April 20, 2017
Contact: Neda Simeonova / Communications Director / nsimeonova@era.org
ERA Elects New Officers for 2017-19 Term
The Electronic Representatives Association (ERA) has announced that its board of directors elected new national officers for the 2017-19 term during its March 2017 meeting. They are: chairman of the board – Dan Parks, CPMR, of West Electronic Solutions; president – David Norris of Norris and Associates; senior vice president / fiscal and legal – Chuck Tanzola, CPMR, of the Fusion Sourcing Group; senior vice president / education – John O’Brien, CPMR, of Coakley, Boyd and Abbett; senior vice president / membership – Kathie Cahill, CPMR, of Net Sales Company; and senior vice president / industry – Bob Evans, CPMR, of EK Micro.
Evans is a new member of the association’s executive committee. Parks succeeds the outgoing chairman, Paul Nielsen, CPMR, of Brainard-Nielsen Marketing, who concluded 12 years as a national officer. The continuing executive committee members are: Ken Bellero, president of Schaffner EMC Inc., the manufacturer delegate; Chris Beeson, executive vice president of sales and supplier management for Digi-Key Electronics, the distributor delegate; and ERA CEO Walter Tobin, who serves as an ex officio member.
The ERA Board honored Nielsen for his service with the Key Award at the association’s 2017 Conference, held in Austin, Texas, in late February.
ERA CEO Walter Tobin commented on Nielsen’s invaluable contribution to the association, “We are deeply grateful to Paul for his 12 years of volunteer service as a national officer and many additional years as a Chicagoland-Wisconsin ERA chapter leader.”
Nielsen is only the 36th recipient of the Key Award in ERA’s 82-year history. He told the conference attendees, “My time working with ERA is probably the smartest thing I’ve done profession-ally. I’ve learned a lot and met some great people whom I will count as friends long after my career is over.”
About ERA
The 82-year-old Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) is the international trade organization for professional field sales companies in the global electronics industries, manufacturers who go to market through representative firms and global distributors. It is the mission of ERA to support the professional field sales function through programs and activities that educate, inform and advocate for manufacturers’ representatives, the principals they represent and the distributors who are reps’ partners in local territories. ERA member representative firms (often called “reps”) provide field sales services on an exclusive basis to manufacturers of related (but non-competing) products in a defined territory. For more information about ERA, visit era.org.