People On the Move - May 5, 2023

Gross Electric (Toledo, OH)

The American Lighting Association’s Women in Lighting Committee has announced that Laurie Gross,  (photo above) president of Gross Electric and current chair of the ALA Board of Governors, will be the 2023 recipient of the Women in Lighting Leadership Award.

Known as a champion for the independent showroom channel, Gross has advocated for equitable business practices to enable brick-and-mortar retailers to compete in the industry’s changing landscape. She has also exhibited leadership on behalf of women in the industry, appointing women to head up both Gross Electric’s lighting showroom division and electrical supply division.

Sonepar USA (North Charleston, SC)

Reina Ohol has been promoted from VP of Human Resources, Sonepar Canada, to Senior VP of Human Resources, Sonepar North America. She has more than over 20 years of HR experience and worked for companies in Australia, India and Canada in the hospitality, steel trading, healthcare and food industries. Ohol graduated from Griffith University in Australia with a bachelor’s in business and a master’s in business administration. She joined Sonepar Canada in Jan. 2019.

Gillian Gurney has been named Ohol’s successor as VP of Human Resources, Sonepar Canada. Gillian previously worked for Canadian Tire, CGI, Sofina Foods and most recently Wild Fork Canada.

American Lighting (Denver)

Jennifer Kirkpatrick was appointed director of sales and will be responsible for planning, implementing, managing and overseeing the company’s overall sales strategy for lighting showrooms, Proluxe and Prizm Lighting.

She has spent the last 10 years working at American Lighting developing multiple sales channels throughout the organization and has been involved in project management, product development, marketing, rep management and developing strategies for ongoing sales growth.

EiKO Global (Olathe, KS)

The company appointed two senior executives. Matt Johnson has been named CEO and Rick Laird is now president of North American operations. Prior to joining EiKO Global, Johnson was the COO of Pep Boys, where he led operations, supply chain, merchandising and project management. Prior to Pep Boys, he served as COO and executive VP for Parts Authority, a distributor of automotive replacement parts, tools/equipment and transmissions.

Laird has over three decades of lighting experience, including a prior senior executive stint at EiKO. He began his lighting career at Philips Lighting in 1990, moved to Osram Sylvania in 1995, and joined EiKO in 2007. He also led the EiKO business in 2017, taking the helm from Gary Withers, EiKO’s founder and then CEO. After a short time away from the company, Laird is now working with Johnson and the executive leadership team to continue to grow the business and take the company to the next level.

Motion Industries, (Birmingham, AL)

Patrick Cummings was promoted to senior VP and CFO. He joined Motion in 2012 as VP of Corporate Compliance. Since then, he held the position of U.S. controller before becoming VP of Financial Planning & Analysis. Cummings graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a bachelor’s of science in accounting. He began his career with Ernst & Young.