Lincoln Electric Promotes Two to Global Industry Segment Positions
Cleveland- The Lincoln Electric Company has announced two appointments: Peter Pletcher has been named Director, Global Consumable Development, and Ferry Naber has been appointed Director, Global Machine Development. Both are new positions within the Company's Global Marketing and Product Development organization and will be effective June 1, 2010.
"Leveraging our global footprint is key to our competitiveness and growth as a worldwide organization," said Richard J. Seif, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Product Development. "Peter Pletcher and Ferry Naber will be filling two new strategic roles to further strengthen our global position.
"Mr. Pletcher was chosen to pioneer this newly created global consumable role based on his proven track record of deploying welding solutions, extracting major customer requirements, and mapping product needs for worldwide development.
"Mr. Naber has collaborated with Lincoln's machine development in Italy, Poland and the U.S. to bring a winning equipment portfolio to the European continent. With his wide range of knowledge and deep understanding of customers, along with his ability to connect with all levels of the Lincoln global organization, he is an ideal choice to drive the critical initiatives for this new role."
Mr. Pletcher will be responsible for championing global consumable development by leveraging resources and product designs for the growth of Lincoln Electric. He joined the Company in 1995 as a technical representative and later joined the U.S. sales organization and worked in Lincoln's Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., sales offices. He was promoted to Technical Manager in 2002 and assigned to Lincoln's Shanghai, China, operations. After the Shanghai assignment, Mr. Pletcher moved to Singapore as Country Manager, where he developed Lincoln's offshore business and was later promoted to business director, Offshore, his most recent assignment. Mr. Pletcher holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with welding as a specialty from LeTourneau University and an MBA from Rutgers University.
Mr. Naber will help develop Lincoln's global equipment with common platforms, supporting both technologies and design standards to create a uniform brand promise to customers worldwide. He began his welding industry career in 1973, working in service, sales and sales management at Smitweld, in Nijmegen, in the Netherlands. As an electrical and electronics engineer, he was promoted to Manager of Welding Equipment in the early 1990's, when Lincoln integrated the Smitweld organization into its portfolio of companies. Adding a marketing degree from Instituut voor Bedrijfswetenschappen B.V. University to his engineering and welding education, Mr. Naber was instrumental in developing machine product platforms to serve the needs of the European market.
Mr. Naber will continue to be based in Nijmegen at Lincoln's Smitweld operations, and Mr. Pletcher will be based in the United States at the Company's world headquarters and major operations in Cleveland, Ohio.
Lincoln Electric Company is the major domestic subsidiary of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc., (Nasdaq: LECO). The Company is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc-welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment and has a leading global position in the brazing and soldering alloys market. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Lincoln has 37 manufacturing locations, including operations and joint ventures in 18 countries and a worldwide network of distributors and sales offices covering more than 160 countries. For more information about Lincoln Electric, its products and services, visit the Company's website at www.lincolnelectric.com.
