Newly elected vice president, Eric Grabowski, Edge Construction Supply, Spokane, Wash., will serve as 2014 president of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA). Recently elected president, Rod Gowett, Bay Tool & Supply, Milpitas, Calif., needs to step back to STAFDA vice president for one year to focus on a critical family medical issue.

However, he will serve as STAFDA president in 2015. The STAFDA Board of Directors unanimously agreed to this change. Grabowski’s duties will begin at the General Session, November 12, during the Association’s Annual Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas, November 11-13.

Just as in politics, the role of the vice president is to fulfill the role of the president in the event the president is unable to meet his obligation. The same principle applies here.

Grabowski joined Edge Construction Supply in 2006 and now serves as CEO. The company has eight locations in the Pacific Northwest serving the commercial construction market with a growing emphasis on industrial and government markets. He recently served as Chairman of Evergreen Marketing Group, Farmers Branch, Texas. Edge has been a STAFDA member since 1978.

Gowett founded Bay Tool & Supply in 1992 catering to electrical and plumbing contractors with two branches in San Francisco and Reno, Nevada. His career began in 1979 as an outside sales rep for Don Newcomb Tool, Santa Clara, Calif. Bay Tool has been a STAFDA member since 1994.