Electrical People: Obetz to lead sales and marketing for Omni Cable

Nora Lighting (Commerce, Calif.): Courtney Brown was appointed energy and utility program manager, a new position at the lighting manufacturer. Brown will oversee Nora’s participation in all utility rebate programs nationally for Nora lighting products. She most recently worked with a consulting firm in Los Angeles that implemented an energy efficiency program for Southern California Edison, and she has also worked in Washington, D.C., for a natural gas trade association developing energy efficiency policies. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and received a master’s degree in environmental and regulatory public policy from Georgetown University.

Allied Wire & Cable (Collegeville, Pa.): Eric Schmidtke and Julie Preiss have been promoted to sales representatives. Schmidtke started his wire and cable career in 2000 when he took on several roles in the company’s warehouse. He has also served as Allied’s Wisconsin warehouse manager and as a branch manager. ​Preiss works out of the company’s Tampa branch. She began her career with AWC in April 2015 as a sales assistant.

IAC Supply Solutions Inc. (Memphis, Tenn.): IAC has promoted Chris Culver and David Jorgensen and hired Stephen Read to the IAC team. They will all report to Darrell Smith, the company’s president.

Culver was promoted to the position vice president of automation sales. He has more than 20 years of experience with IAC in various sales and leadership positions. In his new role, Culver will be responsible for IAC’s Rockwell Automation business and all complementary automation products and services.

Jorgensen was promoted to vice president of operations and will be responsible for all corporate operations and procurement aspects of the business. He will also serve as Memphis branch manager.

Read joined IAC recently as the director of industrial sales. Most recently, Read  spent more than 20 years with Rockwell Automation.

Omni Cable (West Chester, Pa.):  Jason Obetz was hired as the executive vice president of sales and marketing. He has more than 20 years of industry experience, including his most recent position as vice president of sales at All Current Electrical, Pennsauken, N.J. Obetz left All Current in late 2015 and has been consulting leading up to joining Omni Cable. He received his BS from Rutgers University and was a member of the University‘s 1989 NCAA Final Four Soccer Team and MAAC Ice Hockey Championship teams.

Atkore International, (Harvey, Ill.): Atkore recently realigned its sales organization to better serve its customers by providing a single point of contact for Atkore’s entire Electrical Raceway portfolio under the flagship brands of Allied Tube & Conduit, AFC Cable, Unistrut, PowerStrut, Heritage Plastics, Cope and Kaf-tech. The following organization is led by Rodney Long, senior vice president–Sales, for Atkore International:

The Eastern Region is now led by Ken Lamarre, vice president–Electrical Raceway Sales, with support from Paul Hughes, regional manager, Lyn Brigham, director-specification sales, and George Merritt, sales manager of Kaf-tech.

Atkore International’s South Central Region is now led by Jim McDaniel, vice president–Electrical Raceway Sales, with support from Mike Mahoney, senior regional manager–Midwest; Steve Dwarica, regional manager–Gulf Coast; Joel Campbell, senior Regional manager–Southeast; and Jim Kavanagh, manager–specification sales. Additionally, James Shupp, sales manager–West Region; and Joel Piatt, sales manager–East Region, will focus on providing product line support Unistrut Mechanical.

The Western region is now led by Ron Pritchett, vice president–Electrical Raceway Sales, with support from Jose Gutierrez, regional sales manager–Southern California; Mike Schulte, regional sales manager–Four Corners; Mike Eggert, regional sales manager–Northwest; and John Betancourt, manager–specification sales. Additionally, Deb Dersham, sales manager–West Region; and Tim Lang, sales manager–East Region; will focus on providing product line support for Heritage Plastics.

Denis Chardac is vice president–strategic accounts with responsibilities for the national accounts, independent buying groups, and retail sales. Keith Murray, national account manager, and Laura King, director–retail sales, will now report directly to Chardac. Kelly Porter continues in her role as director–Sales for Canada.