Taco Names Cheryl Merchant as New President
Taco Family of Companies CEO and owner John Hazen White Jr. announced that, as of Jan. 1, Cheryl Merchant is the president of Taco Family of Companies, North America. Merchant has spent the last 19 years as the president and CEO of Hope Global Industries, based in Cumberland, R.I.
“Cheryl’s track record at Hope Global speaks for itself and we are fortunate to have her join the Taco family,” White told his Cranston, R.I.-based workforce.
Luca Bolcati, formerly the vice president of Taco International, was named president of Taco International, effective Jan. 1 as well.
Frank Windsor Named President of Rinnai America
Tankless water heater manufacturer Rinnai America Corp. promoted Frank Windsor to president of the Peachtree City, GA-based company. Windsor joined Rinnai as general manager in 2014 and was later promoted to chief operating officer in 2016.
During his time with Rinnai, Windsor led major strategic initiatives including the start of the organization’s North American manufacturing facility in Griffin, GA. The facility produced its first tankless water heater in April 2018, making it the first major tankless water heating brand to manufacture in the United States.
He also supported the organization’s vision for future growth by leading the expansion of the company’s Peachtree City headquarters, which opened in September 2018. In 2019, the company will open a state-of-the-art training and innovation center at the headquarters that will be used to develop products for the North American market.
With the future in mind, Windsor also established an innovation department in 2018 that combines engineering and product management teams. It is responsible for developing new product initiatives for existing and new markets.
Before joining Rinnai, Windsor spent 23 years with Kohler Co. in various leadership positions leading up to vice president of sales, kitchen and bath, Americas.
Nortek Names Two Executives for Leadership Positions
St. Louis-based Nortek Air Management named Hervé Mallet as senior vice president of operations and Kevin S. Facinelli as senior vice president of engineering and product management. These new appointments will help enhance the growing company’s executive management and leadership.
Mallet is a former CEO of McInnis Cement, Montreal, which operates a 2.2-million-ton cement plant in Quebec’s Port-Daniel–Gascons. Previously, Mallet was executive vice president of North America for Dynacast Inc., a global die-cast metal injection molding and precision tooling company with 23 plants worldwide.
Facinelli, who is an operations and technology specialist with experience in the Internet of Things, supply chain optimization, industrial technology and other disciplines, is the former executive vice president of operations for Minneapolis-based Daikin Applied Americas. Prior to that post, Facinelli was vice president of manufacturing and technology at Johnson Controls.
Fujitsu Appoints Trautman National Account Sales Manager
Fujitsu General America, based in Fairfield, NJ, hired David Trautman as its national account sales manager. Trautman started the new position in November and is focused on supporting unitary sales with large, national distributors. He will also support other unitary sales activities.
From his time at Lennox, Johnson Controls and other HVAC sales positions, Trautman is well-versed in unitary and ductless technology and brings ample industry experience to his new role at Fujitsu.