Summit Electric Supply (Albuquerque, NM): Ed Gerber, (Photo above) a distribution industry veteran and member of the company’s board of directors for the past few years, has been appointed president and chief executive officer.
For nine years, Gerber served as executive vice president–sales and marketing at IDG/Vallen and was part of the leadership team that sold the company to Sonepar in 2016. He was then recruited to become the leader of the Industrial Supply Association (ISA).
While on Summit Electric's board, he led the committee responsible for associate development and compensation, and Vic Jury, Jr., the company’s chairman, says he has an intimate knowledge of Summit Electric Supply through that role. “Ed has impressed all of us on the board with his distribution expertise, proven leadership skills, infectious enthusiasm, brilliant mind and clear, direct communication style,” Jury said in the press release.
Founded in 1977, Summit Electric operates service centers in 24 U.S. markets and Dubai, UAE. The company also has an international sales division, an EP&C (Engineering Procurement & Construction) division located in Houston, and an industrial marine division in New Orleans. Summit is the 28th largest electrical distributor in the nation as ranked by Electrical Wholesaling.
Service Wire (Culloden, WV): Shawn O’Brien has joined the Service Wire team as a sales representative in the Culloden sales office and will be serving commercial and industrial distributors, contractors and engineers while working with manufacturers’ representatives in Georgia and Alabama.
Crescent Electric Supply (East Dubuque, IL): Edwin Ojeda joined CESCO as senior vice president of Industrial and will manage the company’s industrial sales growth nationwide. He also is leading the development and deployment of a standardized sales process and support team, creating greater consistency and an enhanced solution-driven approach to working with customers.
Prior to joining Crescent, Ojeda earned positions of increasing responsibility at Brady Corp., Honeywell, and most recently as senior vice president of sales and marketing for DRG Technologies. Ojeda earned an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University and a bachelor’s degree in international political economy with minors in Spanish language and literature and economics from Carthage College.
Hammond Power Solutions (HPS) (Baraboo, WI): Dan Davis was appointed power quality sales manager. He comes to HPS with 20 years of sales management experience.
Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, WI): Veena Lakkundi is joining the company as senior VP-corporate strategy and development on Nov. 1. She will report to Rockwell Automation Chairman and CEO Blake Moret. Lakkundi joins Rockwell following a progression of roles with increasing responsibility at 3M. She was most recently senior VP and chief strategy officer and interim leader of Technology, Transformation and Services. Lakkundi succeeds Elik Fooks, senior VP, corporate development, who announced his retirement earlier this year.
Electrical Trends (Raleigh, NC): Linda Longo, the editor of enLIGHTenment magazine, will be contributing to lighting content and observations on a regular basis to ElectricalTrends readers as part of its expanded coverage of the lighting space.
Longo has been covering the residential lighting industry for 28 years and the architectural lighting space for 20 years. She has received numerous awards for feature writing and news reporting as well as editorial direction for the previous launches of Contract Lighting magazine and enLIGHTenment. She will also become more involved with additional collaborative lighting initiatives that Channel Marketing Group is developing.
Electri-Flex Co. (Roselle, IL): Jason W. Kinander, CEO, won the 2021 Gold Medal Award from the Chicagoland Electric Association (CEA). The award was presented at the CEA’s Annual Membership Awards Dinner on Oct. 14.
PASSING ON
Vern Weber, formerly president and CEO of Standard Electric Co., Saginaw, MI, passed away on Oct. 15 at the age of 85. According to his obituary at www.tributearchive.com, Weber joined Standard Electric Co. in 1963 to open and manage the company’s Bay City, MI, location. He was promoted to Saginaw district sales manager, district manager, vice president, and president in 1988 and served as the president and CEO at the Saginaw headquarters until his retirement in 2017 at the age of 80 after 54 years of service with the company. Under Weber's leadership, the company grew from three to 30 branch locations throughout Michigan and Indiana.
Weber is survived by his wife, Yvonne, and four children: Bonnie Weber (Lyle Visser), Wendie (Dr. Sam) Bander, Kevin Weber, and Todd (Lupe) Herhold; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.