Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast Get A Grip On Lighting

Sure, Jon sells light bulbs, but he also sells safety and risk mitigation. First, by installing the right bulb in the right position, safety is increased, and second, by installing a longer lasting bulb and requiring someone to climb up and change it less often, he is mitigating risk. If you're doing it right, you’ll NEVER have OSHA involved. Jon Rud is an accomplished sales executive with over a decade of experience in the electrical and lighting industries. Currently serving as the VP of Sales for the Americas at Dialight, Jon has been with the company since 2012, where he has held various pivotal roles after having started as a regional sales manager. Prior to his current position, he served as the Director of Sales for the Gulf region for seven years and the Global Strategic Accounts Manager for two years. Before joining Dialight, Jon developed his expertise in the electrical industry with business development at Graybar and previous to that served as the Industrial Manager for Border States Electric for three years. A dedicated member of the Green Building Council since 2011, Jon is committed to promoting sustainable building practices and innovative lighting. 

If you want to REALLY become technically proficient about lighting, get on grow lighting. Taylor Schaberg has been in the business for quite awhile and he tells us he’s still learning. You want to light a warehouse, throw up some high bays. You want to light a cannabis greenhouse? Wait a minute, what strain of cannabis is it? How strong do you want it to be? Then there are the controls that you need to set to mimic night and day. And then there’s the heat and moisture controls! Taylor is all for educating lighting professionals who want to get into the grow lighting business. After you listen to this episode, check out Taylors podcast, Get Up & Grow (activegrowled.com/en-ca/pages/the-get-up-and-grow-podcast). Taylor is the Founder and CEO of Active Grow. He started working in lighting back in 2011 when he lived in a factory in Nanjing, China. This was during the time when commercial LEDs were starting to flood the American and European markets. He then got a job with Green Creative in Shanghai during their early days, as a product manager. He was always intrigued by how spectrums can manipulate organic life, and the idea of sustainable food and medicine production. So he designed and built an LED prototype to test on a friend's cannabis farm in California. The tests were successful so he drove a beat up van full of samples from Eau Claire, WI to Seattle, WA and started Active Grow. In the early days of the company he lived on a cannabis farm, did hands-on research and learned what it takes to grow healthy and thriving plants. Today Active Grow offers a variety of grow lights not only for cannabis growers but microgreen businesses, mushroom farms, vertical farms, plant-based food production facilities and more. 

If you don’t know who Bill Brown was, you weren’t in the lighting industry. From founding Bill Brown Sales at the kitchen table with his wife Norma in 1955, to creating A.L.P manufacturing in 1972, Bill was a force in the industry. Known for his mutual respect, philanthropy and hard work, he received numerous industry awards over his lifetime. We were lucky enough to have him as a guest way back on episode 10 in 2017. Please enjoy this retrospective and encore presentation. https://www.billbrownsales.com/ 

Like many of us, India “fell” into lighting. Except India’s interest is in the history of Los Angeles street lighting, from the “moon towers” of the 1880’s, to the Golden Age of street lighting in the 40’s and 50’s to the skyrocketing of street lighting over crime concerns in the 60’s. Some of these classic light poles are still in use, but alas, with copper wire theft and some of these cast iron poles being literally ripped out of the ground and taken for scrap metal, we may be losing the beauty of the past. Come on, leave the street lights alone! India Mandelkern was born in Los Angeles, California, received her B.A. from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, and received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley. After all this school, she made her way back to Los Angeles, where she has worked as a curator, consultant, and critic, writing on art, culture, design, and cities for a variety of publications, both local and national. From 2016-2018 she served as a fellow at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she got interested in public art and worked as the speechwriter for the CEO. During her tenure there, she created a 'field guide' to the 16 different 1920s and 1930s streetlight designs included in Chris Burden's famous streetlight sculpture located at LACMA's south entrance, Urban Light. The guide became an overnight hit at the museum, which led her down a rabbit hole, so to speak, and resulted in her latest book, Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles, published in late 2023 by Hat & Beard Press. In the book, she uses the streetlight as a "flashlight" to reexamine the history of LA, looking at how lighting shaped conversations about civic identity, transportation, policing, and the definition of public space, to name a few. She currently works at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) –– a fortuitously "streetlight-adjacent" gig –– where she oversees the agency's blog and writes about Metro construction projects and policies. 

Paolo is your typical customer for a lighting distributor or a contractor. The misinformation on LED lifecycles, the difficulty in replacing drivers, and the sheer waste that has been created prompts Paolo to label the whole system as a Ponzy scheme. How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? The joke’s on you because on many fixtures, you can’t change the bulb.Paolo Cordovado is a Building Operator at Avison Young Real Estate Management Services, recognized as BOMA Toronto's 2023 Emerging Leader of the Year. With a decade of experience, Paolo is a key member of the Ontario Operations Team, overseeing two buildings in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). He excels in problem-solving, preventive maintenance, and tenant relations, earning a reputation as the go-to person for building needs. Paolo's professionalism extends beyond his role, actively contributing to industry groups, mentoring new operators, and spearheading innovative initiatives such as e-waste recycling and piloting barcoding systems for preventive maintenance tasks. As a member of Avison Young's Global Operations Task Force, Paolo is shaping the future of CRE operations, demonstrating leadership and dedication to excellence in building management.  Connect with Paolo: www.linkedin.com/in/paolocordovado/ linkedin Group- Building Operations-  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9127092/ Newsletter- https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/lets-talk-building-operations-7097993398795595777/ 

Mike is a member of AAILA and he’ll tout the benefits all day long, from assistance and support to education, just like NAILD does for independent lighting distributors. AAILA brings together independent lighting agents and makes them “stronger together.” When he’s not volunteering for AAILA, he and his company are working on projects like lighting the longest enclosed pedestrian bridge in the world. (https://www.durhamregion.com/news/lighting-up-the-pickering-skyline/article_008e7f09-f2f4-5d10-96bc-0601ce2c4f33.html) The vision for Mike’s company, Visionz, is simple: be dedicated to the customer experience, partner with premier brands, and support the design community on their projects from start to finish. You’ll have to listen to the end to hear what Michael and Greg think is the best explanation they've heard for what an agent is. A Canadian with over 24 years in the lighting industry, Mike Hamilton’s experience in the lighting specification community is extensive, having been a part of the 12V LED lighting market, from its inception. Mike has led national sales teams and participated in their product design & development initiatives. All prior to entering the lighting specification market in Toronto. Mike has participated in a number of media attention grabbing projects, like the lighting of the longest enclosed pedestrian bridge in the world. Mike is currently the principal of Visionz Inc. a prominent Toronto based Architectural Products agency, that is focused on the creation of specifications in the areas of Architectural Lighting, Landscape Furnishings, and integration of Architectural Elements.