People: June 12, 2009

June 11, 2009
Thomas & Betts Corp. (Memphis, Tenn.): Kenneth Fluke, T&B’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire from the company on Oct. 1.

Thomas & Betts Corp. (Memphis, Tenn.): Kenneth Fluke, T&B’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire from the company on Oct. 1. In a planned succession, William Weaver Jr., who has served as vice president and controller for Thomas & Betts since November 2008, will succeed Fluke.

Hubbell Inc. (Orange, Conn.): Lynn J. Good and Carlos A. Rodriguez were elected directors of Hubbell. These additions to the Hubbell board of directors bring the total number of directors to eleven. Good is currently group executive and president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy Corp.’s Commercial Business unit. Rodriguez is currently the division president for Automated Data Processing Inc.’s Small Business Services unit in Roseland, N.J.

Frost Electric Supply Co. (Maryland Heights, Mo.): Scott Szymonik recently joined the company as a senior accountant at the headquarters location and Matt Buhs recently joined Frost as an account manager at the Collinsville, Ill., branch. Szymonik’s responsibilities include general accounting, financial statement preparation, budgeting and analysis. He earned B.A. and MBA degrees from Southern Illinois University and currently is a Level II candidate in the CFA program. Buhs’ responsibilities include maintaining and growing the industrial and commercial electrical accounts and penetrating the voice and data market for Frost Electric Supply. He has 14 years of experience in the electrical industry, including the distribution and contracting field.

Westinghouse Lighting Corp. (Philadelphia):Joe Catrambone was promoted to vice president of supply chain. The position encompasses the company’s product management, inventory management, key customer inventory management, purchasing, traffic/logistics, customer direct import and quality control areas in the United States and Asia. In his new role he will lead efforts to integrate Westinghouse’s Asian supply chain operations with its corporate supply chain department and quality control. He has worked in every facet of the company and was most recently the senior director of sales.

Underground Tools, Inc.(Lino Lakes, Minn.): Mark Gehrke has joined the company as territory sales manager. He has over 15 years of sales and product management experience in the underground construction equipment industry. He began his career with his family’s trencher dealership in Phoenix. then was a founding member of equipment manufacturer American Chain Inc. and most recently was ground engaging manager for Astec Underground.

IDEA (Arlington, Va.): Ronald D. Schlader, vice president of operations and quality at Crescent Electric Supply Co., East Dubuque, Ill., is IDEA chairman of the board for 2009-2010. He was previously vice-chair and has been involved with IDEA since its inception in 1998. Outgoing IDEA chairman, David J. FitzGibbon, CEO, ILSCO Corp., will continue to serve on the 2009-2010 board as a voting director. The other 2009-2010 IDEA officers are (vice chairman) Del Nickel, president, Hoffman Enclosures Inc.; (treasurer) Larry Stern, president and CEO, Standard Electric Supply Co. (Wis.); (secretary) Phil Barrios, senior director of corporate marketing and E-Business, Hubbell, Inc.; and (president) Robert Gaylord, IDEA’s president and CEO. Also on the 2009-2010 IDEA board of directors are Valerie Jones, vice president of customer service and inside sales, Osram Sylvania; Greg Thrall, senior vice president of operations, Border States Electric; James Tinker, manager, master file maintenance officer, Rexel Inc.; and Joe Wallace, data pricing administration manager, Van Meter Industrial Inc. Non-voting directors on the board are Gaylord, Tom Naber, president and CEO, National Association of Electrical Distributors, and Evan Gaddis, president, National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).

Allen Ray Associates (Kennedale, Texas): Jack Justilian has joined the firm as a consulting associate. Justilian brings over 30 years of experience as an electrical distributor, having worked for Maurice Electrical, Summit Electric and Key Electric in positions including sales, sales management, marketing, supplier relations, operations, financial management and executive leadership.