Electrical People: Crum Electric Supply's Hockin joins AD board

Omni Cable (West Chester, PA): Greg Lampert was hired as Omni Cable’s president. Lampert will report directly to Jeff Siegfried, Omni Cable’s chairman & CEO.

An 18-year veteran of General Cable, Lampert will join Omni Cable’s executive team on Feb. 6. At  General  Cable,  Lampert held a variety of executive and senior leadership roles, most recently as president and CEO of General Cable’s Americas business, where he was responsible for over $3 billion in revenue and 7,300 employees from 11 countries. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

In other news at Omni Cable, Ashley Eckard was recently hired as human resources director and will oversee the company’s human resources functions and employee development and training. Prior to joining Omni Cable, she served as the director of human resources at Synchrony Group. Eckard earned her BA in international business communications and political relations from Lake Erie College and has an MS in organizational leadership from Neumann University.

Power/mation (St. Paul, MN): Don Craighead, the company’s co-founder, will be the very first recipient of the Robotics Alley Lifetime Achievement Award for his impact on the robotics industry. Power/mation is a distributor of high-tech automation products and systems, Recipients of this award have made significant contributions in areas such as robotics, automation, advanced manufacturing and STEM education. The award will be presented at the Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner during the Robotics Alley Conference & Expo on Feb. 28.

“Don’s creativity, entrepreneurialism, relentless commitment to networking and strong work ethic are still at the core of our organization today,” said Tim York, Power/mation president in the release. “Our company’s DNA is Don’s and we are both proud and humbled to be associated with him as he receives this well-deserved recognition.”

Airmaster (Clarklake, MI): This manufacturer of air circulation, ventilation and heating solutions announced its promotion of Gregory Helbling from director of sales and marketing to vice president of sales and marketing, and the hiring of Keith Simon as senior product development manager and Jerry Vojtush as its inside sales manager.

Circadian Light (Stoneham, MA): This lighting manufacturer appointed lighting industry veteran John Castner to lead its lighting fixture product launch into industries with at-risk 24/7 workforces.

Castner brings 30 years of lighting and LED executive sales management experience to Circadian Light. He previously was V.P. global accounts at Dialight, an industrial LED lighting company with annual sales in excess of $200 million. Over the last five years he has managed a sales organization including direct and indirect reports, regional/country sales managers, agents and distributors. Castner previously held sales management positions with Sylvania, Hubbell and Amtech (ABM). He has an MBA from University of California, Irvine, a B.A. from Occidental College and is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).

“John brings the key industry expertise we need to bring our lighting products to the 24/7 market,” said Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, CEO of Circadian Light, in a press release.

The company’s lights are designed for the 24/7 workplace and contain its proprietary LED chips and circadian control systems attuned to the latitude and longitude of each installation site’s  zip code. They provide DLC-2016 efficient 3,200K-4,200K white light 24/7 with energizing blue wavelengths during the day and 90% less bio-active blue than conventional LEDs at night.

Border States Electric (BSE) (Fargo, ND): BSE has hired Lyla Ableidinger as organizational change manager. She will be responsible for developing consistent tools and methodology for change to assist employee-owners in understanding and preparing for change.  Ableidinger brings with her 10 years of experience in the organizational change management (OCM) field. She was most recently an independent consultant leading OCM efforts for companies undergoing major business transformation and software implementations.

Affiliated Distributors (AD) (Wayne, PA): The buying/marketing group recently appointed Jeff Hockin, president and COO of Crum Electric Supply Co., Inc., to the AD board of directors and to the AD Electrical U.S. board of directors.

The Casper, WY-based Crum Electric Supply Co. has 10 locations in Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado and Utah and is ranked #109 on Electrical Wholesaling’s 2016 Top 200 listing. Hockin joined Crum Electric Supply in 1985 in an inside sales role and received a steady stream of promotions with increased responsibility including branch manager, sales manager, V.P./general manager and ultimately president.