Electrical People: New Leaders at Cree and Lighting Science

Cree, Inc. (Durham, NC): Gregg Lowe has selected as the company’s new president and chief executive officer with a seat on the board of directors. Lowe succeeds Chuck Swoboda, per a transition plan announced in May. Robert Ingram, current board member and lead independent director of Cree, will assume the position of chairman of the board.

Lowe joins Cree with extensive leadership and industry experience. From 2012 through 2015, he was president and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, a $5 billion company with 17,000 employees and products serving automotive, industrial, consumer and communications markets. Prior to that, he spent 28 years at Texas Instruments, most recently serving as senior vice president and leader of the analog business.

Lighting Science (West Warwick, RI): Khim Lee has been named president. Khim brings over 15 years’ experience in LED lighting, management consulting and private equity operations to the role, in which he will drive the next phase of growth at the LED lighting specialist focused on health and horticultural applications.

Lee will oversee all strategic and business aspects of the company, managing the creation of innovative biological, horticultural and urban lighting solutions for commercial and consumer markets, the company said in a release. He will work alongside Abraham Morris, executive chairman of Lighting Science; Ed Bednarcik, CEO of its recently separated private-label business Global Value Lighting; David Friedman, the recently appointed president of horticultural arm VividGro; and Fred Maxik, founder and CTO.

Summit Electric Supply (Albuquerque, NM): Randy Hudson has been promoted to sales manager of the company’s Irving, TX, location. Hudson began his electrical distribution career in 2006 as a warehouse driver for an electrical supplier in Foley, Alabama. He joined Summit Electric Supply in Nov. 2015 as industrial business development manager where he helped to form and build Summit’s industrial team.

“Randy has done a terrific job developing and expanding our industrial business and we’re excited to advance him into a leadership role for our Irving sales team,” said Todd Bockenfeld, Summit vice president, North Texas district. “He has a diverse background including running a large projects group, which will be a tremendous asset for him as he expands his role into the commercial construction segment.”

Alva Lighting (Berkeley, CA): Brandon Neustadter has been named director of national sales. He brings over 10 years of sales experience and six years in LED lighting, most recently in business development for Elemental LED’s Business Solutions division and Diode LED’s specification business.

Leviton Manufacturing (Melville, NY): The company drew from internal talent to name two new vice presidents of sales and announced an upcoming retirement. Jeff Beyert is now VP of sales for the company’s Energy Management, Controls and Automation business division; John LaMontagne is now VP of sales for the newly formed Leviton Lighting Business Unit; and Timothy Brennan, VP of sales for ConTech Lighting (a Leviton company) announced his retirement, effective January 5, 2018.

Beyert brings 30 years of industry experience to this new role, over 15 of which have been with Leviton. Beyert began his career in electrical distribution before joining a New York City Metro area representative agency as a manager handling lighting controls. He joined Leviton in 2001 as a specification engineer. After his success in this role, Beyert was promoted to a technical lighting sales specialist for the greater New York area and went on to the become Northeast regional sales manager.

LaMontagne previously served as vice president, sales for the Energy Management, Controls and Automation (EMC&A) business unit for the past six years. He will oversee sales responsibilities for Leviton’s recent lighting acquisitions, including JCC, Intense Lighting, ConTech Lighting and Birchwood Lighting.

Brennan joined ConTech Lighting in 2003 and developed, trained and managed a professional sales team, both internally and externally, and drove dramatic sales growth of both the company’s national account and commercial sales customers. Brennan’s sales career started in 1990 with Lighting Corporation of America (LCA) as a Central area sales manager before being promoted to VP of sales for LCA in 1997. He joined the ConTech team in 2003.