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National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA, Tarrytown, N.Y.): NEMRA announced its board of directors for 2004-2005 at its annual conference held in Philadelphia the first week in March. New officers are: Chairman Denis Lawless, LESCO Inc., Minneapolis; Chairman-Elect Jack Floyd, Downie, Turner & Buress of Maryland, Columbia, Md.; Secretary/Treasurer Ralph Bliquez, H & K Sales and Marketing Inc., Portland, Ore.; Immediate Past Chairman Samuel E. Johnson, Electra-Tek Carolinas Inc., Greensboro, N.C. Other Board members are Michael J. Criste, Herco-Criste, Pittsburgh; Don Kaminsky, Allied Group Sales Inc., Phoenix; Robert R. McNerney, ElectriGroup, Sacramento, Calif.; Chris Brazill, Brazill Brothers & Associates Inc., Metuchen, N.J.; James Yore, Electrical Marketing Services, Altamonte Springs, Fla.; Kevin Weber, Electrical Materials Inc., Sterling Heights, Mich.; Bob Smith, Pass & Seymour/Legrand, Syracuse, N.Y.; Henry P. Bergson, NEMRA president; and Nancy J. Sciotto, NEMRA vice president of operations.
NEMRA also announced the members of the Association’s Manufacturers Group (NMG) Executive Committee: Chairman David Burnette, Wheatland Tube, Collingswood, N.J.; Co-chairman, Kathy Jo Van, Coleman Cable Inc., Waukegan, Ill.; Immediate Past Chairman Robert Bukowsky, Ideal Industries, Sycamore, Ill.; William Cheetham, Leviton Manufacturing, Little Neck, N.Y.; Michael Nychay, Shat-R-Shield Inc., Salisbury, N.C.; Kenneth W. Hooper, Ferraz Shawmut Inc., Newburyport, Mass.; Ray Kennedy, Arlington Industries, Scranton, Pa.; John Hoffman, The Wiremold Co., West Hartford, Conn.; Tim Taylor, Intermatic Inc., Spring Grove, Ill.; Jeff Sherman, PW Eagle, Eugene, Ore.; and Gary Norris, ILSCO, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Rexel (Dallas): Pierre Ferrère has been appointed as director of supplier relations of the Rexel Group, a subsidiary of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute Group, Paris. This is a newly created position within the corporate business department. Ferrère will reinforce and develop collaboration with the Group’s key “strategic” suppliers by setting up methods and tools intended to improve qualification of the interfaces between Rexel and its suppliers. With nearly 20 years business experience, Ferrère, joined the Pinault-Printemps-Redoute Group in 1999. In another change, Rexel appointed Ross McInnes as director and member of the audit committee at its meeting of Rexel’s board of directors on Jan. 21. McInnes replaces Gilles Erulin, who had resigned. The appointment will be submitted to approval at the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting to be held May 24. McInnes, who has dual French and Australian nationality, has a broad financial background. In 2000, McInnes joined the Thales group and in April 2001 was appointed finance director and deputy managing director.
Summit Electric Supply (Albuquerque, N.M.): Summit Electric Supply has announced several changes to its team. Jack Justilian, a well-known electrical industry veteran, recently joined Summit as service center performance coach. With more than 30 years of experience, including domestic and international responsibilities, most recently Justilian spent seven years as president of Maurice Electric, Washington, D.C. In his new position, Justilian will conduct operational reviews and consult with service center management teams to improve operations and ensure Summit’s standards are met or exceeded. Matt Connell, CPA, joins the company as controller, a new position created as a result of Summit’s recent growth. With more than 13 years of accounting experience, Connell most recently served as the controller of Cummins Rocky Mountain, a Cummins engine distributor in Denver. Rod Gowen has been appointed vice president of supplier and product strategy. Gowen comes to Summit with 25 years experience in the electrical distribution business, most recently serving as an area manager responsible for running a $60 million division of Rexel. Gowen will be responsible for working with a team of associates to develop and roll out Summit’s Strategic Supplier initiative. Additionally, Sheila Hernandez has been appointed vice president of marketing. Hernandez is a 17-year veteran of the electrical industry and a longtime Summit associate. Over the years, Hernandez has served in a number of capacities including marketing coordinator as well as marketing director.
Thomas & Betts Corp. (Memphis, Tenn.): John P. Murphy, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire on April 30. In a planned succession arrangement, Kenneth W. Fluke, vice president and corporate controller, will succeed Murphy. Dominic J. Pileggi, president and chief executive officer, credits Murphy as being instrumental in “restoring a culture based on control and accountability to Thomas & Betts and in managing the company’s successful turnaround” and thanked him for his contributions in a prepared release. Fluke has served as the company’s corporate controller since joining the company in June 2000. Prior to joining T&B, he spent 17 years with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
ILSCO Corp. (Cincinnati): Kurt Wintersberger has been appointed central regional manager for ILSCO and UTILCO. Wintersberger comes to ILSCO from Walther Electric where he served as regional manager.
