NewMakers

promotions
Viracon Announces Reorganizes Sales Team
Owatonna, Minn.-based Viracon has reorganized its sales leadership team.

Seth Madole has assumed the newly created role of director of customer services. In this role, Madole will be responsible for managing all activities of the sales funnel, from lead generation to sales estimating and project management for the company’s domestic and international business.

Madole previously served as an inside sales manager, a role now assumed by Sandee Keane. For the past eight years, Keane has worked in a variety of roles at Viracon, including order technician, estimator, Six Sigma Black Belt and Epicor core team member. In her new role, she will be responsible for the estimating team.

Jeff Minear is the new field sales representative for Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska. He replaces the retiring Dudley Otto. Minear has been a member of the Viracon sales department for the past ten years.

Garret Henson will assume the expanded role of director of sales and will be responsible for all field sales representatives in the United States.

Ron McCann will assume the new role of director of sales initiatives responsible for the company’s window, interiors, point-supported and security glass business. In his role, McCann will have key account responsibility for certain accounts and will work with Henson and the field sales organization on product management and growth initiatives.

Joe Effertz, director of sales, will focus on developing Viracon’s international sales channel. He will work closely with Madole and the international inside sales team to provide customer service to this growing business segment.

new hires
Vitro America Expands Sales Force
Vitro America LLC in Memphis, Tenn., has promoted Kevin Potts to the position of Envision® Glass Systems product line manager. He will be responsible for guiding the expansion of this product offering. Potts has been with the company since 1986, serving as door sales manager at the Dallas fabrication facility
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In addition, the company hired Wayne Williams as an estimator for the Envision sales department in Dallas. Williams will be responsible for estimating and technical support. He has more than 30 years experience, most recently as a sales manager with C.R. Laurence.

Martin Boonstoppel of Las Vegas was hired as a sales representative for the Southwest market. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the sales and marketing of architectural products, most recently as the western regional sales manager for Dorma Group North America.

Catherine Finney also was hired in Las Vegas, and joins the company as an architectural sales representative. Finney will be responsible for promoting the sale of fabricated products in a multi-state territory. She most recently worked for Oldcastle Glass, having been a senior architectural sales representative there for 13 years.

JEB Hires Conlon to Represent New England Market
Ed Conlon has joined the J.E. Berkowitz (JEB) sales team as an independent sales representative for the New England market. In this role, Conlon will be focusing on growing and expanding the company’s complete line of architectural glass products.

Conlon joins the company with more than 35 years of experience in the commercial construction industry. His prior experience includes more than 20 years as an independent sales representative for architectural glass and windows.

Salem Distributing Adds to Technical Support Staff
Salem Distributing in Winston-Salem, N.C., has added Ashley Price to its technical support staff as a diamond tool sales engineer. Price will work with outside and inside sales as well as directly with customers to introduce new technologies and improve the efficiency of existing diamond wheel applications. Price comes to Salem with broad-based experience and knowledge of diamond tool applications and technologies.

McElroy Named New VP of Alumil N.A.
John McElroy, LEED AP, has been named vice president of engineering for New York-based Alumil N.A. In his new position, McElroy will develop and expand the engineering support and capabilities for the company’s North American market.

McElroy has more than 25 years experience in the design and engineering of glazing and curtainwall systems. He previously served as director of engineering for Enclos Corp.

Southern Glass Wholesale Introduces New Manager
Southern Wholesale Glass located in Americus, Ga., has hired Chuck Owenby as the manager of its Metro Atlanta operation. Owenby will initially be responsible for sales and distribution for Southern Wholesale in and around Atlanta. Owenby brings more than 20 years of glass and glass-related experience to his new position.

kudos
Binswanger Tech Becomes National Hero; Rescues Six from Burning Building
When Robin DeHaven began his day at Binswanger Glass in Austin, Texas, February 18, he probably expected to have an ordinary day. But such was not the case. As the 28-year-old glazier was driving to an afternoon job, he observed a plane crashing off the highway and immediately went to help.

“It seemed out of the ordinary,” DeHaven, a native of Logansport, Ind., told USGlass during an exclusive interview. “I was on my way to a job to replace a single-pane window. The plane went south and it was going down and I didn’t know what was going to happen. A big cloud of smoke came down.”

That’s when the U.S. Army veteran’s instincts kicked in and he decided to try to help.

“I exited right away and flew into a parking lot,” he recalls. “I tried to call 911, too, but of course they were busy with all the calls.”

Though he finally got through to 911, he continued to head into the direction of the building where the plane had hit. (It was later discovered that pilot Joseph Stack had crashed the plane into the Internal Revenue Services building.)

As DeHaven pulled into the parking lot, another bystander noticed he had a large ladder on the truck and asked if he would help out. Without hesitation, DeHaven says he propped the ladder against the building and began his climb up to the second story where five people were waiting.

“We tried to put it near a brace … I got to the top and the ladder slipped a little bit and started dropping a few inches,” he says. “I grabbed the ledge and eventually got into the building through the window.”

Knowing the ledge he’d used wouldn’t work for the climb down, DeHaven quickly looked for another option and saw that there appeared to be a sturdier ledge at the next window over.

“There was a window still intact over it, so we had to break out that window,” he says.
Once DeHaven attached the ladder to the second window, he began to attempt the rescue mission, escorting each employee out the window, onto the ledge and then onto the ladder. He rescued six people in total.

By that time, the local fire department had arrived on the scene, so DeHaven gathered his ladder (after getting the okay from the fire department) and thought he’d sneak away to have a quiet lunch break, catch his breath and continue on to his next job.

“I took my ladder, called my boss and told him I helped some people when a plane crashed,” DeHaven says. “I thought I was just going to get my ladder and go. I didn’t say my name [to anyone there], but I guess someone called the corporate office and corporate found out and called me.”

Though he remembers the details clearly, DeHaven says the rescue took approximately five minutes in total; the fire hadn’t yet entered the office in which he assisted, but the hallways had already begun to fill with smoke at the point he arrived.

DeHaven attributes his ability and quick-to-assist nature to his time in the U.S. Army. During his six and a half years in the military, he was deployed to Iraq twice.

“I was a combat engineer and I’ve been in combat situations,” he says.

Since then, DeHaven has been interviewed by Fox News, ABC, NBC and appeared on Good Morning America.

Despite his newfound fame, DeHaven remains humble.

“I didn’t figure anyone would find me, but they did, and now I’m just trying to fill the shoes people want me to,” he says.

USG
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