People News

Bradley Corp., announced the appointment of Mark Whittington to vice president, business development. Whittington will join Bradley’s leadership team, and in his role is responsible for growing Bradley’s plumbing products business. He has held various sales, operations and supply chain leadership positions in the plumbing industry for 20-plus years, most notably with Elkay as executive vice president-plumbing. “Mark possesses extensive knowledge of the plumbing wholesale industry, knows many of our sales representative agencies and the leading wholesaler customers,” said Luis de Leon, Bradley’s chief operating officer. “We are excited that he has joined Bradley’s leadership team, and is already making a positive impact on our business.”

Environmental engineering and construction firm Brown and Caldwell announced the promotion of Marc Damikolas from director of operations to COO, effective immediately.

With more than 20 years of experience, Damikolas’ background encompasses the capture, planning, design and construction of municipal and private sector water and wastewater infrastructure projects. He has served as principal-in-charge on numerous high-profile projects and programs in California and throughout the U.S., including major sewer rehabilitations, ocean outfall system overhauls, advanced wastewater treatment plant upgrades and new drinking water systems.

SEPI, a fully integrated engineering and design firm, announced the promotion of Nick Ellis to president. Ellis joined the firm in December 2019 as the SVP, business manager. He will lead the firm’s operations and finance teams.

A 25-year veteran of the AEC industry, Ellis was the managing director of Savills, a leading commercial real estate service firm, before his appointment at SEPI. Prior to joining Savills in 2016, he was employed by Kimley-Horn and Associates for 21 years. He served as a principal and senior vice president for 15 years, 13 of which he was CFO and treasurer. During his tenure, the firm realized significant national growth and market expansion.
Ellis will continue to work closely with the executive team, business unit leaders and other senior leadership to develop, implement and execute short-and long-term actionable strategies to enhance operations, key performance indicators, and profitability, develop markets and grow revenue, while supporting the culture of the firm.

Dewberry announced Wycliffe Ogega, P.E., has joined the firm as a project manager in the Raleigh, North Carolina, office.

With nearly 10 years of experience, Ogega joins the firm’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) group to expand its power systems services. He serves healthcare, municipal, commercial, industrial and institutional clients by performing short circuit, protective device coordination, arc flash and load flow studies. In addition to his responsibilities as a power systems designer, Ogega is responsible for leading arc flash training and data collection exercises for clients and staff.

Gary Boshart, founder and chair of the Boshart Group, and its newly appointed CEO Jeremy Kuepfer, announced new leadership appointments and transitions in its North American operations. Gary Boshart officially announced Kuepfer, his son in law, has been appointed as the CEO of the Boshart Group. Kuepfer has most recently served as the senior VP of IT and operations at Boshart Industries. The extensive experience he has gained over the past 21 years in his various roles has allowed him to form a strong foundation to build upon and lead the group into its next season of growth and development, Boshart noted.

Additionally, Julie Storey continues as president of Boshart Industries, a promotion that occurred in November 2019. Bo Andersson, who served Flomatic for more than 50 years, most recently as president, will transition to a new role as director or research and development for Boshart Group. Nick Farrara was named president of Flomatic, effective March 1. Farrara has been an integral part of the Flomatic team since 1996 and was most recently executive vice president.

Company News

Manufacturers representative firm HEBCO of Independence, Missouri has been awarded Milwaukee Valve’s 2021 Ron Stockstell Memorial Award for quarter-turn sales growth in 2020. Milwaukee Valve created the Ron Stockstell Memorial Award to celebrate the agency that has shown the greatest sales growth in quarter-turn products over the past year. In 2020, HEBCO was able to increase quarter-turn sales by more than 40%. This growth occurred while the company was dealing with the transition of leadership from one generation to the next, and the trials presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Milwaukee Valve explained.

The Stockstell Award is named for Milwaukee Valve’s first quarter-turn valve product manager, who was hired in 1986 to supervise the development of the company’s bronze and brass ball valves and iron butterfly valves. Prior to his arrival, Milwaukee Valve imported a few brass ball valves and a very limited offering of iron butterfly valves. Under Ron Stockstell’s guidance, Milwaukee Valve designed and manufactured its own valves, and Stockstell spearheaded the projects, adding the industrial offering of carbon and stainless steel ball valves.

RectorSeal announced EDOS Manufacturing Representatives has expanded the sales territory for RectorSeal products. EDOS adds Maine, eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island to its coverage area. RectorSeal also announced an association with EDOS in June 2020 to serve plumbing and HVAC customers in Vermont, western Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

Reliance Worldwide Corp., a manufacturer of push-to-connect plumbing products, valves, secondary pipe supports, firestopping solutions and fluid control technologies, is partnering with Home Builders Institute, a national leader in career training for the building and construction industry, as the exclusive trade sponsor for its 22 plumbing programs across the U.S., primarily serving Job Corps students and justice-involved individuals. These HBI programs provide students with the skills, experience and placement services they need to have a successful career while helping the trade address labor shortages, RWC noted. RWC added this partnership was a natural opportunity to double down on its commitment to promote and further the plumbing trade after its Careers in Construction Month efforts, through its SharkBite and HoldRite brands, in October.