new hires
Edgetech I.G. Announces New Hires
Edgetech I.G. Inc. of Cambridge, Ohio, has named Tim Ashcraft its new project engineer. He is responsible for new project installations at the company’s Cambridge, Ohio, facility to meet current and future growth demands. 

Ashcraft has more than 20 years experience in engineering, operations and project management in various industries. 

Also, Alvar Diaz has accepted the position of Western regional sales manager. His responsibilities include sales and management of the company’s Super Spacer® products and systems in the central and western United States. Diaz comes to Edgetech with more than six years experience with Q’SO, where he served as chemist, quality assurance, plant and regional sales manager. 

J.E. Berkowitz L.P. Welcomes New Staff Members
J.E. Berkowitz L.P. of Westville, N.J., has added new members to its staff.

John A. Krajewski has been named national architectural accounts manager. In his role, Krajewski will be responsible for promoting fabricated glass capabilities to glaziers east of the Rockies. He will also provide technical service and specifications to architects.

The company has also named John Peirce direct sales representative for Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and western New York. He has more than 30 years of sales, supervision and production management experience in the glass and glazing industry. 

The company has also added Christopher Lalonde to its marketing team, as the new marketing coordinator. In his role, Lalonde will be responsible for creating sales presentations and supporting the company’s sales force with information and lead generation follow-up. 

The company has also welcomed Gary V. Pinter, P.E. to its staff, whojoins as plant engineer. In this role, Pinter is responsible for all plant and maintenance engineering, including design and implementation of all capital improvements, preventative maintenance programs and plant equipment/systems troubleshooting. 

promotions
Glasstech Promotes Molter and Noe to VPs
Glasstech Inc. has promoted both Jay K. Molter and Thomas E. Noe to the positions of vice president.
Molter, who has been with the company for 24 years, has been named vice president of marketing and sales. Previously, he served as director of marketing and sales. He will be responsible for positioning the company and its products in the architectural and automotive glass markets, as well overseeing the sale of products to glass fabricators. 

Noe, a 22-year company veteran, was named vice president of customer service. Most recently he served as director of customer service. In his new role, Noe will be responsible for all customer service, quality, field installation, technical service and project management activities. 

LAMATEK Names New Fenestration Sales Manager
LAMATEK has promoted Melisa Kobelka to fenestration sales manager from her previous position as fenestration account manger. She has been with the company for three years.

Kobelka will be responsible for the management and administration of a 22-person, independent sales force and the inside product sales department for door and window products.

kudos
Retired Executive to Graduate College after Three-Decade Absence
USGlass columnist Paul Bieber, who retired last year from Floral Glass and Mirror Inc., a Hauppauge, N.Y., manufacturer and distributor of architectural glass, has graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Bieber returned to college this year to complete the final semester of his senior year, a quest he abandoned 35 years ago. 

After leaving the Wellesley business school, Bieber entered the business world. Unlike his fellow grads, however, who will just be starting their careers, Bieber has just finished his.

During his 22-year tenure at Floral, where he served as executive vice president and general manager, the company’s annual sales grew from $10 million to $38 million. The company has since been acquired by Oldcastle Glass.

Sabatini Achieves Status as Electrical Hardware Consultant
Scott Sabatini, AHC/CDC, CSI/CCPR, architectural specifications manager for Adams Rite Manufacturing Co. of Pomona, Calif., is one of the first people in the United States and Canada to be certified as an electrical hardware consultant, which also qualifies him for the highest level of certification as an architectural openings consultant, according to information from Adams Rite.

Sabatini has more then 30 years of experience with the door openings industry in contact distribution, installation, manufacturers’ representation, architectural consulting and specification writing.

appointments
Solvay America Inc. Names Renee Degreve President and CEO
Rene Degreve is the new president and chief executive officer for Solvay America Inc., headquartered in Houston. Degreve succeeds David Birney, who retired effective March 31, 2006. 

Degreve joined Solvay America’s parent company, Solvay S.A., in Brussels, Belgium in 1966, and since that time has held several executive positions in Brussels and Houston, including vice president finance of Soltex Polymer Corp., vice president finance of Solvay America and executive vice president of Solvay Interox. In 1993, Degreve returned to Brussels to assume the position of general manager finance and corporate planning for Solvay S.A, and in 1994 became a member of that company’s executive committee. Most recently, Degreve served in Brussels as director and member of the executive committee and general manager of finance. He has also been a member of the board of directors of Solvay America since 1998. In addition to his new duties, he will continue to serve as a member of the executive committee of Solvay S.A. 

Jeffrey Ort Named General Manager For Niles Aluminum Products Inc. 
Jeffrey (Jeff) Ort has been named general manager of Niles Aluminum Products Inc., a Niles, Mich.-based provider of architectural metal curving services to glazing contractors and aluminum storefront and curtainwall manufacturers. He will be responsible for marketing, sales and production operations.

Jeff Ort joined Niles Aluminum Products in September, 2003, after serving two years as an account manager for IBM Corp. in Atlanta.

Cardinal Glass Industries Announces Organizational Changes
Roger O’Shaughnessy, president and chief executive officer of Cardinal Glass Industries in Eden Prairie, Minn., has announced a number of organizational changes. 

Under the organization’s new structure, each of Cardinal’s six subsidiaries will be operated as individual companies, and each president will operate in separate facilities. New plant managers have also been named at each facility.
The new subsidiary presidents are Eric Rapp of the Cardinal IG Company; Bob Bond of the Cardinal CG Company; Steve Nelson of the Cardinal Pacific; Renato Lizardo of the Cardinal LG Company; and Pat Watson of the Cardinal FG and FG Minerals.

New Hires at United States Aluminum
United States Aluminum, headquartered in Waxahachie, Texas, has expanded its marketing department and hired Gary Taylor as marketing coordinator. Taylor will help the marketing department coordinate functions with the 14 company facilities across the United States and Canada. He has more than 15 years of experience in the graphic communications and marketing fields.

The company has also hired Scott Peltier as the paint line supervisor to oversee the paint line at its manufacturing facility in Waxahachie. Peltier joins the company with experience in the finishing industry, most recently as a senior foreman in charge of the sandblast and paint department at Cascade General Ship Repair in Portland, Ore., where he worked for 13 years. 
Rick Stange has also been hired to manage the company’s Dallas service center. Stange grew up in the aluminum fabrication industry, spending many of his 25 years in the industry with Kawneer. He has served in positions including entry-level production, complete fabrication, extrusion, welding, line supervisor, customer service representative, scheduling, distribution manager and national accounts estimator.

briefly...
Heitmann & Associates Inc. of Saint Louis has announced the hiring of H. Rok Lee as the manager of its Eastern regional office located in New York. Rok is a registered architect specializing in curtainwall ... East Coast Metal Systems Inc. of Wheeling, W.Va., has appointed Jim Schiltz as the director of sales. Schiltz comes to the company with 25 years of experience in the construction and architectural products industry. He was previously employed by Westcrowns Inc. as regional manager. Mike Gill has also joined the company as an outside estimator. 

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