Briefs

Friedland Industries wins Outstanding Small Business Award

Friedland Industries received the Greater Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Small Business Award at the chamber’s annual dinner Tuesday.

“For nearly 130 years, our family has been proud to call Lansing home,” said Larry Bass, CEO of Friedland Industries. “We’re honored to accept this award on behalf of our family and also the great people who work so hard at Friedland.”

Friedland Industries processes metals, paper, plastics, and electronics for recycling, including an extensive confidential shredding service for paper, hard drives, and other media items.

“We are committed to being good neighbors and helping Lansing both economically and environmentally,” said Mike Bass, a manager with Friedland.

Each year, Friedland Industries donates more than 10,000 pounds of metal to artists in support of Scrapfest, an outdoor metal art exhibition and contest held in Lansing’s Old Town. Friedland also holds Confidential Document Destruction Day after tax day each year so that residents and business owners can confidentially shred and recycle confidential documents for free.

“We are honored that the Chamber has recognized not only our business, but also the importance of the scrap and commodity recycling industry to Mid- Michigan,” said Randy Rifkin, co-owner of Friedland Industries. “We hope to take this positive momentum and continue our mission to benefit Lansing environmentally and economically.”

Interim BWL general manager names new executive team

The deck continues to be shuffled at the Board of Water & Light.

Interim General Manager Dick Peffley announced his new executive team members this week.

“This team has the right kind of experience and professional leadership to assist me in delivering our core mission — to provide BWL customers with reliable and affordable electric and water service. This realignment of responsibilities is designed to place the right people in the right jobs in order to maximize service to our customers,” said Peffley, in a written statement.

Stephen Sarkaian, executive director of public affairs, said four positions are promotions and will likely come with pay increases but they have not been determined. The reorganization plan was shared with the board of commissioners, he said.

The executive team members, who will report to Peffley unless otherwise noted, include:

• Heather Shawa-DeCook - chief financial officer. Shawa-DeCook, whom Peffley announced as CFO last month, previously served Lansing’s Demmer Corp. as vice president of operations and CFO.

• George Stojic - executive director, planning and development. Stojic, who has been with the BWL since 2007, will continue to be responsible for longterm planning, environmental compliance, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, major customer projects, project engineering and market operations. Stojic previously worked at the Michigan Public Service Commission in various regulatory positions for 30 years.

• Dave Bolan - promoted to interim executive director, operations. Bolan, who served as director of electric transmission and distribution, has been with the BWL since 1987 and assumes Peffley’s former position. Bolan will continue overseeing T&D and add electric generation and water production and distribution to his responsibilities. Before joining the BWL, Bolan worked at Houston Lighting and Power.

• Michael Flowers - promoted to executive director, Human Resources. Flowers most recently was director of water operations, but he had served as BWL director of human resources. Before that he worked in human resources for Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America and Sparrow Health System. Flowers has been with the BWL since 2008.

• Trent Atkins - promoted to director, emergency planning, security, safety and training. Atkins, who will report to Flowers and will be included in all of Peffley’s executive team meetings, joined the BWL in 2014 as the BWL’s first emergency operations manager. He will continue responsibilities for emergency preparedness and management and adds security, safety and training to his duties. Atkins was a 24-year veteran of the Lansing Fire Department who served as assistant chief and chief of the department’s Emergency Management Division.

• Serkaian - promoted to executive director, public affairs. Serkaian, previously director of communications, has been with the BWL since 2012. Serkaian will continue responsibilities for internal and external communications, including media relations, and combine into one department added responsibilities for governmental and community relations. Serkaian previously worked for Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the Lansing School District, Lansing Mayor David Hollister, the Michigan House of Representatives and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin.

• Brandie Ekren, special assistant city attorney and legal counsel to the BWL, remains on the executive team. Ekren has been with the BWL since 2004.