Arlington Industries (Scranton, PA)
Jim Cortese (in photo)was promoted to national sales manager and will be responsible for all sales activities in the domestic U.S. electrical wholesaling market, including new product introductions. He will serve as Arlington’s liaison with national buying groups and accounts and will manage Arlington’s regional sales management team.Cortese has worked for Arlington since July, 1979 and was most recently the company' Customer Service manager. He replaces long-time national sales manager, Don Ambrose, who will now serve as Arlington’s director of sales and marketing.
In other Arlington news, Betty (Elizabeth) Stark, wife of the late Tom Stark, president of Arlington, is now chairman of the board and Ray Barnes, Arlington's CFO, was named VP and treasurer.
Morris Products, Inc. (Queensbury, NY)
Kyle Vespa was appointed Western regional sales manager. A graduate of Florida State University, Vespa will be responsible for sales growth in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast areas.
Republic (Davenport, IA)
The company’s board of directors elected Todd Wade as a member of the board and to the position of CEO, effective October 2. Wade has been with Republic since 2012 and has served as the president of the Mechanical Division since Feb. 2022. He will be only the fourth CEO in Republic’s 107-year history.
Mark Kilmer, Republic’s current CEO, will turn 65 in December and serve as a member of the board of directors. He remains a substantial owner of Republic. Wade will become the first non-family member to lead Republic, which was founded in 1916 by J.S. Kimmel, and later led by Joe Kimmel Jr., prior to turning over the reins to his son-in-law Mark in 1998.
Wade joined Republic as chief information officer and later took the lead over marketing and dealer success programs. In 2018, he was promoted to senior VP of Mechanical then to president of the Mechanical Division in 2022. He attended the University of Iowa majoring in business administration.
In other news at Republic, Robert Smith and Jim Probst have been elected to the company’s board. Smith was most recently president and CEO of IMARK Electrical and coordinated efforts of IMARK Group verticals in the electrical, HVAC/r and plumbing space. Prior to IMARK, Smith served in sales and marketing roles with Legrand.
Probst is president of Quality Home Maintenance (QHM), George Brazil Services and Patrick Riley Services in Phoenix. QHM is one of the largest residential services contractors in Arizona with annual revenues exceeding $47 million in 2022.
Schneider Electric (Boston)
Antonio Di Vaira was appointed senior VP of the company’s Power Products division for the North American hub (NAM). In his new role, Di Vaira will champion the evolution of the new energy landscape, accelerate sustainable growth and lead strategic initiatives that reinforce Schneider Electric's commitment to energy innovation. He has more than 20 years of electrical industry experience including key management posts with ABB in R&D, product management, M&As and supply chain management.