Latest from People
Cerrowire ( Hartselle, AL): David Hawker (above) joined this wire and cable manufacturer as plant manager for the Hartselle facility. He has 34 years of experience in management within the electrical products manufacturing sector in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to joining Cerrowire, Hawker served as VP and general manager of Nexans Energy Division (North America) which manufactures cable and connectivity solutions. Hawker, a native of Canada, holds a degree in applied science, with a specialty in mechanical engineering, from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario.
Signify (Somerset, NJ): Christy Tilton joined the company as VP of U.S. Professional Trade Sales, effective May 17. Reporting to Keith Eagle, VP & general manager of Signify’s US Professional business, she will be responsible for agent partnerships and supporting professional customers’ lighting needs. She will also directly lead Midwest regional sales.
Tilton is an experienced sales leader within the lighting and electrical industries. Based out of Phoenix, she most recently served as senior VP, Installation Products within ABB’s Electrification business. Prior to that, she held a number of sales leadership roles at Eaton including Cooper Lighting. As VP of lighting sales in the Western region, she led the Americas in sustainable connected lighting growth. She also spent a significant portion of her career with General Electric.
Helix Electric (Las Vegas): Michael Vita is now senior VP at Helix Electric, the largest merit shop electrical contractor in Nevada and neighboring states. In this new role, Vita will head expansion and growth efforts for the company’s offices in Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City.
Vita will also be tasked with increasing Helix’s client base, implementing effective and efficient systems to ensure smooth operations across all aspects of the business, and executing the company’s annual strategic plan.
Since joining the Helix team in 2006, Vita has held numerous roles within the electrical contracting company, including VP, operations manager, senior project manager and project manager. He has been a part of projects from start to finish, from leading the planning and implementation of electrical installations to monitoring job costs against estimate budgets to manage spending.
Prior to joining Helix, Vita worked for Benderson Development in Buffalo, NY, and Vita Electric in Las Vegas. He is a member of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors.
Nora Lighting (Commerce, CA): Daniel Hicks recently joined the engineering team, and Brady Trespuer was promoted to engineering from Nora quality control. They will be working on new product development as Nora continues to expand its LED product lines for architectural, residential and commercial applications.
Schaeffer Marketing Group (SMG) (St. Louis): Bruce Eason, Don Calcaterra, Tyler Kisro and Ellen Eason of LEC & Co. joined this rep agency. They bring more than 125 years of combined lighting experience to SMG.
Eason and Calcaterra will cover some distributor, contractor and specifier accounts, while Kisro will focus on specifiers. Eason will offer lighting design services and cover inside sales for some electrical lines. According to the press release, “They all have great experience in the specifier, design-build and energy retrofit markets but will greatly define our lighting focus in the specifier market. Lighting services provided include project design, photometric layouts, utility incentive calculations, payback analysis and job management.”
Established in 1976, SMG represents manufacturers in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, and often in central Illinois as well.
American Clean Power Association (ACP) (Washington, DC): ACP recently announced that JC Sandberg will assume the role of chief advocacy officer (CAO). He brings more than two decades of legislative, regulatory and corporate experience and has established himself as a policy expert and trusted voice on energy and infrastructure issues. In this newly-created role as CAO, Sandberg will lead ACP’s state and federal affairs, policy and regulatory functions beginning May 24.
Before joining ACP, Sandberg led global government affairs and policy at GE Renewable Energy. In that role, he was instrumental in the global growth of the company’s onshore and offshore wind, grid, hydro and storage businesses. Sandberg earned his B.S. in accounting from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from the University of Arizona.
OBITUARY
Blust earned a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton in 1959. He enlisted in the Army and was honorably discharged in 1967 as a 1st Lieutenant. He began work at Cutler-Hammer and later joined Riffle and Associates, eventually becoming president and owner. John loved his work and retired in 2017.
According to his obituary, “Retirement didn’t slow him down. He enjoyed golfing, fishing, visiting with family, traveling to the Outer Banks, and pouring Manhattans. John never knew a stranger and had a huge heart.”