Promotions and New Appointments

Aug. 1, 2003
Parag Mehta has been named executive vice president of Eagle Electric Manufacturing Co., Long Island City, N.Y. Prior to this position, he was vice president

Parag Mehta has been named executive vice president of Eagle Electric Manufacturing Co., Long Island City, N.Y. Prior to this position, he was vice president of engineering and business development for the company.

Henry McDowell, chief executive officer of Flato Electric Supply Co., Corpus Christi, Texas, retired May 1. He worked for the company for more than 50 years in the South Texas region.

At Graybar Electric, St. Louis, H. Bennett Wall was appointed director, national accounts, based in Norcross, Ga. Michael Murphy has been appointed Koch Industry Automation specialist, based in Houston, Texas.

At Wiremold Co., West Hartford, Conn., Gregory Crane has been named manager of Distribution Marketing. Previously, he was the director of industrial marketing for Hubbell, Inc., Orange, Conn. Kyle Straub has been named northwest region sales manager. He was a field sales rep in the Arizona and Las Vegas, Nev., markets.

At GE Lighting, Cleveland, Ohio, Mike Zafirovski has been appointed president and chief executive officer, replacing David Calhoun, who was named president and CEO of GE's Employers Reinsurance Corp. Zafirovski previously was head of GE Lighting in Europe. Michael Idelchik has been named vice president of Technology for GE Lighting. Previously general manager of Global Components Engineering for GE Medical Systems, he succeeds William Banholzer who was named vice president of Global Technology for GE Plastics. Patrick Amante has been named manager of ESCO/LMC Market Development. He has been with GE for 13 years, most recently as national sales manager for GE Lighting's Australia/New Zealand division.

C. Edward Pleasants, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Pleasants Hardware Co., Winston- Salem, N.C., was named to the board of directors of Noland Co., Newport News, Va.

At Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., Atlanta, Ga., Morris Arnold has been appointed vice president and general manager of the Distribution Product division, (DPD). He will continue as vice president and general manager of DPD's Electrical Apparatus Business unit. Steve Korb has been appointed regional vice president of sales for the southern region. He joined Siemens in 1994 as manager, residential marketing, in the Distribution Products division. Bruce Ludemann has been appointed director of T&D Service, a new business unit that will focus on the operation, maintenance and enhancement of electrical transmission and distribution systems for the energy industry. He was previously with ABB Power T&D. Al Saunders has been appointed vice president of corporate marketing. Prior to this appointment, he was regional vice president for Siemens Energy & Automation's Southern region.

E. Joseph Ralph has been named president of Stoneway Electric Supply Company, Inc., Seattle, Wash. He has been with the company for 15 years, most recently as manager of sales and operations for the Western Washington district. He succeeds Douglas Albright, who resigned to pursue other interests.

George Benjamin III, president and chief executive officer of BICCGeneral, West Nyack, N.Y. (previously known as BICC Cables Corp. N.A.), has resigned to take a position with Trig Systems LLC, a management consulting and investment firm in Overland Park, Kan.

D. Thomas Fleming has been named president of Commerce Information Services, (CIS) a strategic business unit of Trade Service Corp., San Diego, Calif. He was previously chief information officer.

Dean Hoffmann has been named president and general manager for the New Berlin, Wis.-based Drives & Systems Group of MagneTek, Inc., Nashville, Tenn. He was previously vice president of global operations for Switzerland-based Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). He succeeds Gerard Gorman, who resigned to pursue other opportunities.