People: May 6, 2011

Rexel SA (Paris): Rudy Provoost, former head of the lighting unit of Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics NV, will succeed CEO Jean-Charles Pauze next year. Rexel’s supervisory board approved the appointment of Provoost as a member of its management board, effective Oct. 1. A Bloomberg report said, “The departure of the Provoost from Philips comes a month after the Dutch maker of electronics came under the new leadership of Frans van Houten.”

Cape Electrical Supply (Cape Girardeau, Mo.): John Horgan is the company’s new president. Previously CFO, Horgan joined Cape Electrical Supply on Oct. 1 after completing seven years at Amdocs Inc. Prior to that he was employed at Olin Metals, Trendmasters and Pretium Packaging in a variety of senior financial and operational roles. He began his career with Ernst & Young in St. Louis and spent over twelve years in public accounting. Horgan holds a BSBA from St. Louis University, where he is presently completing his MBA.

In other news at Cape Electrical Supply, the company opened its 23rd branch, a stocking location in Houston, Texas. It’s the distributor’s first location outside its Midwest/South Central region and Vice chairman Allen Toole said in a press release that the new location will help the company serve several national-account customers that relocated to the Houston market.

Houston Wire & Cable Co. (Houston): Charles Sorrentino, president and CEO, will step down as the company’s president effective immediately and as CEO at the end of 2011. The company’s board of directors has elected James Pokluda, HWC’s long-time V.P. of sales and marketing, as president. Pokluda will assume the duties of president effective immediately, and will assume the additional responsibility of CEO at the end of the year. In addition, HWC’s board of directors has promoted Christopher McLeod to senior V.P. of operations.

Activant Solutions Inc. (Yardley, Pa.): David Getty has been named V.P. of product development for the Wholesale Distribution Division. Since 2007, Getty has been Activant’s senior director of product engineering and development. He joined Activant in 1992 following graduation from college, and was an original member of the development team for Activant’s Prophet 21 ERP platform. Getty received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Penn State University.

Graybar Electric Co. (St. Louis, Mo.): John Mansfield, a 30-year company veteran, has been appointed to the position of V.P., business development. Most recently he was V.P., corporate accounts. Another 30-year company veteran, Garry Acker, was appointed to the position of V.P., corporate accounts. He had been director, strategic accounts. Tony Frantal has been appointed national market manager, commercial. Frantal has been with the company for more than 20 years, previously serving as branch manager, comm/data in Green Bay, Wis. Also, Brett Felton has been appointed as industrial market manager after serving the company for more than 15 years as a project engineer, operations manager and international sales manager, and Karen Gough was appointed to the newly created position of director, business development-energy management. She has 12 years of lighting and energy experience.

Border States Electric (BSE) (Fargo, N.D.): Bruce Penas has been named Northwest Region industrial sales manager. Penas joined BSE in 2008 as the Northwest business development manager. Before joining BSE, he was the senior account manager for Rockwell Automation in Fargo. He has also worked for WESCO and Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Landis+Gyr Metering (Lafayette, Ind.): Chris Clark has been named regional sales manager for the Texas/Oklahoma region for Landis+Gyr metering products. Chris will oversee sales activity for several major accounts and distributor markets. Clark has significant experience in the electric utility industry and has held several leadership positions, most recently as the director of sales – western region for Salisbury. He has also served as western utility sales manager for Acuity Lighting. He will be relocating to Texas in the near future.

Xicato (San Jose, Calif.): Megan Carroll is now OEM Sales Manager, North America, Eastern Region. Prior to joining Xicato, Carroll held a variety of leadership positions in sales and marketing in the lighting industry, including posts with Encelium Technologies, Lighting Science Group, and Philips Lighting.

In other news at Xicato, Michael Keller has joined the company is Western region OEM sales manager and Martin Kessell has joined the company’s European team as key account manager UK & Nordic. Keller has 20 years of experience in the lighting industry, including posts with Osram-Sylvania, Lithonia and Lightech.

Siemens Industry, Inc. (Atlanta): Doug Keith is now president of the Drive Technologies Division. He joins the organization from Siemens Energy, where he served as V.P. of the Power Distribution Medium Voltage Business Unit since 2005. Keith will be based in Alpharetta, Ga. and will succeed Anne Cooney, who has accepted a new position as COO of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in Tarrytown, N.Y. Prior to joining Siemens Energy in 2005, Keith occupied numerous leadership positions at GE where he managed factories in the United States and Mexico. He has BA in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University and is currently enrolled at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin.

Eco-story (Portland, Me.): Tom Jacques is now inventory manager and Heidi Mahoney has been hired to serve as the marketing manager for this LED manufacturer.