People

May 1, 2007
General Cable (Highland Heights, Ky.) Mark A. Thackeray has been promoted to senior vice president, North American operations. He has also been appointed

General Cable (Highland Heights, Ky.) Mark A. Thackeray has been promoted to senior vice president, North American operations. He has also been appointed to the company's leadership team. Thackeray, formerly vice president of supply chain, will succeed Larry E. Fast, who plans to retire from General Cable in June 2007. Since joining General Cable in 2001, Thackeray has served as vice president of advanced manufacturing engineering, vice president of manufacturing for the company's communications and assembly plants, and most recently served as vice president of supply chain.

NESCO, Needham Electric Supply Corp. (Canton, Mass.): D. Gregory Wilson has been appointed president. In this new role, Wilson will be responsible for managing the day-to-day business initiatives of the company and for its continued profitable growth. Wilson previously served as vice president and general manager for the C&I business. Wilson succeeds Joe Cincotta, who will now serve exclusively as NESCO chief executive officer. Prior to joining NESCO, Greg served in various management and executive positions with several other electrical distributors.

Border States (Fargo, N.D.): Ken Rowland has been appointed Northeast region manager and to the company's executive council. Rowland began with Border States as an account manager in July 1992. He served as Northeast region business development manager before being named Northeast region manager. Rowland has general management responsibilities for 15 branch locations in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Gerald “Poke” Buck has been appointed vice president-Northwest region. Buck has been with Border States since May 2003. He has served as a supply chain services specialist, business development specialist, and Northwest region manager. He has general management responsibilities for 11 branch locations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana, and has been a member of the Executive Council since November 2005.

Capital Lighting & Supply (Alexandria, Va.) Ken Avery has joined the company as vice president of vendor relations. Avery has 27 years' experience in electrical distribution in the Baltimore/Washington market. His responsibilities will include purchasing, inventory management, product and vendor selections and relations.

Ideal Industries Inc. (Sycamore, Ill.) Westley W. Howard has been appointed product manager for the company's hand tool line. With more than a decade of experience working for such companies as Lutron Electronics, Western Forge and Supra Products, Howard brings marketing, technology and channel management leadership to Ideal. In his new position, Howard is responsible for coordinating the accelerated sales efforts for Ideal hand tools in the North American marketplace. Griffin will focus on managing the sales effort as well as providing direction and training on new products. He will also direct new promotional methods to target opportunities for maximizing brand recognition and market penetration. Howard joins Ideal from Lutron Electronics, where he served as retail marketing leader for the past two years.

Summit Electric Supply (Albuquerque): Daniel Ferrari has been named the company's Houston commercial sales manager. Ferrari will focus on expanding Summit's commercial construction client base in the Houston market and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast. Ferrari began his career with Siemens in Houston in 1979. He later worked as a salesperson, construction manager and branch manager for an independent electrical distributor. In 2003, he accepted a position with Eaton/Cutler-Hammer, where he soon became that company's Houston construction manager. In this capacity, he hired and trained the sales construction team both in the commercial and residential markets. Lonnie C. Talbert has been named director of credit and quality. He was most recently president of Citi Cards New Mexico and senior director of collections.

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson (Columbus, Ohio): Charles (Chuck) Spears has been named president of Liebert North America. Spears, who reports to Bob Bauer, Emerson group vice president and Liebert Worldwide president, has relocated from Belgium, where he managed an Emerson business. Spears spent the past four years as president of Emerson Climate Technologies-Europe. Prior to that post, he spent nearly 25 years with Emerson's Copeland Corp., culminating with his promotion in 1999 to president of Copeland-Asia, where he oversaw the opening of a research and development center and manufacturing plant in China.

Rexel (Dallas): Rexel's U.S. operation has hired David Watts to fill a new corporate marketing position responsible for installation initiatives. Watts will work closely with the company's product management team and its preferred suppliers. Watts comes to Rexel after working earlier with Wesco International, Do It Best, and Home Depot; he had store-level profit and loss responsibility at Home Depot.

Schaedler Yesco Distribution Inc. (Harrisburg, Pa.): John Polites has been appointed director of contractor sales. Polites, a former industrial automation engineer, has additional responsibilities that include the overall planning and direction of the contractor businesses, plus growth of sales in the HVAC and water treatment markets in Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, State College, Williamsport and Chambersburg, Pa., geographies. Doug Sheaffer, former director of contractor/commercial sales, now has responsibility for the planning and direction of the commercial and government markets. Additionally, he will manage the outside sales teams in the Williamsport and State College geographies.

Columbia Electric Supply Inc. (Brockton, Mass.): Brendan McMullin has joined the company's business development/switch gear sales division. McMullin is responsible for expanding large construction project sales at the wholesale electrical supply distributor. McMullin previously worked at Square D Co. in Canton, Mass.

Greenlee, a Textron Co. (Rockford, Ill.) Susan Stukenberg has been promoted to director of communications. She will continue to be responsible for oversight and creative development of all marketing communications and will now assume responsibility for Greenlee's internal communications as well. Stukenberg was most recently marketing communications manager for all of Greenlee.

W2 Architectural Lighting, a division of WAC Lighting (Garden City, N.Y.): Anna Schast has been appointed Eastern territory sales manager. Schast will work closely with W2 sales agencies to create specification lighting solutions for architects, designers, engineers and specifiers in more than 15 states throughout the northeast, from Ohio to Maine, and Pennsylvania to South Carolina. Prior to joining W2, she worked as a specification sales representative for Continental Lighting Systems, and a territory specification manager for Modular International Inc., in charge of specification sales for the metro New York City market.

Rep News

Arlington Industries, Scranton, Pa., announced the recipients of its 2007 Sales Recognition Awards. The awards are given to sales representatives in a variety of categories for achievement in overall sales performance, the sales and marketing of new products, and profitability within their territories in 2006. The following awards were presented in March at the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA) Meeting and Convention held in New Orleans. National Sales Achievement Award: G.T. Sales, Salt Lake City, Utah; Southern Region Sales Achievement Award: George Pickett & Associates, Apex, N.C.; Central Region Sales Achievement Award: Fruen's Sales, Plymouth, Minn.; Eastern Region Sales Achievement Award: L.W. French, Glen Allen, Va.; Western Region Sales Achievement Award: Pro-Lines Sales, Kent, Wash.; Customer Service Representative of the Year: Scott Welch of Agents West, Irvine, Calif.