Newsroom
October 23, 2009
American Red Cross Chapter Receives
$8,300 from Summit Electric Supply
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – As the weather turns cold and more families turn on their heaters, the rate of house fires in New Mexico increases dramatically, according to Cindy Adams, regional CEO of the American Red Cross who oversees the Mid Rio Grande Chapter. The chapter responds to disasters in 21 counties.
So the timing of Summit Electric Supply’s $8,300 donation in October was appreciated, she said. Summit continued its annual tradition of donating $100 to the Chapter for every home run of the local baseball team. The Isotopes hit 83 homers.
“Our main focus that the donation will help with is responding to single family fires in our communities,” Adams said. “We’re making sure, when people lose their home to fire, they will have a safe, secure place to sleep.”
Another service the donation will support is emergency communications to soldiers, Adams said. Family members in a crisis can call the Red Cross, which then contacts their loved one’s commanding officer and relays the situation.
“We have provided 2,600 emergency communications between active military and their families during a crisis,” she said.
Last year, Summit donated $11,000 to the local chapter (the Isotopes hit 110 home runs) and $50,000 to the national headquarters for disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston and Houston areas. Summit has four service centers in those areas.
“Summit supports the Red Cross for the compassionate services they quietly and humbly provide to members of the community every day,” said Victor R. Jury Jr., president and CEO. “We support them through the Isotopes to use the 70-plus Isotopes games each year to raise local support and awareness and to make it a little more meaningful to cheer for the home team.”
October 12, 2009
Summit Electric Supply Promotes Houston, Phoenix Leaders
Summit Electric Supply has promoted electrical industry veterans Rodney Ilseng and Craig Rusk to the positions of service center leaders in Houston and Phoenix, respectively.
Ilseng succeeds Dan Ferrari, who has been promoted to regional vice president of the Gulf Coast region.
“Rodney’s broad experience in servicing the unique needs of the Gulf Coast market, as well as his experience in the electrical industry itself, makes him uniquely qualified to take the helm of our Houston location,” said President and CEO Victor R. Jury Jr.
Ilseng has been involved in electrical distribution since 1983. He joined Summit in April 2003. He most recently had been holding a dual role as service center leader in the Clute, Texas, location and as Summit's industrial strategic accounts manager in the Gulf Coast.
As Houston service center leader, he is responsible for sales and operations of the 62-member location, focusing on both industrial and commercial accounts. Ilseng holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
Craig Rusk succeeds Scott Cogan, who has been promoted to regional vice president of the Southwest Region.
“Craig is a talented businessman whose commitment to the customer and long experience at Summit will undoubtedly continue Summit’s tradition of customer service excellence across Arizona,” Jury said.
Rusk, a graduate of Arizona State University, joined Summit in 1993, becoming a consistently top performing account manager, focusing on industrial clients.
“I look forward to increasing Summit’s customer and vendor relationships in the Phoenix metro area and beyond,” Rusk said. “We are well positioned for growth here.”
Summit has operated in the Phoenix market since 1991 and employs 40 associates in its Phoenix location.
Sept. 9, 2009
Summit Electric Supply Announces Corporate Changes
Summit Electric Supply has announced several changes to its corporate structure to better position the company for both business development and sales growth.
President and CEO Victor R. Jury Jr. announced that Joe Chesky, senior vice president of asset management, will become Summit’s first senior vice president of business development.
“We are creating the position of senior vice president of business development to help us identify and develop new market opportunities across our locations, as well as expanding our footprint with new locations, including potential acquisitions,” Jury explained.
Chesky has been with Summit since 1986 and helped establish the company’s significant presence in Texas.
Drew Ott, vice president of sales since 2006, will take on Chesky’s former role, overseeing purchasing, inventory, pricing and supplier relations. Summit’s 20 locations have been divided into two sales regions, the Gulf Coast Region and the Southwest Region, though the latter includes the company’s Jacksonville, Fla., service center. Two regional vice presidents of sales will be responsible for business growth and sales in each region.
“In looking at our sales strategy, it became apparent that overseeing sales across all locations required the efforts of more than one person,” Jury said.
Dan Ferrari, formerly the company’s Houston service center leader and a 30-year veteran of the industry, has been promoted to regional vice president of the Gulf Coast Region. He will remain in Houston. Scott Cogan, the Phoenix service center leader since 1996, will serve as regional vice president of the Southwest Region. Cogan, who joined Summit in 1983, will return to Albuquerque to assume his new role.
“In Scott and Dan, we have two extremely talented, savvy individuals who will provide stronger support of our locations and ensure that we remain close to our customers at a corporate level,” Jury said.
The two will help Summit service centers address opportunities in both existing and new markets.
Aug. 12, 2009
Summit Electric Supply Takes Top Marketing Award
Summit won TED Magazine’s Overall Best of the Best award for the first time for its Web site www.summit.com.The redesigned site was chosen from more than 300 entries to take the top distributor award.
The award represents overall best marketing practices in the electrical industry, according to the magazine’s online newsletter announcing the winners today at the end of the industry’s AdVenture Sales & Marketing Conference held in Chicago Aug. 9-12. A total of 52 awards were presented to the electrical industry’s top distributors and manufacturers in three different company-size categories.
“Summit excelled in offering a Web site with a clean, relevant look that fits its brand,” said Kim Funcik, a professional marketing research consultant who has been a Best of the Best judge for 11 consecutive years.
The Web site first won in the Web site category. An entry must win its category before being considered for the higher award. Summit also won in the large distributor direct promotion category for the 2008 holiday season’s special “Truck & Buck – Don’t Forget Your Little Helper.”
Summit competes in the “distributor with sales over $200 million” category, which means competing with companies that are much larger than Summit. Some of those companies typically use ad agencies for at least some of their work whereas Summit’s marketing is all done in-house.
Since 2002, Summit has won 10 Best of the Best awards from TED Magazine in a wide range of categories plus a number of honorable mentions. The magazine is the official publication of the National Association of Electrical Distributors.
