Electrical People: ABB brings in new Chief Digital Officer

Sept. 12, 2016
Also Munson named CFO at Buckles-Smith, Ocasio joins Nora Lighting, and more.

ABB (Zurich, Switzerland): The company has appointed Guido Jouret, a pioneer of the Internet of Things (IoT), as Chief Digital Officer, reporting to ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer, effective Oct. 1. Jouret will lead the next level of development and deployment of ABB’s digital solutions for customers globally and across all businesses. He is a citizen of both the United States and Belgium, with long experience in Silicon Valley. He served for 20 years at Cisco after obtaining a PhD in computer science. His most recent role at Cisco was as general manager of the IoT division, which aims to connect billions of devices to the internet across a wide range of industries.

Prior to that, he was Chief Technology Officer and general manager of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group, a unit responsible for incubating new businesses. Under his leadership, the team created nine new start-ups, including those which became Cisco’s TelePresence and IoT groups. He has lived in 12 countries including France, Singapore and the United States. Additionally, he worked for Cisco as IT director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and in the Internet Business Solutions Group. He obtained his PhD in computer science from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the UK in 1991, and has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Jouret will work from ABB’s Silicon Valley and Zurich offices.

Buckles-Smith Electric (San Jose, Calif.): Chris Munson has joined the executive team as CFO. She brings with her a operational and strategic experience as CFO of several successful companies in the Bay Area. She has led three IPOs, raised required growth capital from numerous venture and debt sources and has engaged in a variety of successful M&A activities for both tech and non-tech organizations.  Munson began her career at PWC, is a CPA (inactive) and holds a BS in Business from San Jose State University.

In other news at Buckles-Smith, the company hired two recent college graduates in its Account Management team, Cody Morris and Jeff Mayers.  They will be building customer relationships with accounts out of the new Santa Rosa and San Leandro locations, respectively. Mayers is a recent college graduate from UC Davis and Morris will be graduating from Sonoma State University in the fall. Buckles-Smith is committed to developing and building local teams to best serve its Northern Californian customer base.

Nora Lighting (Commerce, Calif.): Lighting industry veteran Dan Ocasio has been appointed the new director of national accounts at the company. He was most recently V.P. of the national accounts division of an international lighting franchise operation. He has also worked as the Northeast regional sales manager for Kichler Lighting and he headed up his own sales agency, Lighting Source Group in Florida, where he represented Nora for many years. He has extensive experience in residential and commercial lighting design and has developed a range of sales and franchising programs.

Shermco Industries (Irving, Texas): Lyndall Strunck was promoted to director of national accounts, reporting the V.P. of national accounts, business development and marketing. Strunck will be responsible for managing a team of national account managers responsible for driving business development and contract management for key national accounts. Strunck previously served in various management positions, including as a Sr. Account Manager in the Texas region and director of Oil and Gas for Shermco.

Lighting Science (West Warwick, R.I.): Ute Besenecker is now senior scientist and director of  the company’s HealthE Lighting product line. Besenecker comes to Lighting Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she recently earned both a Ph.D. in architectural sciences and master of science in lighting.  She will manage Lighting Science’s HealthE lighting portfolio, which will include both commercial and industrial applications of the company’s patented Awake & Alert, GoodNight and DynaSpectrum lighting technologies.

“An increasing number of hospitals, schools and high-performance workplaces are beginning to understand the profound biological impacts of light spectrum upon the body, which can be engineered to provide specific biological outcomes such as productivity, focus, mood, alertness and reaction times,” said Lighting Science CEO Ed Bednarcik. “Ute’s unique blend of architecture and lighting design expertise makes her particularly well-qualified to help our partners explore how to apply light spectrum technology to improve human health and well-being in a variety of business, medical and academic settings.”

Lighting Science’s patent-protected HealthE lighting solutions address both the physiological and visual impacts of lighting. Lighting Science has invested substantial resources into engineering these scientifically-based solutions, engaging with top research institutions, including Harvard Medical School and NASA.

In addition to earning a doctorate at RPI, Besenecker also earned a masters of science degree in advanced architectural design from Columbia University; in architecture from the Leibniz Universität in Hannover, Germany; and a masters in design and management from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy.  Professionally, Besenecker has worked several years as an architectural and lighting designer, including having worked for Leni Schwendinger Light Projects Ltd. where she was involved in high-profile projects including lighting for the Times Square Redevelopment, the New York Botanical Gardens and the Atlanta BeltLine Park.