NewMakers

new hires

Cathy Hartley, a 24-year veteran of the glass industry, has joined Agalite Shower & Bath Enclosures of Anaheim, Calif., a division of Hartung Glass Industries, as territory sales manager. She will be responsible for leading the sales of the company’s line of shower enclosures in the Southern California market from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Hartley worked with Vitro America for 19 years, starting off as accounts payable coordinator, growing to credit specialist and then territory sales manager for the greater Los Angeles area. She also worked for Arch Aluminum & Glass for almost five years as sales representative in Los Angeles.

Drew Garner has joined Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions of Deerfield Beach, Fla., as chief financial officer (CFO). He most recently served as CFO for Ames Taping Tools, a company that rents and sells construction tools and supplies. Prior to that, he held the position of senior vice president and CFO for Pike Family Nurseries. He also spent 16 years with Coca-Cola, starting as a senior accountant and holding positions of increasing responsibility up to U.S. controller.

Garner succeeds Grace Kurowska, who left the company to pursue other interests.

Linetec of Wausau, Wis., has named Jeffrey Fochs Jr. as an associate. He will provide customers in the East-Central territory with paint and anodize finishing services for products such as aluminum windows wall systems, doors, hardware and other architectural metal components. Based in Wausau, Fochs has more than two decades of experience in the building products and services industry. Most recently, he worked as a western U.S. territory manager for Vicwest Inc. headquartered in Ontario, Canada.

promotions
Viracon of Owatonna, Minn., recently promoted Garret Henson to vice president of sales. He worked as the director of sales for the past five years and will continue to report to Kelly Schuller, president of Viracon. Henson joined Viracon in 1993 as a field sales trainee, and became a field sales representative based in Colorado.

In a planned restructure, officials at LCG Facades of Salt Lake City, Utah, have promoted Gary Dabb to the role of president. He was previously in charge of company operations. Dabb succeeds Earl Linford, who was instrumental in the formation of LCG Facades, and has resigned from the position.

Joe Kalisz is replacing Tom Thorum as operations manager. Kalisz has experience in the curtainwall industry and is a Six Sigma Green Belt in lean manufacturing. He worked for several years for Harmon Inc. as a project manager and operations manager.

Officials at the Häfele Group have named Paul K. Smith as president of Häfele America Co. in Archdale, N.C., the company’s North American subsidiary. Smith succeeds John Hossli, who is retiring as president after serving in that role since 1999. Smith comes to the role with 25 years of management experience. He joined Häfele in 2011 after working as vice president for Haworth Inc. In addition, the company has promoted Keith M. Knolmayer to the newly created position of business development for glass business. He brings more than 15 years of glass application experience.

appointments
Terry Hessom has joined HHH Tempering Resources in Vancouver, Wash., as an equity partner. Hessom has held management positions across the industry, including at PDC Glass & Metal and the former Arch Aluminum & Glass and Vitro America. He will assist with plant flow and efficiency improvements.

association news
Jay Phillips, national architectural sales director at Guardian Industries Corp., assumed the presidency of the Glass Association of North America (GANA) at its annual conference, held in February in Sarasota, Fla. (see related story on page 36). Phillips, who previously served as vice president for GANA, succeeds Jon Johnson of Trulite Glass and Aluminum Solutions.

“I am pleased to assume the presidency of the Glass Association of North America,” says Phillips. “GANA has been the voice of the glass industry for more than 20 years through the tireless work of our member companies. GANA’s mission has even greater relevance today as continued technological advances increase the number of glass applications that enhance the consumer’s life. As one voice, our members come together to recommend the appropriate application of these various technologies and advocate greater use of glass products.”

Phillips has been with Guardian for the past two and a half years, serving as business development manager for commercial products prior to his current position. Prior to joining Guardian, he worked as director of business development for Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope and previously held several key sales positions with PPG Industries

obituaries
Fred Jeschke, Jeschke Consulting, Baytown, Texas
Fred Jeschke of Baytown, Texas, passed away unexpectedly in mid-February. He was 70.
Jeschke worked with Kawneer until about 1980 when he was hired at Howmet as engineering manager, according to longtime business associate Mike Rubner, chief operating officer at Accura Systems Inc. in Sunnyvale, Texas. He remained at Howmet through the transition to Vistawall Group (now part of Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope of Santa Monica, Calif.). In 1987, he left to work for American Glass and Metals (AGM) in Detroit as executive vice president. He worked at AGM until 2010 when he semi-retired and moved to Baytown. He then opened a consulting business called Jeschke Consulting LLC, where he worked until his passing.

“Fred Jeschke was my mentor when I came into the business in 1982 with Howmet,” says Rubner. “Fred was possibly the best design guy I have ever known the curtainwall industry and was friends with everyone—consultants, architects, general contractors, glazing subcontractors, engineering guys and metal suppliers … He will be greatly missed.”

“Fred didn’t so much show me or teach me about big-time commercial contract glazing— he taught me how to think about it, how to approach problems, how to understand how things worked and when they didn’t work why that was,” says Tom Powers, project management/engineering department at Midwest Glass Fabricators in Highland. “He never wanted to acknowledge it but I credit him tremendously for whatever success I have had in the industry.”

USG
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