Shannon, Rose Lead NFDA

John Wolz

Mark Shannon of Tower Fasteners Co., Holtsville, NY, is the new president of the National Fastener Distributors Association, and Wendy Rose of Blue Chip Engineered Products, Cincinnati, OH, is the vice president and president-elect. \
Shannon succeeds Joel Roseman of Canton, MA-based Arnold Industries. Roseman is the only president to also serve as associate chair. Roseman headed associates in 1996-97 when he was with Bell Fasteners.
Timothy O’Keefe of G.L. Huyett, Minneapolis, KS, is the new associate chair. O’Keefe succeeds Char Cooper of Cable Tie Express, Noblesville, IN.
Shannon is vice president of sales & marketing and owner of the distributorship founded by his father, the late Thomas Shannon. Mark Shannon joined Tower Fasteners fulltime in 1984 and has worked in almost every position, from warehouse and purchasing to quality assurance. E-mail: mshannon@towerfast.com
From 2002 to 2004 Rose, a native of Canada, was a professor of communication at Northern Kentucky University. In 2005 Rose and her husband, Mike Rose, entered the fastener industry by acquiring Blue Chip Engineered Products. Ninety percent of the 25-year-old Cincinnati company’s business is in custom fasteners and 10% in standards. Most of the Blue Chip customers are in the automotive industry. Blue Chip also supplies the building, appliance, agriculture, transportation, security and furniture industries. Rose’s roles also include a decade of senior management and government liaison roles with two Canadian trade associations: the Crop Protection Institute and the Urban Pest Management Council.
O’Keeffe’s career started with Procter & Gamble as a sales manager. In 1985 he started an M&A firm in Kansas City and earned the Certified Business Intermediary title. In1992 O’Keeffe entered the fastener industry by acquiring G.L. Huyett from Bob Hahn. The manufacturer and importer of non-threaded fasteners has grown from one employee to 140 today. O’Keeffe is vice president and his wife, Carol O’Keeffe, is president.
New board members are Jack O’Donoghue III, Accurate Fasteners Inc., South Boston, MA; James Spillman, Creative Assembly Systems, Groveport, OH; and Steve Turner, Great Lakes Fasteners & Supply, Traverse City, MI. Dave Monti of Fall River Manufacturing, Fall River, MA, is the new associates board member.
O’Donoghue is the son of past NFDA president Jack O’Donoghue. The new board member has been in the industry since as a child he ran mail and separated screws on Saturdays.
Spillman started his fastener career in 1986 with a furniture fastener company. In 1987 he joined Capital Fasteners and held customer service, inside sales manager, marketing manager and account manager roles. CFI was sold to Questron in 1999 and the parent company went into bankruptcy in 2002 before being acquired by General Electric. Spillman held national quotes team, commercial and aerospace branch manager roles. In 2005 he joined Creative Assembly Systems as president.
Turner started in the fastener industry in 1984 under his father-in-law Bill Hodges and partner Jim Kennedy at H&K Fastener. In 1999 H&K was acquired by Gordon Vandermeulen’s Great Lakes Fasteners & Supply.
Monti joined the fastener industry nine years ago after being in the automotive aftermarket parts business. He is vice president and general manager of Fall River, a manufacturer of stainless steel and nonferrous screws, bolts and nuts. Monti also is an Industrial Fasteners Institute board member.
Established in 1968, the NFDA reported 118 distributor members and 104 associate members. For NFDA information contact executive vice president John Hausoul. Tel: 312 527-6671 Fax 312 673-6740 E-mail: nfda@nfda-fastener.org Web: nfda-fastener.org �2008 FastenerNews.com