January 7, 2022
5 Things to Know: Week Ending January 7
A Chicago lighting market update. A former baller CEO is now a Lieutenant Governor.
Here's a roundup of some of the week's happenings curated to help lighting people stay informed.
1. Distributor CEO turned Lieutenant Governor
Tammy Miller, the former CEO of Border States Industries, was sworn in as the 39th lieutenant governor of North Dakota on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. With over 100 locations and revenues believed to exceed $2.5 billion, Border States is one of the largest electrical distribution companies in North America.
Miller stepped down as Border States CEO in 2020 but remained Board Chair of the company until this month. Prior to the appointment as Lieutenant Governor, Miller was Chief Operating Officer for the North Dakota Governor’s Office.
2. What does “amber” light really mean?
A new research article by lighting researcher, educator and Co-Chair IES Color Committee, Tony Esposito, PhD, and Leora Radetsky, Senior Lighting Scientist at DesignLights Consortium, takes a first step towards developing a specification framework for the purpose of increasing the clarity of language used to specify light sources in outdoor applications.
3. Three Southeast Agent Principals Retire
Some notable agent principal retirement announcements recently hit the inside.lighting news desk:
Todd Langner, SESCO Lighting
SESCO Lighting President Emeritus and former SESCO Lighting CEO, Todd Langner, has retired from the business. With plenty of gas left in the tank, Langner now provides business consulting for select companies that can benefit from his business and leadership experience.
Bobby Ardd, Ardd + Winter
Effective January 1, Bobby Ardd has retired from Atlanta-based lighting agent, Ardd + Winter. The agency has been sold to Matt Bobo and Marty Hall. Sometimes when junior takes over dad’s business, failure follows. To the contrary, and over many decades, Bobby Ardd capably and consistently grew Ardd + Winter into an even more successful multi-state lighting agency.
Tony Meyer, Envision Lighting Systems
Tony Meyer has retired from Florida lighting agent, Envision Lighting Systems. The agency was formed when Meyer’s TM Lighting joined forces with Gulf Lighting in 2008. Carl Guggino, Danny Hackman and J.J. Meyer now lead the agency as Principals.
4. LED installation on iconic San Francisco bridge to go dark
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that after ten years, “Bay Lights” — the giant illuminated art installation on San Francisco’s iconic Bay Bridge — will go dark on March 5 unless deep-pocketed philanthropists step forward. Ben Davis, founder of Illuminate, is trying to raise $11 million to keep “Bay Lights” shining on the Bay Bridge.
Illuminate is a nonprofit that creates light-filled public art. The organization originally hatched the idea for “Bay Lights,” the 25,000 LED lights that sparkle in an ever-changing, abstract display stretching 1.8 miles across 300 cables on the western span of the Bay Bridge.
More from The Chronicle (paywall) »
5. Chicago lighting market update
At the start of January, all the Cooper Lighting brands were removed from the line card of Force Partners and are now cited as the sole brands on the line card of startup agent, The Lighting Digest. Cooper Lighting personnel are reportedly in Illinois this week and next week visiting customers and helping The Lighting Digest establish itself as the new Cooper agent.
During a December conversation with Ashley Williams, Principal of The Lighting Digest, we were informed that the agency would not recruit employees from Williams' former employer, KSA Lighting & Controls. When we asked Williams about The Lighting Digest's recent hire of KSA Project Manager, Angie Cascarelli, she informed us, "John Cascarelli and Angie Cascarelli are my brother and sister in law. So they are my family! Andrew Ondik has also been announced to join TLD. There are 9 employees already committed! I’m having a blast building this business and hiring the best of the best. We are so excited for our future."
As a Lighting Business Development Manager for electrical distributor, Steiner Electric, Andrew Ondik was a tED magazine “30 Under 35” honoree in 2020.
Related: Force Partners has recently added TCP, Avi-on and RBW Lighting to its line card. The former Cooper Lighting agent stated in November that it would announce its future plans in “the coming days and weeks” after the November 11 memo, but we are unaware of any such announcements nearly two months later. Force Partners principals have not replied to our multiple email inquiries in recent weeks.
