People – February 2008

• Universal Granite & Marble (UGM) appoints Sunil Sikka as regional vice president at UGM’s headquarters in Chicago, reporting to Rakesh Malhotra, UGM Group COO.  He brings 17 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development.
• Douglas S. Goldsmith, president/COO of Rock of Ages Corp.’s quarry division, left the Concord, N.H. quarrier/fabricator to become CFO of NRG Systems, a privately held manufacturer of wind assessment and turbine control wind-power-equipment company in Hinesburg, Vt. Donald Labonte, president/COO of Rock of Ages’ manufacturing division, will assume responsibility for both divisions.
• Donald F. Schalk joins C.H. Briggs Co. as president/COO. Schalk served as president/general manager of EnergyUnited Propane LLC before coming to the Reading, Pa.-based distributor of specialty building products, including DuPont’s Corian? and Zodiaq?, as well as natural stone.
• Genie Wachter joins Midwest Tile, Marble & Granite as an architectural/design and commercial sales representative. She comes to the St. Louis stone supplier with 18 years of contracting and construction experience, including direct involvement in the past few years with the fabrication of natural stone.
• GranitiFiandre promotes Joy Klein to director of national accounts for the Italian stone and tile importer’s United States operations in Itasca, Ill. Klein has been associated with GranitiFiandre since 1998 and held various management positions, including hospitality division manager.
• Stone Construction Equipment Inc. adds Mike Clark as district manager for Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and the province of Manitoba. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the equipment-sales and -rental industry to the Honeoye, N.Y. construction-equipment company.
• Biesse S.p.A appoints Courtney Dupuy as showroom coordinator. Dupuy, who’s worked with the company for six years, will be in charge of the area for equipment display and technical seminars at Biesse America’s Charlotte, N.C., headquarters; a new facility will be in place at the end of 2008.
• Bonsal American Inc. adds Art Henson as marketing coordinator, handling graphic design for all brands, including Sakrete, ProSpec and Amguard. He holds more than 14 years of marketing and advertising experience; prior to joining Charlotte, N.C.-based Bonsal, he ran his own design firm, Henson Advertising. 
• Delta Diamond Tools appoints James P. Whalen as its first national sales manager, with sales/marketing responsibility for all of the tools and consumables sold by the Southfield, Mich.-based company. Whalen’s 15 years of sales experience includes the last several in the stone industry.
• Dr. Neil McMurdie joins MAPEI as director of research and development efforts for MAPEI Americas. A graduate of Yale University, with a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry, McMurdie worked at PPG Industries for 14 years before coming to Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based MAPEI Americas.
• Creative Materials Corp. names John Sesonske as supply chain manager. He’ll oversee all customer service, importation, inventory management and product sampling for more than 30 national accounts; he brings more than 15 years of experience in supply-chain-component management to the Albany, N.Y.-based nationwide distributor of architectural tile, brick, and stone.