We welcome new team members

With this issue, we welcome two new members to the Machinery & Equipment MRO team: Jay Armstrong and Hwee Choo. Coincidentally, they have both moved over from working on automotive industry publications in our publishing group. It’s not a big leap for them to grasp the differences in the MRO market; instead of OEMs, jobbers and end users, we deal with OEMs, manufacturers’ reps and industrial distributors, and end users. The business model for the way products and services get to the end users is very similar.

Jay is our new advertising sales manager, and you can read about his background on page 8. He replaces Eric Achilles Cousineau, who has moved on to work on his creative passions.

Hwee is our new art director, replacing Ellie Robinson, who is now handling other publications in our group. Hwee has been in the group for 20 years, and is looking forward to the challenge of creating the page layouts for MRO Magazine. That means making each page easy-to-read and compelling through the selection and placement of text, display copy and graphics. It’s an interesting and creative task.

Jay will work directly with our new, previously introduced, publisher, Jim Petsis, who also has had experience with our company’s automotive industry publications. They’ll work not only on our print magazine but also on our active website at mromagazine.com, and our weekly e-newsletter, along with other useful marketing offerings for advertisers. Plus, they’ll help manage a tabletop trade show we are launching − MRO Expo − on April 23.

The new MRO Expo, taking place at the Mississauga Convention Centre, is partnered with Plant Expo, which is being organized by our sister publication, Plant Magazine. Both tabletop shows take place on the same day, under the same roof, making it easy for those of you in southern Ontario to see hundreds of new products and services aimed at the MRO and Plant markets.

This year, we’re also putting extra emphasis on two of our special sections, Industrial Lubrication and Oil/Gas/Mining MRO. The latter section will next appear in our April issue, with the lubrication section set for June, so if your interests are in those areas, watch for those upcoming specials.

As you see, we’re going through some important changes. Yet despite this, I believe it’s important to maintain continuity – it’s what’s kept us successful and viable over the past 29 years, after all. And as your ongoing editor, that’s what I’ll strive to do. Our goal is pretty straightforward − to present useful information that will help you in your daily work. I hope we’ve been succeeding, and if you agree, watch for more of the same. 

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Write me at broebuck@mromagazine.com or post a comment on Twitter at mromagazine. Every bit of feedback is valued.