CINCINNATI, Ohio, March 1, 2011—Jess Brown has been named Vice President and Chief Information Officer at RelaDyne, Inc., the equipment reliability management company formed last fall to deliver broad-based lubrication products and services throughout the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions.
Brown is responsible for all RelaDyne information technology services and support activities. His first priority is to establish a common computing platform throughout the organization, which was launched when four leading equipment lubrication and service companies in the United States joined together in November 2010. “We’ll integrate the new computing system into all of our business units to foster common operating procedures and capitalize on economies of scale,” said Brown, who added his responsibilities also will include business intelligence and reporting.
The opportunity to join a company such as RelaDyne with plans to transform the industrial lubrication industry and become a major player in the business is very exciting, Brown acknowledged. He is working as part of the management team to efficiently serve RelaDyne’s three core markets: industrial, commercial and automotive.
“We’re very pleased to have a technology executive such as Jess on-board to champion the integration of our new computing system throughout RelaDyne,” CEO Larry Stoddard said. “Such technology is critical to achieving the operational efficiencies and customer responsiveness that will clearly illustrate our value proposition to the market over the next several months.”
Prior to joining RelaDyne, Brown spent nearly 24 years with Wolseley plc, holding positions at Ferguson Enterprises, Inc.; Stock Building Supply and at Wolseley’s head office. Ferguson, located in Newport News, Va., is one of the nation’s leading plumbing; pipes, valves and fittings; and building supply wholesale distributors. There, Brown held a variety of technical and business operations positions with ever-increasing responsibilities. Most recently, he was involved in optimizing Ferguson’s SAP computing platform, as well as establishing programs to gather market intelligence, gauge customer service, and establish regional administrative services. Earlier, he was director of business operations for Stock Building Supply, from 2008-2009. In this position, he developed common business processes to facilitate system utilization. Prior to this, Brown was Director of Software Applications at the Wolseley Group, from 2004-2008. He began his career at Ferguson in 1987 as a Support Analyst, and steadily rose through the ranks to the position of Director of Information Technology from 2001-2004.
Brown received a B.S. Degree in Management Information Systems from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. He completed executive development programs at the University of Virginia and the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition, he attended the Gallup School of Management in Lincoln, Neb., to study management.
Brown resides in Williamsburg, Va.