People

March 8, 2012
Advaithi new president at Eaton's electrical sector; Cook new president at Halco; Streich joins IDEA; and more.


Eaton Corp. (Cleveland): Revathi Advaithi has been promoted to president – Electrical Sector, Americas Region. Effective April 1, Advaithi will be responsible for the company’s electrical business in North, South and Central America. She will oversee manufacturing operations, sales, marketing, technology and product development for 12 divisions and $4.2 billion in revenues.

Advaithi joined Eaton in 1995 in the company’s Global Leadership Development program as a manufacturing supervisor at the hydraulics facility in Shawnee, Okla., and has held several senior management posts for the company since then, including V.P. and general manager for the Electrical Components Division, and president, Asia Pacific, Electrical Sector, based in Shanghai.

Halco (Norcross, Ga.): Kim Cook will assume the position as president of Halco Lighting Technologies. She will also retain her current title as COO, which she has held since 2005. Since joining Halco in 1992, Cook has held positions as account representative, regional sales manager, national sales manager and V.P. of sales and marketing before becoming the company’s COO. In other news at Halco, Lisa Johnson was promoted to operations manager, where she will oversee IT, Purchasing and Facilities, as well as implementation of company policies.

IDEA (Alexandria, Va.): Susan Streich has joined the IDEA team as national sales manager. Streich spent the last six years with Epicor’s Vista division and has worked for many years in market research, starting her career with the AC Nielsen company. She also worked for a buying group for eight years.

Independent Electric Supply Inc./Sonepar (San Carlos, Calif.): Mike Baker is now V.P. of sales and business development and will support sales and market growth in specific Bay Area markets. He was the company’s director of marketing and vendor relations for the last two years. Baker has been with Independent Electric Supply since 1995 and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.

Leviton (Melville, N.Y.): John LaMontagne is now V.P. of sales for the company’s Lighting Energy Solutions business unit. In his new role, LaMontagne will be responsible for the sales and specification of Leviton’s broad portfolio of lighting systems, metering and energy management products. He most recently served as the director of technical sales for Leviton’s Lighting Energy Solutions group. He joined Leviton in 1994 as a specification engineer working for the Electrical Distribution group. LaMontagne holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Needham Electric Supply (NESCO), (Canton, Mass.): Greg Hushin has been appointed purchasing director, bringing NESCO more than 30 years’ industry experience in procurement and materials management, most recently with Rexel/CLS. During his time with Capitol Light/CLS he was integral in their growth and managed over 20 branch openings across New England.

Forest Electric Corp./EMCOR (Edison, N.J.): The company named Robert Richardson senior executive V.P., executive in charge of its New York operations and announced the appointment of Rich Lomler as executive V.P. and the executive in charge of the company’s project execution and operations for the New York area, reporting directly to Richardson. Lomler has more than 20 years of experience in the New York construction market, including 17 years with Forest Electric. Richardson is a 34-year company veteran. In his new position, Richardson will manage estimating, business development, and project execution.

Maxlite (West Caldwell, N.J.): Douglas Kruse has been appointed South Central region sales manager and will work closely with MaxLite’s sales agencies to develop LED marketing programs and other energy-efficient lighting programs for architects, designers, lighting distributors and specifiers in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi. His professional experience includes serving as Southern Central sales rep for Progress Lighting, as well as the district sales rep (to Home Depot) for Hunter Ceiling Fan Co.

In other news at Maxlite, Pat Treadway and James Steedly were appointed to director of product marketing and director of product R&D and engineering, respectively. Treadway and Steedly will continue reporting to Thomas Rhee, MaxLite’s senior V.P. of sales, marketing and product. In his new role, Treadway will be responsible for overall product strategic planning, including short- and mid-term product roadmaps, brand positioning, product category expansion, supply chain development and the development of new emerging technologies. Steedly will provide technical leadership and create competitive cutting-edge lighting solutions while incorporating new ideas, technologies and methodologies.

LumenOptix (Philadelphia): The company recently appointed four regional sales managers. Bennie Pierce’s sales territory comprises the Southeast region, including West Virginia and Texas. Prior to joining LumenOptix, Pierce was a sales rep for Hubbell Building Automation and has expert knowledge in energy-saving lighting and controls. Dennis Pickelsimer, now Western regional manager, had been a principal with Stellar Sales Inc. in La Mirada, Calif., and prior to that a sales rep with Simkar Corp. Michael Goldberg, Northeast regional manager, was previously a territory representative for Juno Lighting. For Midwest Regional Manager, LumenOptix chose Tony Onofrio, who as national sales manager for Modular International in Pittsburgh oversaw more than 100 sales agencies and worked directly with architects, lighting designers and engineers.