Rural Electric Supply Co. (RESCO, Middleton, Wis.) V. Lynn Graybill has been appointed president and chief executive officer. Graybill brings more than 25 years of distribution and manufacturing company executive management experience to the RESCO organization. Most recently, he served as president and chief executive officer of Prime Holding Inc., which has distribution and manufacturing operations in Texas, Mississippi and Florida.
IPC Resistors Inc. (Mississauga, Ontario): Daniel Dupré has been appointed sales manager, serving the ground fault specialist’s customers in Québec, Canada. He joins IPC from Schneider Electric where he was most recently a senior applications specialist in low and medium switchgear.
Affiliated Distributors (A-D, King of Prussia, Pa.): Mary Ellen Heisey has been appointed director of divisional operations in charge of overseeing and managing the divisional operations department. This new department at A-D will provide support to the A-D divisional vice presidents and will work closely with finance, accounting and the IT departments to effectively manage incentive rebates. Heisey brings 25 years of management experience, 15 in wholesale electrical distribution.
Power Measurement (Victoria, British Columbia): Jay Bileti, John Cleveland and Keith Watson have been appointed as district sales managers within the company’s U.S. west region. Bileti is district sales manager for Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Southern Nevada. With more than 25 years experience working with electric utilities, Bileti comes to Power Measurement from SmartSync. He is based in Sonoita, Ariz. John Cleveland is district sales manager for Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He joins the company from Butler & Land Inc. and is currently based in Claremore, Okla. Keith Watson is district sales manager for northern California, northern Nevada and Alaska. Watson joins the company from Itron and is based in Benicia, Calif.
Crum Electric Supply (Casper, Wyo.) Jeff Hockin has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. In addition, Jim Roden has been promoted to vice president of operations, and Dave M. Crum to vice president of sales and marketing. Hockin has been with Crum Electric Supply for 18 years, steadily ascending through the company and serving the electrical industry both as chairman of Affiliated Distributor’s DataCom Task Force and as a member of their Electrical Supply Division Products Committee. Roden, a 16-year Crum Supply veteran, has played an integral role in the growth of the company, assisting in the acquisition of five companies and instrumental in moving the company processes from manual operations to an integrated computer-based system. Dave M. Crum joined the company in July 1999 after serving as an application engineer for Pacific Scientific, a manufacturer of motion control products and systems. Prior to this promotion, he worked as the software specialist for Crum Electric Supply.
Woodhead (Northbrook, Ill.): Steve Mann has joined the organization as western regional sales manager based in Phoenix. Mann’s previous experience includes serving as western regional sales manager for Acme Electric Corp. and district project sales manager for Thomas & Betts. He will have direct sales responsibility for Woodhead’s Daniel Woodhead, Brad Harrison, RJ-Lnxx, SST, applicom, mPm and Brad Power product lines.
Coleman Cable Inc. (Waukegan, Ill.): Gene Stang was promoted to vice president of product management. Stang has 19 years experience with the company, most recently as director of sales, east region. Succeeding Stang, Michael Kurtz, with more than 20 years in the electrical industry, has been appointed director of sales for the eastern region. Most recently, Kurtz was a regional manager for Hubbell Electrical Products.
Emcor Group Inc. (Norwalk, Conn.): Jeffrey M. Levy has resigned from his position as president and chief operating officer but will remain with the company in an advisory role during a transition period before leaving Emcor to pursue other interests. Frank T. MacInnis, Emcor’s chairman and chief executive officer, will assume the additional title and duties of president until a successor has been named. In other personnel changes at Emcor, Michael Parry has been appointed to the newly created position of chief executive officer and will oversea the company’s U.S. electrical and mechanical construction operations. With more than 25 years experience, Parry was previously executive vice president of the company’s construction services division with responsibility for electrical operations. John Warga, who previously worked with Parry as the chief financial officer of Emcor’s construction services division, will join Parry in the newly created position of executive vice president and chief financial officer of this unit. Warga has been with Emcor for more than 30 years. Also, as previously announced, William A. Rodgers Jr. has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Emcor Facilities Services.
Heyco Products Inc. (Toms River, N.J.): Bringing nearly two decades of sales and marketing experience, Arlan Blackburn joins the company as manager of business development in the western United States. His area of responsibility is from the Rocky Mountain states to the Pacific Ocean.
Beacon Products Inc., a subsidiary of Varon Lighting Inc. (Sarasota, Fla.): With more than 20 years experience, Jeffrey L. Morris has been appointed national sales manager.
ABB Group (Zurich, Switzerland): Fred Kindle will become chief executive officer of ABB Group, replacing Jürgen Dormann as CEO next year. Kindle, currently chief executive of Swiss-based technology company Sulzer AG, will join ABB on Sept. 1 and formally take over as CEO in January 2005. Dormann, who has been CEO since September 2002, will revert to the single role of chairman in January.