The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), named Charles S. Konigsberg, JD, to the NEMA/MITA team as chief, strategy and policy.
Konigsberg is a 30-year budget and policy veteran, “whose bipartisan experience will bolster the NEMA leadership team with a public policy focus,” NEMA said in a release. He has served in senior level positions in the U.S. Senate and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He was general counsel and chief health counsel at the Senate Finance Committee under Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), a staff attorney at the Senate Budget Committee for Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), the Assistant Director of OMB in the Clinton White House, and Director of Congressional and inter-government Affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service in President George W. Bush’s administration.
“Konigsberg will enhance NEMA’s efforts with Congress, agencies, and regulators to promote partnerships that further energy efficiency, Smart Grid, high performance buildings, and medical imaging,” NEMA said.
Rexel, Paris, France, said it has acquired Liteco, the largest independent distributor of electrical supplies in the Canadian Maritimes region. This acquisition complements Rexel’s position as the largest electrical distributor in Canada, one of the world’s largest markets. Rexel said the move is consistent with its strategic aim of strengthening its market share in key mature markets.
Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Fredricton, New Brunswick, Liteco has 13 branches in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island employing about 120 people to serve a large base of customers in the residential, commercial, industrial and marine sectors. Liteco posted sales of approximately €50 million (about US$66 million) in 2011 and its profitability is in line with Rexel’s operations in the country, Rexel said.
Rexel has over 200 branches across Canada that added about €1.2bn (just under US$1.6 billion) to the Rexel Group’s consolidated sales and posted double-digit organic growth (+11.4%) in 2011.
GE Energy’s Industrial Solutions business (NYSE: GE) has appointed Adrian Thomas as the new regional sales leader for Canada. Thomas has overall responsibility for sales of GE Energy’s electrical distribution products and services in Canada, including switchboards and panel boards, uninterruptible power supplies, metering products, circuit breakers, motor controls and capacitors, as well as electric vehicle supply equipment. He is based in Montreal but will oversee sales operations at key facilities across the country, including Calgary and Toronto, GE said in a release.
Thomas began his career at GE Canada as a large-motors designer in Peterborough, followed by a transition to a marketing role for GE Energy in Montreal that featured a combination of sales and commercial operations. Later, Thomas held various positions with TMEIC, an industrial systems, drive and motor manufacturer, in Roanoke, Va., where he developed international sales experience covering growing markets in Taiwan, India and North America. He is a graduate of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, with a bachelor of science in engineering.
The Munich, Germany, corporate offices of Siemens announced today the company has entered into an agreement to acquire RuggedCom, Concord, Ontario, Canada, in a friendly, board-supported takeover bid.
The Canadian company is a provider of communications and networking solutions such as routers for harsh industrial environments. The total transaction value is estimated at about C$382 million (about US$381 million). RuggedCom’s board unanimously supports the takeover, is recommending that RuggedCom’s shareholders accept the offer, which is a contrast to their recommendation against a takeover by Belden about a month ago.
With annual revenues of approximately US$94 million (fiscal 2011) and approximately 360 employees, RuggedCom provides robust, industrial-quality Ethernet communication products and network solutions. These products are used primarily under rough environmental conditions – for example, in power distribution, in refineries, or in traffic control systems. The move expands Siemens’ offerings for the smart grid market, among others.
Seems the new branch they opened in Lincoln, Neb., last week wasn’t all Graybar, St. Louis, had in the works. The distributor will open a branch in Joplin, Mo., on Jan. 30. The facility, with a staff of three full-time employees, is located at 1705 S. Main St., and will stock local inventory with daily deliveries from Graybar’s Springfield, Mo., location. Area Manager Stephen Wallace will lead the branch operations. The new facility will serve the cities of Joplin, Webb City, Carthage, Neosho, Carl Junction and the counties of Newton and Jasper.
“We’ve been serving the Joplin area out of our Springfield location for some time and are excited to bring a higher level of service to our customers with this new branch,” said Graybar’s St. Louis District Vice President Mike Dumas.
The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger is reporting that Stuart M. Irby, former president of Stuart C. Irby Co., was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 58. The paper says his death is considered a suicide. He guided the company, founded by his grandfather, from 1984 to 2005, when it was sold to Sonepar.
Lighting manufacturer Lumenpulse let us know about this video showing the capabilities of the new LED lighting system at BC Place stadium in Vancouver, B.C. The relighting, provided by Lumenpulse, included the facade, the roof span and all the support masts and cables, and allows the stadium to animate abstract color patterns in response to goals or touchdowns or other highlights to enhance the audience experience as well as the Vancouver skyline.
Among the technologies on the cutting edges of research and development, we have cloud-based computing and solid-state lighting. So naturally, someone asked the question, “what if you put them together?” A Tokyo-based company, NetLED Technology Corp., has developed its answer to that question. It offers LED lighting that can be controlled using iPhone apps (iPad and Android versions due out this summer) via a cloud-based control interface. You can use your phone or tablet to dim the lights or switch them on and off. The system also makes it possible to track energy usage in real-time and to automatically aggregate data over an extended period of time.
Cooling is a key consideration in the design of LED lighting. Heat build-up can shorten the life of LEDs and limit their usefulness, especially in retrofit applications. Switch Lighting, San Jose, Calif., has an innovative solution: rather than the array of fins we see on many LED lamps, they’ve gone with a liquid-cooled design, which they claim gives the lamps better efficiency.
Pike Research, a cleantech-focused market research firm, released a report last week suggesting that consumers’ interest in plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) has declined over the past two years, during the time when many, if not most, of the world’s automobile manufacturers have been gearing up to offer PHEV models. Pike found that 40% of consumers in their study were “extremely” or “very” interested in purchasing a PHEV, down from 44% in 2011 and 48% in 2010.
Respondents cited cost, concerns about driving range and the desire to see the technology prove itself as key reasons for their reluctance to embrace EVs.
Given that many of the top electrical manufacturers have been rolling out electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to satisfy demand for places to charge electric cars, the cooling of interest in the vehicles themselves could have a chilling effect on EVSE sales. Pike suggests that 2012 will be an important test of the commercial viability of PHEVs.
Electrical Marketing's LiveWire brings you breaking news, on-the-fly analysis and running commentary about the electrical products marketing channel from the editors of Electrical Marketing.
