Philips Strand Lighting and Philips Selecon Realign North American and Global Operations

Philips Strand Lighting and Philips Selecon announce the creation of three new regional commercial leader positions and a realignment of key managers to strengthen its operations in North America and around the world. In order to bolster its market position and brand awareness, the operations were realigned to focus its regional offices to better serve their respective markets.

"The strength of our staff, these brands, and our diverse technologies allow us to make these changes", states Steve Carson, general manager for Philips Entertainment Group. Carson adds, "One of the keys of this realignment is the appointment of industry veterans to leadership roles to meet the expectations of our customers worldwide, provide unparalleled pre and post sales service, and drive future product endeavors with the technologies we are developing."

One of these key appointments is Julie Smith, general commercial manager for Philips Strand Lighting and Philips Selecon North America. In her new role, Smith will be responsible for sales, marketing, support services, and the daily operations of these brands from the Dallas, Texas home office. Smith also manages the global customer and technical support teams for all Philips Entertainment Group brands. Smith joins Graham Eales, mommercial general manager for Australia / New Zealand, and Selwyn Jonker, commercial Manager for the Asia-Pacific region.

As part of the recent changes, both the sales and marketing groups now report directly to Smith including Pete Borchetta, product marketing manager, and Bobby Harrell, controls product manager. Soon, a national sales manager will be announced to manage the sales in the United States and Canada who will join our Latin American sales manager reporting directly to Smith.

"My first step is to refocus our energies to those markets that have made Philips Strand Lighting and Philips Selecon global leaders in lighting controls and lighting," said Smith. "I look forward to this challenge and want to bring together our current strengths that have made us successful and expand our operations to meet our customers' future lighting needs. This industry is not about products. It's about bringing technology, solutions, and service into a single package."