Key Personnel Promoted at Kito Americas

Carlo Lonardi, president and CEO, Kito Americas Inc. and executive officer Kito Corporation, has confirmed the promotions of key personnel as the company continues to build its Kito Americas corporate structure.

Marc Premont, COO of Kito Americas Inc. and executive officer of Kito Corporation, who currently leads subsidiary operations in Canada and Brazil, will assume a number of additional responsibilities related to business development. He will now take on a senior leadership role for business development for the Kito Americas group.

Chris Hess has been promoted to vice president of quality and product development engineering for Kito Americas Inc. In this position, Hess will assume responsibility for advancing the capabilities of both Harrington Hoists Inc. and Peerless Industrial Group in identifying technological product innovations and unifying quality processes.

Hess was hired as manager of engineering and quality control in 1995 and was later named director of engineering where he led the engineering department for Harrington. He earned his BSME from Lafayette College and is a Licensed Professional Engineer. He currently serves as vice president of Hoist Manufacturers Institute (HMI), is a member of ANSE B30.16 and B30.21 committees on hoists and is a Standards Technical Panel member for Underwriters Laboratories.

Jason Said was promoted to director business development and will oversee marketing and sales strategies for the product development of hoists and lifting and will be responsible to develop and implement growth opportunities for hoists, cranes and below-the-hook products.

Said joined Harrington Hoists Inc. in 1997 in the production department of the Corona CA facility. He later moved into Sales and eventually became the western region sales manager. He relocated to Manheim PA in 2014 after being named business development sales manager where he managed marketing and the development process of new products and services.

Ken Woidill was promoted from director of operations to managing director of Harrington Hoists Inc. He will control and oversee business operations and will guide and monitor overall workflow and processes to ensure they meet the company’s short-term and long-term objectives.

Pictured from left to right: Chris Hess, Jason Said and Ken Woidill.

He will also lead Harrington’s customer service, engineering, supply chain and production teams in this new role. Ken was hired in 2013 as Harrington’s director of operations where he was responsible for the management of both strategic and day-to-day production, facilities planning, manufacturing and supply chain.

Kito Americas Inc. consists of Harrington Hoists Inc., Peerless Industrial Group, Kito Canada Inc. and Kito Do Brasil and is the largest division within the Kito Group companies. They are manufacturers and suppliers of electric chain and wire rope hoists, air powered hoists, lever hoists, manual hand chain hoists, trolleys, cranes, crane components, below-the-hook devices, material handling equipment, cargo control, hardware chain and accessories, marine and traction products.