Turtle (Clark, NJ)
Jayne Millard, executive chairman of the board and fourth-generation family leader, and Luis Valls, president of Turtle’s Electrical Division (in photo), will head the company as co-CEOs. With a core mission of accelerating the transition to clean, sustainable energy — Rethinking Energy and Advancing Tomorrow — together they bring a unique perspective and diversity of thought combining Millard’s strategic vision and Valls’ engineering expertise.
As a 30-year industry veteran with over 20 years at Turtle, Valls brings to the co-CEO role his experience in engineering customer solutions that achieve energy efficiencies. His resume includes high-profile projects such as the World Trade Center reconstruction, NYU Langone Medical Center and Hudson Yards.
In keeping with a multi-year succession management plan, Kathleen Shanahan, who served as CEO, will assume a senior advisory role. Turtle sustains its decades-long certification as a WBE. As a senior advisor, Shanahan will focus her strategic business and government policy experience on Turtle’s government relations and public affairs, touching the company’s national, state and municipal projects.
ABB (Memphis, TN)
Jack Bellissimo joins ABB’s Installation Products Division, formerly known as Thomas & Betts, as Senior VP of Product Management, Marketing and Strategy, leading the U.S. and Latin America region portfolio of electrification solutions. He will focus on strategically positioning the business in the global marketplace to continue developing, manufacturing and marketing products used to manage the connection, protection and distribution of electrical power in industrial, construction and utility applications.
Bellissimo joined ABB from Hubbell Electrical Products, where he was the VP of Marketing and Product Management. He led this organization toward profitable growth and the introduction of multiple new and innovative products. Before that, he held sales and product leadership roles at Hubbell and Michelin, as well as operations and supply chain management roles at GE Power. Bellissimo also served five years as an Airborne Army Ranger and senior intelligence analyst with the 75th Ranger Regiment, U.S. Army. He deployed three times to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal.
Bellissimo earned a bachelor’s of science degree in business management from DeVry University and an MBA from The Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He will relocate to the Memphis, TN, area in the coming months.
Rexel USA (Dallas)
The company recently hired Tim Ryan to be the new Midwest region president. He brings 17 years of experience in the industrial supply space, most recently as W.W. Grainger’s regional sales VP for national accounts. He also has prior experience with Grainger as the regional sales VP in the Government and Healthcare department, and as the director of operations for Grainger’s large customer and mid-market segments. As a passion project, Ryan also served as the president of Grainger’s Latino Business Resource Group for the last two years. He earned his BA in marketing from Fort Lewis College and his MBA from Northwestern University.
Rexel USA has a distribution network of over 460 warehouse storefront locations throughout the United States, and the company is ranked #4 on EW’s 2023 Top 150 listing of the largest electrical distributors in North America with $8.5 billion in 2022 sales and 645 locations throughout North America.
Champion Fiberglass (Houston)
Matt Fredericks was promoted to director of North American Business Development. In this new role he will assist the VP of Sales and Marketing in developing high-level relationships within the electrical and utility contractor/end-user markets, to increase Champion Fiberglass’ market awareness and sales revenues. His business development responsibilities will be in addition to his current regional sales manager and sales agent duties.
Electri-Flex (Roselle, IL)
Tony Ambrogio was promoted to director of purchasing. He began his career at Electri-Flex as the purchasing manager in 2021. Prior to Electri-Flex, he had nine-plus years of purchasing experience.