People on the Move - Dec. 22, 2023 Update

Standard Electric Supply Co. (Milwaukee, WI):

Effective Jan. 1, 2024, Matt Stern will become Standard Electric Supply Co.’s COO.
While still in school, Stern worked at the company in various departments, including warehouse operations, marketing and purchasing. After his graduation from college, he worked with Schneider Electric for several years to better appreciate supplier expectations for successful distributor partnerships. He rejoined the company and worked as an account manager in Standard Electric Supply’s Chicago market for several more years. Currently, Stern is director of quality assurance, responsible for maintaining the company’s quality systems and services.
As part of this transition, the company’s current southern Wisconsin sales director, Dan Knapp, will also be promoted to senior sales director on Jan. 1, 2024. He will be responsible for the sales and marketing teams and report directly to Stern. In addition, Penny Mingerink, who was promoted to senior director of warehousing in spring of 2023, will report to Stern as well. This strategic shift will facilitate a stronger alignment of warehouse and sales operations.

ABB (Cary, NC)

Elizabeth Lubben was promoted to Electrification Communications leader for the United States. In this role, she will be the point of press contact for editorial opportunities and trade show content and other projects and will act as a liaison across all of ABB’s Electrification divisions in the U.S. to support communications initiatives. Lubben is an experienced communications professional who worked for several communications agencies previous to joining ABB in 2021. She has a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree from George Washington University.
Alan Wire (Sikeston, MO): The company named Todd Montgomery as area sales manager with overall sales responsibility for North and South Carolina, Virginia and Florida. He comes to Alan Wire with over 30 years of industry experience primarily focused on electrical distribution and electrical contractors in the Carolinas. He has extensive experience in the electrical wire and cable segment of the industry. Montgomery holds a degree in economics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and will continue to be based in the Carolinas.
Alan Wire will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2024. The company manufacturers a broad offering of copper and aluminum wire and cable products.

Shat-R-Shield Lighting (Salisbury, NC)

Lexi Moore was hired as marketing communications manager, effective Dec. 4. In this role she will manage all marketing activities designed to promote Shat-R-Shield’s brand and products to existing and prospective customers.
She started her professional career working at WCBD-News 2, an NBC affiliate TV station located in Charleston, SC. During her time in news, she covered major news stories such as Tim Scott and Nikki Haley’s 2024 Presidential campaign announcements, Hurricane Ian, the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 and 2022 Olympic Games and the Alex Murdaugh murder trial.

Barron Lighting Group (Glendale, AZ)

Jeff Musilek was appointed business development manager. He previously worked at the lighting rep, distributor and manufacture level for 10 years. Musilek is a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University and holds a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration.
IES Holdings (IES) (Houston): Matthew Simmes was promoted to president and COO. Simmes, who was appointed as COO of IES in Dec. 2021, will continue to manage the operations of all four of the company’s operating segments, reporting directly to Jeff Gendell, IES's chairman and CEO. He has spent 30 years at IES in a variety of increasingly senior roles and, prior to being named COO, served as president of the IES Communications segment from 2017 to 2021.

Champion Fiberglass (Houston)

Billy Bender has joined the company as process and development engineer. In this role, he will provide day-to-day support of production while spearheading the development of new processes for the company. 
Bender’s experience includes sales and engineering roles in a textile recycling start-up and chemical companies in Los Angeles, Houston and Everberg, Belgium. He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s of science  degree in chemical biological engineering and economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, Bender played basketball with one Final Four appearance.

RTI (Shakopee, MN)

Control and automation manufacturer RTI announced that Mike Jordan has joined the company as chief product officer, reporting to CEO Joe Roberts. In this new role, Jordan will oversee product development activities to deliver world-class products and solutions for the company. 
For the past five years, he was the senior vice president at Snap One, including leadership of the Control4 product line. Prior to Snap One, he held a similar role at Core Brands, where he worked with Roberts, who was president of the company at the time.
Port of Long Beach gets $283 million in federal funding for rail project
The Port of Long Beach said in a press release that it will receive $283 million from the federal government to assist in building “America’s Green Gateway,” a rail project which will enable  it to move more cargo by trains, speeding deliveries across the entire national supply chain, easing congestion and lessening local environmental impacts.