IDEA Launches Search for New President Following Gaylord’s Decision to Depart

The board of directors at the Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA), Arlington, Va., announced a search for a new president following the decision by Robert Gaylord, president and CEO of the data association, to pursue other interests.

“The IDEA board and the entire organization thank Bob for his leadership and service to the electrical industry community during the last seven years as CEO,” said Jack Carlson, chairman of the IDEA board and president of North American business for Southwire Co.

IDEA’s board appointed Chris Curtis, former CEO of Schneider Electric’s North American Operations and current chairman of the NEMA Board of Governors, to oversee the association’s day-to-day operations and lead the search for a new president for the association.

 “Chris has been in the electrical industry for more than 20 years and is well known to both the manufacturer and distributor communities. He is uniquely qualified to help the IDEA organization and its customers through this leadership transition. We are very fortunate to be able to have Chris available at this time,” Carlson said.

IDEA handles product data, communications and their related standards for the industry as a joint venture of the industry’s manufacturer and distributor associations – the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), respectively.

NEMA and NAED leadership have been pushing to increase support for IDEA’s mission of providing the industry with a single source of data, including an industry data standard that provides distributors with the information their customers require, and manufacturers with a clear expectation of what data is needed from them.