Sonepar USA (Charleston, SC): Mike Leech, president of Irby, will be retiring on June 26. During his 38-plus year career at Irby, Leech held a wide range of positions including warehouse, branch operations, VP of sales and, for the past four years, president. Upon his retirement, Joe LeNoir, president of Irby Utility; Tyler Mitchell, president of Irby C&I; and Brad Slocum, senior VP of shared services, will continue to run the day-to-day Irby business and will report directly to Andy Waring, Sonepar USA Central Region president.
An earlier Sonepar press release said LeNoir, president of Irby Utility, will assume management responsibility for Sonepar USA’s utility and broadband/telecom business (excluding California), which will go to market under the Irby brand. Since joining Irby in 2010, LeNoir has been instrumental in the growth and success of the business.
According to the release, uniting the U.S. utility businesses will allow for increased alignment and ability to service new and existing customers. Combining Irby’s broadband capabilities with Codale’s utility and telecom business creates additional services and solutions for customers and stronger relationships with suppliers.
OmniCable (West Chester, PA): Brooks Hoff was hired as San Francisco regional manager and will manage the day-to-day operations of OmniCable’s San Francisco branch, which services electrical distributor in northern California and northern Nevada. He brings more than 20 years of electrical distribution and sales management experience to OmniCable and was most recently director of sales at Buckles-Smith. He also held management roles with Hoffman Enclosures and Fluke Corp.
Halco Lighting Technologies (Norcross, GA): Halco recently announced that it has added three new members to its sales team: Matt Allbritton, Pat Cowell and Jim Josko. Allbritton began his new role on Feb. 10 as regional sales manager for the mid-Atlantic territory. Based out of Maryland, he will work with customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Previously, he worked for LEDVANCE in a variety of sales roles and graduated from Shippensburg University.
Cowell is now regional sales manager for the Northwest territory and comes with over 25 years of lighting sales management experience with Phillips Lighting. He is LC-certified.
Josko will serve as strategic accounts manager. He comes to Halco with more than 30 years of experience in the channel market, has held senior-level sales roles with Philips Lighting and received his bachelor’s degree in marketing from University of Bridgeport. Based out of WI, Josko will work with the company’s strategic account customers.
Dakota Supply Group (DSG) (Plymouth, MN): In Luke Nelson’s new role as DSG HVAC corporate segment manager, he will manage the growth and development of DSG’s HVAC business across its entire footprint, as well as working directly with DSG’s HVAC supplier partners.
Nelson has an extensive background in the HVAC/R industry and was most recently HVAC corporate product manager for First Supply.
Crawford Electric (Houston): Crawford Electric, a Sonepar company, recently announced that Kipper Hesson, currently serving as director of product strategy for Sonepar USA (SUSA), will be returning to Crawford as VP, vendor relations. Kipper will be responsible for managing all aspects of Crawford’s vendor relations, purchasing and product management strategies.
Kipper began his career with Service Wire in 2008, holding roles in plant operation, sales and purchasing. In 2013, he moved to Crawford as industrial wire manager and was promoted to director of purchasing in 2015, before taking his current role with SUSA in 2017.
Border States Electric (BSE) (Fargo, ND): Jason Seger, executive VP - Regions, was named president, effective April 1. David White, current president, will be promoted to CEO upon the retirement of current CEO Tammy Miller.
Seger is a long-time employee-owner, who joined Border States in 1999, serving roles at its branch support center and in the field. Past positions include director of inventory and operations, VP of operations and inventory, Officers Council member, senior VP of procurement, Executive Committee member, and most recently, executive VP - Regions since April 2018.