A flurry of hiring, promotions across the country

Eklund’s Hires Representatives, Project Manager

Eklund’s has hired Geoff Connus and Mack Pence as business development representatives, and Matt Garner as project manager. Based in Chicago, Connus will cover the Midwest. Connus most recently worked in sales and project management for a Chicago-based elevator cab company and has 14 years’ experience in the construction industry. Midwest Business Development Representative Janel Durko will continue to serve existing clients as she transitions to an expanded role that includes national promotion of the StreamLine cab-design line and onsite visits to customers in newer markets across the U.S., such as southern California and Phoenix.

Pence has joined the Northwest team and will share the region with Jacqueline Beruete. Pence will play a key role in managing recently awarded major projects. He has many years’ account-management experience with major elevator contractors.

Garner’s role is managing cab interior projects from booking to completion. Based in Eklund’s corporate office in Southlake, Texas, he communicates job progress to customers throughout the design, manufacturing and installation process. Prior to joining Eklund’s, Garner served a dual position as project manager and estimating manager for a national stone manufacturing company. Eklund’s feels his experience with submittals, drawing approvals, procurement, scheduling and coordination makes him ideal for the project manager role.

Genesis Promotes Covert

Genesis Elevator Co., based in Atlanta, has promoted Ryan Covert to director of Residential Service. He is tasked with further developing Genesis’ residential-service business, and is now a member of the Genesis Leadership Group. He holds a BBA degree in Business from Emory University, was previously partner and managing director of True Lacrosse in Chicago, helping grow that enterprise to 22 employees across eight states. Covert played both college and professional lacrosse, and continues his involvement in the sport through coaching. In the elevator industry, he oversaw key accounts in the Atlanta area.

AFD Industries Announces Promotions, New Hires

AFD Industries Inc. President Dick Vinciquerra announced two promotions and two new hires. Canton, Ohio-based AFD promoted Noah Murphy, who has been with the company since 2006, from Operations manager to vice president of Operations, and Nick Wengerd, who has been with the company since 2008, from sales associate to vice president of sales. New hires are Adam Ruther, a 2008 graduate of Loyola University in Chicago, who will serve as controller, and Brandyn Eckhart, a 2015 graduate of Malone University in Canton, who will serve as a sales associate.

Courion Hires Garcia

Courion, based in St. Louis, has hired Niels Garcia as senior sales consultant for modernization and new-equipment sales. He has approximately 10 years of elevator-industry experience, including engineering and sales positions with EV Elevator International and Torin Drive. At Courion, his sales territory consists of the western U.S. states and Mexico.

Columbia Elevator Adds New Positions in Expansion

Columbia Elevator Products Co. Inc. has announced that, as part of its ongoing expansion (following new executive positions outlined in ELEVATOR WORLD, February 2016), it has added three further areas of responsibility and positions. Lawrence Moreno, who will be based in Columbia’s Winfield, Kansas, facility, is assuming the position of quality manager, in addition to the responsibility for overseeing safety issues. Tom Hannah, operating from Columbia’s Miami location, assumes the title of engineering sales, and Greg Mullin, also in Florida, assumes the title of estimating/sales.

Moreno has more than 26 years of experience in quality-management systems in various services and industries, including chemicals and allied products, electric utility power generation, food production, and laboratory and business-to-business services. He has led teams through several successful recertification audits and successful customer assessments. He has also worked with management and labor on the continual improvement process to promote compliance awareness in the workplace and adherence to applied quality-management systems.

Hannah has more than 40 years of experience at various elevator-industry major OEMs. Joining Columbia Elevator in 2015, Hannah brought his past experiences as a draftsman, estimating manager, service manager, installation manager and project manager to Columbia’s Estimation Department. His responsibilities include review of specifications/drawings for the estimation department, review of approval drawings for release of jobs to manufacturing and review of production schedules.

Mullin also joined Columbia in 2015 with more than 20 years of broad experience with numerous independent elevator contractors and component suppliers, primarily in estimating, coordination of elevator package sales and customer service. Over the years, Mullin held positions as a project engineering coordinator and in commercial elevator sales. He began his extended career in manufacturing as a cylinder welder before moving into sales and design.

Lerch Bates Names Houlihan Consultant in Las Vegas

Lerch Bates has named Maquel Houlihan a consultant in its growing Las Vegas office. She has more than 18 years of experience in the vertical-transportation industry, most recently serving as an existing-installation sales representative for Schindler, where she oversaw contracts with some of the largest property holders in Las Vegas such as Caesars Entertainment Corp. She holds an associate’s degree in Business Management and Health Science. Lerch Bates President and CEO Bart Stephan observed:

“Houlihan has exceptional knowledge of the prosperous yet unpredictable vertical-transportation industry in southern Nevada, and her extraordinary professionalism and meticulousness will be tremendous assets to our firm. Her experience with estimating elevator maintenance agreements, repairs and modernizations will complement our outstanding local team“