer Electric Supply (Birmingham, Ala.): The company recently added three associates to help build sales and market share in the industrial, commercial and institutional customer market segments. Joining the Mayer team are Bill Stone, V.P., industrial and commercial business development; Paul Giler, Mid-Atlantic region industrial sales manager; and Brian Balmes, Southeast region industrial sales manager. Stone will be located in Mayer's Birmingham corporate offices. With 25-years of experience, Stone is the former president/COO of Electric Motors Sales, Chattanooga, Tenn. His previous experience includes industrial market and sales leadership roles at Border States, Schneider Electric and Siemens. Giler will be located in Mayer's Charlotte, N.C., regional office.
A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Giler began his 28-year career in the electrical industry with Rockwell Automation and has also worked for WESCO and GexPro. Balmes will work out of Mayer's Norcross, Ga., regional office. He has 22 years of sales and management experience with Eaton, Sprecher+Schuh, GE and Siemens and earned an electrical engineering degree from Marquette University.
National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) (St. Louis): Scott O'Day, V.P., sales and marketing, Controller Service & Sales Co., Inc., Avon, Mass., is the incoming V.P.-elect of the Eastern Region. O'Day has been in the industry for more than 30 years and has served on NAED's Eastern Region Council since 2010. O'Day also served on the NAED's Product Launch Task Force from 2007-2009. Marc Malvizzi, electrical distribution manager, Eastern Penn Supply Company, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., currently directs the Eastern Region Council.
MaxLite (West Caldwell, N.J.): Chris Primous has been appointed V.P. of OEM sales and is working with residential and commercial lighting manufacturers on the global level. He will be in charge of developing LED and CFL programs for a broad range of top-tier luminaire manufacturers and marketers. He has more than 15 years of lighting industry experience and when he was a product manager for Progress Lighting/Hubbell Lighting, he helped launch the company's first LED residential luminaire package, including one of the first LED downlights. He also was product development specialist and applications engineer for Lithonia Lighting/Acuity Brands. He has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee.
Nicor (Albuquerque, N.M.): Rodney Press has joined the company as business development manager. He brings more than 20 years of business management, sales and marketing experience from the semiconductor and solar industries. Press has a B.S. from Arizona State and an MBA in technology management.
Hubbell Inc. (Shelton, Conn.): David Nord has been appointed president and CEO and will join the company's board of directors, effective Jan. 1. Current CEO Timothy Powers will continue to serve as chairman of the board. Nord was named president and COO in June after serving as senior V.P. and CFO since 2005. Prior to this he spent nearly 10 years at United Technologies in a number of senior leadership positions, including V.P.-finance and CFO at Hamilton Sundstrand.
Kendall Electric Inc. (Portage, Mich.): Doug Brock is now managing the southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia locations. The territory includes the Chattanooga, Cleveland and Dalton branches. Brock worked as an account manager and Rockwell Automation product specialist. He has extensive experience with the Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria and performance improvement initiatives through his work with the Tennessee Center of Performance Excellence, Tennessee's state-level Malcolm Baldrige award program.
Halco Lighting Technologies (Norcross, Ga.): Alex Chaet has joined the company as a product analyst, where he will be working as part of the product development team, researching industry trends and new technologies, and testing and analyzing Halco products. Prior to joining Halco, Chaet worked for CNN Headline News, editing sports footage and highlights. He holds a BA degree in communications from the University of Georgia.
Electric Supply Center (ESC) (Boston): Wentworth Institute of Technology has elected Lawrence LaFreniere, ESC's president and CEO, to the corporation of the Institute. He will serve as part of a key advisory board for guiding, advising and advancing the Institute.