Meet & Greet: EW's People On the Move for October 2013

Oct. 3, 2013
Meet the Cape Electrical Supply team managing sales, branch and product operations at the company's new Bowling Green branch in Kentucky and two of the new executive appointments at Summit Electric Supply.

Electrical Wholesaling's Oct. 2013 Photo Gallery features the Cape Electrical Supply team managing sales, branch and product operations at the company's new branch in Kentucky; two of the new executive appointments at Summit Electric Supply; and two of the folks who were recently promoted at Border States Electric. 

OTHER PERSONNEL NEWS

Electrical Apparatus Service Association (EASA) (St. Louis): EASA recently announced its new officers for its 2013-2014 administrative year. They are: Chairman of the board — Ken Gralow, Gray Electric, Schenectady, N.Y.; Vice-chairman — Doug Moore, Kentucky Service Co., Lexington, N.J.; and Secretary/treasurer — Mike Dupuis, Monelco, Ltd., Windsor, Ontario. Also serving on the executive committee are Immediate Past Chairman Bill Gray, Control Concepts, Houston; Lenwood Ireland, Ireland Electric, Virginia Beach, Va.; and Jim Smith, Advanced Electric Equipment, La Cross, Wis.

Allied Wire & Cable (Collegeville, Pa.): Mike Phelan, Nancy Prior, and Alexandra Brownhave joined Allied Wire & Cable as sales reps in several locations across the United States. Phelan, a long-time wire and cable industry veteran, joins the company at its Merrimack, N.H., facility.  Prior works at Allied’s Las Vegas branch and comes to the company from Anixter and Vertex Technologies. Brown, a recent graduate of East Stroudsburg University, is working with the sales team at Allied’s headquarters in Collegeville, Pa.

Gefran Inc. (Winchester, Mass.): Ruben Salinas has been named North America sales manager, Drives and Motion Control Products, and will manage all strategic planning, marketing and sales for Gefran’s Drives and Motion Control Products division in North America. Prior to joining Gefran, Salinas has held senior level positions with Rockwell Automation, Danfoss Drives, Schneider Electric/Square D and Siemens Energy & Automation. He has a BBA, international business management, St. Mary’s University of San Antonio.

Fluke Corp. (Everett, Wash.): Wes Pringle has been named president. He had been serving as president of Fluke Industrial and is now responsible for all Fluke global businesses, including Fluke Calibration, Fluke Biomedical and Fluke Automation. Pringle succeeds Barbara Hulit, Fluke’s president since 2004. Pringle joined Fluke in 2012 from Whirlpool Corp. where he was the senior V.P. of Integrated Business Units and was responsible for several consumer and commercial businesses. Prior to his tenure with Whirlpool, he spent more than 10 years with corporations such as Warner Lambert, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. He held progressively larger international leadership roles culminating in president/general manager for Consumer Healthcare USA for Johnson & Johnson.

W.W. Grainger Inc. (Lake Forest, Ill.): The company’s newly formed Americas business will include Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru. This unit will be led by Court Carruthers, senior V.P. and group president, Americas. Carruthers previously served as senior V.P. and group president, Grainger, U.S.

Meanwhile, D.G. Macpherson, senior V.P. and group president, Global Supply Chain and International, will lead Grainger’s emerging operations,which include the company’s high-potential businesses in Brazil, Europe and Asia. He will also manage Grainger’s supply chain, company strategy and the single channel online business model the company currently operates in Japan and the U.S. and plans to expand globally. Macpherson’s prior role was senior V.P. and group president, Global Supply Chain and Company Strategy. These changes are effective immediately. As part of the changes, Mike Pulick, previously senior V.P. and group president, Grainger International, is leaving Grainger at the end of this month to pursue a chief executive role.

Federal Signal Corp. (Oak Brook, Ill.): Scott Rohrbaugh was appointed to the newly-created position of V.P., business development and innovation, reporting to Federal Signal’s chief administrative officer, Jennifer Sherman. Rohrbaugh was previously with Northrop Grumman Corp. He has a doctorate and undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Virginia.

Dominion Electric Supply Co. (Arlington, Va.): Kathleen Cunigan has been promoted to director of commercial sales operation and James Richis now pricing manager. In addition to her current responsibilities as manager of the Commercial Lighting Project Management department, Cunigan will be working with the executive V.P. of commercial sales to develop better processes and more efficiency for other sales groups throughout the company. James Rich was previously pricing specialist.

OBITUARIES

Bernard H. (Bernie) Falk, 87, a former president and CEO of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rossyln, Va., passed away Sept. 16. In the 1980s Falk was one of the industry’s most respected leaders, when during this period of rapid globalization, he worked tirelessly in the standards area to ensure that NEMA manufacturers would not be at a competitive disadvantage. In addition to his duties as NEMA president and chairman, he was president of the International Electrical Commission and a board member of Underwriters Laboratories. He is also the namesake of NEMA’s highest award, the Falk Award.

Jack Sinagra, 63, president of Turtle & Hughes Inc., Linden, N.J., passed away Aug. 26, according to a report in The Suburban, a local New Jersey newspaper. In addition to his executive position with Turtle & Hughes, Sinagra was active in New Jersey politics, serving as a state senator and mayor of East Brunswick, N.J. He was also a chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

A devoted family man, Sinagra leaves behind a wife of 35 years, Eileen, and three grown children, Jacklyn, who is married to Constantin Baramilis, Alexandra and Patrick. In his memory, Turtle & Hughes has established the Jack G. Sinagra Memorial Scholarship Fund at Rutgers University School of Engineering. The fund will create an endowed undergraduate scholarship to be awarded annually. Donations can be mailed to Rutgers School of Engineering, Attention:  Aileen Carroll, 98 Brett Rd,, Piscataway, N.J. 08854-858. Please indicate “In Memory of Jack Sinagra” on your check.

The Chicago electrical market lost one of its most-respected mentors with the passing of Jake Rosenstein, 80, on Aug. 29. Here’s the remembrance submitted to EW from Connexion, the electrical distributor owned by Jake’s son David: “Jake spent part of his childhood and all of his adult life in the electrical distribution industry. He began working for his father, Louis “Sparky” Rosenstein (the first of three generations of Rosenstein that have been Chicago Electrical Association Hall of Fame inductees).

“Jake was a beloved mentor to many in the electrical industry; always generous of his time, humor and counsel. Jake will often be remembered for his knack of imparting wisdom by his clever turn of a phrase – most notable, ‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.’” He is survived by his three children, Debbie, Dana and David.