People on the Move - February 7, 2020

Steiner Electric Co. (Chicago): John Burke was appointed president and COO, effective Jan. 23. He will assume day-to-day leadership of the company from Rick Kerman, who will remain in the role of chairman and CEO. Kerman joined the company full time in 1979 as the third generation of the original family business by his grandfather George Steiner in 1916.

Most recently Burke served as president and CEO of supplyFORCE, where he was instrumental in the transformation of the company and overall sales growth. Prior to joining supplyFORCE, Burke held positions as president and COO of Kirby Risk Electrical Supply; COO at SourceAlliance; Southeast Division president of Rexel, SA; VP, general manager of EESCO Division of WESCO International; and numerous leadership positions with GE.

Viking Electric and Brook Electrical Supply (Minneapolis): As the two Sonepar companies joined together to form one organization, they recently announced that Terry Reister has been named director of business operations and Charles Norvil as sales manager of Brook’s three Chicago-based locations.

Reister has 15 years of electrical industry experience and has been with Viking since 2005, where he served most recently as general manager of the company’s Madison, WI, location. In his new role, he will manage the Brook and Viking integration and oversee sales and operations for the three Brook locations in the Chicago market area. Norvil brings 34 years of industry experience in the Chicago area and has been with Brook for five years. In his new role, he will oversee Brook’s account management and project sales departments.

Dakota Supply Group (DSG) (Plymouth, MN): Effective Jan. 1, Marie Robinson has joined the company’s board of directors. Her background includes experience with national chains in the retail product sector, along with national grocery retail and wholesale organizations. Since 2014, Robinson has been with Capri Holdings Ltd., where she currently holds the position of senior vice president, chief operations and transformation officer.

Crawford Electric (Houston): Sonepar North America recently announced that Tim Horny, president of Crawford Electric, will be transitioning to vice president of sales for Crawford’s central and southern regions. Mike Dumas, president of Capital Electric, has been named Horny’s successor.

Horny joined Crawford Electric Supply in 2005 and became president in 2015. Dumas joined Capital in July 2018 as chief operating officer and became president in March 2019. Until a replacement is named, Sonepar USA East Region President Alan Rosenfeld will serve as interim president at Capital.

Electri-Flex (Roselle, IL): The company recently announced several promotions in its Engineering department. Henry Dominicis was promoted to sales & application engineer and Brandon Kwiatkowski is now manufacturing engineer. Dominicis will provide technical support for customer application solutions and inquiries. He will support the sales team at trade shows and customer events, as well as manage product specifications. Dominicis started with Electri-Flex in 2017 as a mechanical/industrial engineer.

Espen Technology (Sante Fe Springs, CA): John Castner joined Espen to handle the company’s Western region. He has been in the lighting/electrical industry for over 30 years, having held sales and sales management positions with companies such as Sylvania, Hubbell, Amtech Lighting, CED and Dialight.

In other news at Espen, Angel Escamilla joined the company as director of quality and engineering. He has more than 23 years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry and spent the last 15 years in the lighting industry.

G&W Electric Co. (Bolingbrook, IL): This supplier of electric power equipment appointed Joe Baker to regional vice president of sales Northeast (U.S.); Marco Santagata to regional vice president of sales EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa); and Giin Sia to regional vice president of sales APAC (Asia Pacific). All three will report to Stephen Haley, vice president, global sales at G&W Electric.

Prior to joining G&W Electric, Baker has held several senior management roles in the electrical market, including senior vice president, strategic marketing for ABB, CEO for Acciona Windpower North America LLC, and most recently, president and CEO for Baker McElroy Strategies.