Electrical People: Stinson to lead Southwire

Southwire Co. (Carrollton, Ga.): Rich Stinson has assumed the role of the company’s president and CEO effective January 1. Stinson, Southwire’s fourth CEO in its 65-year history, succeeds Stu Thorn, who led the company’s day-to-day operations for 16 years.

“Stu has done a great job of finding growth opportunities and capitalizing on them,” said Southwire Chairman Roy Richards, Jr., in a press release. “Rich brings a unique perspective on our industry, along with an intimate knowledge of our products and customers.”

A veteran of more than three decades in the electrical industry, Stinson joined Southwire on Oct. 15 as the company’s president, following his retirement in September from Eaton. H had been responsible for a large Eaton business group with seven divisions. The group offered a comprehensive portfolio of services for every stage of a power system’s life cycle, including design, build and support.

Stinson earned an engineering  degree from the University of Pittsburgh and started his career with Westinghouse.

Superior Aluminum Products, Inc. (Russia, Ohio): Doug Borchers, formerly vice president of Dickman Supply, Sidney, Ohio, is now president. Superior Aluminum Products manufactures maintenance-free aluminum railings, fences and columns.

AEMC Instruments (Foxborough, Mass.):  Chad Dugas was appointed to the new position of Southeast District sales engineer. He will be responsible for sales covering the Southeast territory (NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, MS and AL). He will be based out of Orlando and will report directly to George Vlachos, Eastern Regional sales manager.  Dugas has more than five years of technical experience as a field applications engineer.  He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering.

Crescent Electric Supply Co. (East Dubuque, Ill): Matt Simon is now director, business development. In his new role, He will be responsible for developing strategies to grow the business organically and through acquisitions, and to manage the integration of acquired companies to ensure a smooth and profitable transition. Prior to joining Crescent Electric, Simon held progressively responsible positions in the areas of analytics, procurement, acquisitions and finance with GenoSource in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and Renewable Energy Group in Ames, Iowa.

Acolyte LED (New York): Scott Vontobel was promoted to COO effective Jan. 1 and will manage all global operations of Acolyte Worldwide, United States, Acolyte Asia (China and Hong Kong), Dubai, Australia and New Zealand. After graduating college, Vontobel started his first job in the lighting industry and eventually worked on several major projects ranging from the Super Bowl to Cirque du Soleil. His background includes positions with Lex Products, TMB and Global Design Solutions. Vontobel joined Acolyte in March 2015 as operations manager.

LSI Industries (Cincinnati): The company recently hired four veteran lighting executives. Jaret Goforth has been appointed regional sales manager for the North Central United States for its Commercial & Industrial segment. Goforth comes to LSI with a strong background in the commercial/industrial lighting industry and has held prominent positions within WESCO, Philips and GE. Tyson Swank has joined LSI’s Commercial & Industrial sales team as regional sales manager for the Midwest. He has had executive posts with Eaton-Cooper and GE.

Chris Czech has become LSI Lighting Solutions’ newest regional sales manager for the niche/petroleum segment and will manage and develop key accounts with LSI West Coast agents Boston McDermott and Rocky Mountain Rep Agency. He was previously in the petroleum industry where he has worked with PEI distributors and sold LSI product in past positions. Randy Kimmel has joined LSI as the national director of renovation sales for the C&I segment. He has over 30 years in the lighting industry, 20 of which were in agency and corporate sales for Acuity; director of government and senior energy  specialist at Relume; and most recently VP of agency and energy sales for Revolution Lighting Technologies.