Cleveland, Oh., USA - August 6, 2009, Cleveland, Oh., USA - Lincoln Electric Holdings announced four new assignments in its senior executive management team.
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David LeBlanc has been named to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, President of Lincoln Electric International. He will be responsible for all of Lincoln's welding businesses outside North America. This includes Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, South America and Africa. Mr. LeBlanc has been President, Lincoln Electric Europe since 2005. He began his Lincoln career as a sales trainee in 1986, after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering. He then spent three-and-a-half years with General Electric and subsequently received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1994. Mr. LeBlanc rejoined Lincoln in 1995 and was named General Manager of Lincoln Mexicana and was later promoted to President, Lincoln Electric Latin America.
George Blankenship has been promoted to Senior Vice President and President, Lincoln Electric North America. In this new role, Mr. Blankenship will be responsible for Lincoln Electric's North American welding business, which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico. Prior to his new assignment, he was President, Lincoln Cleveland and Senior Vice President of Global Engineering. Mr. Blankenship joined Lincoln in 1985 as an engineering trainee after earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University. At Lincoln, he has held engineering product development and operations management positions of increasing responsibility.
Richard Seif has been named Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Automation. In his new role, he will help develop Lincoln's global automation strategy and the coordination of three product lines: flexible automation, hard automation systems and environmental/fume extraction. Mr. Seif joined Lincoln in 1971 as a technical sales representative and has held several sales and executive management positions, including Vice President, Marketing, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln Electric Canada, and Vice President, Sales and Marketing U.S.A. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an MBA in marketing from Michigan State University. ■