Electrical People: Restructuring at Springfield Electric, and more

Springfield Electric (Springfield, Ill.): The company has announced the following corporate organizational structure, positioning the company for retirements in several key leadership responsibilities over the next few years: Chairman emeritus — William Schnirring; Chairman & CEO — Mike Barker; Executive chairman — Dan Dungan; Executive chairman — Randy Germeraad; COO — Nikki Baker; CFO — Greg Lutchka; President — Mark Barthel; V.P. of marketing — Alan Baum; Regional V.P. — Harry Honings; Regional V.P. — Chris Suerdieck; and Regional V.P. — Chris Scarbrough. Additionally, Springfield’s board of directors has named Scarbrough as associate CEO. He will become the company’s CEO as Barker retires in approximately two years.

Crown Supply (Providence, R.I.): Doug Combs, a 28-year veteran of the electrical industry, has joined the company as project business manager. His areas of product expertise include lighting, switchgear, basic VFDs and industrial controls. Combs was formerly with Major Electric in Pawtucket, R.I., as construction sales manager.

Fulham Co. (Hawthorne, Calif.): The company’s board of directors announced that Robert Howard-Anderson has been appointed CEO. He comes to Fulham following nine years as CEO of Occam Networks Inc., growing the company from start-up status to $100 million-plus in less than six years. Howard-Anderson has an extensive history of technology management and successful mergers and acquisitions. Over the past eight months, COO Harry Libby, CFO Jim White and CTO/EVP Jim Obbink, jointly acted as Fulham’s Office of the President, and they will report to Howard-Anderson in their current roles.

MaxLite (West Caldwell, N.J.): Bryan Warner is now senior director of sales, national accounts and OEM commercial and will report directly to executive V.P. Thomas Rhee and work closely with Chris Primous, MaxLite’s vice president of OEM sales. He has 20 years of sales and marketing experience and will oversee MaxLite’s national sales support in the grocery, petroleum, big and small box retail and other industries throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to joining MaxLite, Warner served as V.P. of sales and national accounts for ElectraLED in Largo, Fla., and worked as director of operations and production for Thomas Sign & Awning Co., Clearwater, Fla. He graduated from University of South Florida with a BA degree.

Nora Lighting (Commerce, Calif.):  Company founders  Fred and Jilla Farzan announced that their daughter Neda Farzan has joined the company as a business development analyst. She is currently completing a rotational program in all Nora Lighting departments to gain insights into corporate operations and the lighting industry. Ms. Farzan recently completed an MBA at the Columbia Business School in New York City with a concentration on operations management and family business management.

Prior to attending Columbia, she worked at Deloitte Consulting in Los Angeles as a consultant, focusing on IT implementations. During her time at Deloitte she worked on projects in aerospace and defense, energy and high tech industries. She also has a degree from the University of Southern California, where she received a BS in business administration at the USC Marshall School of Business, and was student body president during her senior year. She also completed a minor in sustainability planning and development while at USC.

K/E Electric Supply (Mt Clemens, Mich.): Erin Gabor has been promoted to branch manager of the Brighton, Mich., branch beginning Jan. 2014. She is being promoted internally from her position in the Team-K/E Lighting Department, a position she held more than five years. Gabor is a 14-year veteran of Team-K/E, beginning with the company in 2000 as an accounts payable clerk in the corporate offices of K/E Electric Supply.  She fills a position opening up, as existing manager Doug Kern has accepted a full-time position in the company’s expanding Outside Sales team.