People: Hays, Palese, Smart Grid Pioneers, Montesino, Reele, Schafer, Hagan

Wheatland Tube (Sharon, Pa.): Jim Hays is now president of the company’s Electrical, Fence, Mechanical Tube and Fittings businesses. Before assuming the position he was V.P. of marketing and business development for the JMC Steel Group and global V.P.-Electrical and Infrastructure for Atkore International (formerly Allied Tube).

Klein Tools (Lincolnshire, Ill.): Greg Palese was appointed vice president of marketing, a newly created position to manage the growing marketing needs of the company’s North American and international markets. He comes to Klein Tools from Lowe’s Home Improvement, where he managed the Kobalt Tools brand and was responsible for the recent launch of Kobalt’s Handheld Power Tool lineup. Palese holds a B.S. in business administration and marketing management from Villanova University and an MBA with a concentration in e-business from De Paul University.

National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) (Rosslyn, Va.): Several NEMA members and staff were among the 75 trailblazers honored by Smart Grid Today in its 2012 list of Smart Grid Pioneers. The 2012 edition of Smart Grid Pioneers, features interviews from professionals credited with making the Smart Grid a reality.

NEMA members named are: John Harris, Landis+Gyr; John Mucias, GE Digital Energy; John McDonald, GE/Smart Grid Interoperability Panel; Wanda Reeder, S&C Electric/IEEE Smart Grid Task Force. Also mentioned were Patrick Gallagher, Director of NIST; George Arnold, National Smart Grid Coordinator; and Ernest Moniz, MIT/nominee for Secretary of Energy. “Smart Grid represents the first major overhaul of the electric grid in the last 100 years so it’s an exciting time to be a part of this industry,” said Paul Molitor, head of NEMA communications and a 2012 pioneer. 

Evolucia Inc. (Sarasota, Fla.): Paul Montesino is now the company’s global V.P. of marketing and general manager of the Lighting Controls and Accessories Division. Montesino brings 16 years of lighting sales and marketing, including posts with Philips Lighting as business development manager and with Osram Sylvania as a product marketing manager. Most recently, Montesino served director of sales and business development for eldoLED Americas where he managed the North American business strategy for LED drivers and controllers for the OEM market.

Schneider Electric (West Kingston, R.I.): The Schneider Electric IT Business announced new leadership appointments for the Mission Critical Services & Software division and Data Center Service Provider Team. Joe Reele, is now V. P., Data Center Solutions Architects. He has more than 10 years and one million square feet of data center experience, and leads the development of data center solutions that best meet the needs of customers, building the most reliable data centers that optimize capacity for co-location and cloud providers. Jason Schafer, director, technology and operations management, Mission Critical Services and Software, brings 18 years of mission-critical facilities experience and is responsible for the development and coordination of facility operations consultancy services. He most recently served as research manager for 451 Research’s Data Center Technologies practice. Mike Hagan, V.P. - Data Center Solutions Provider Division, is a 26-year industry veteran and will manage Schneider Electric’s sales efforts with Fortune 500 companies.