Austin Joins JD Martin to Focus on Renewables & E-mobility

Allen Austin

Greg Baker, President and CEO of JD Martin, is pleased to announce industry veteran Allen Austin has joined the company effective June 6, 2022. In a newly created role, as the VP of Renewable Energy and E-mobility division, Allen will lead efforts to deliver sustainability solutions to current and future customers, partners and stakeholders.

“We are excited to have Allen join our team,” said Jeff Anderson, Director of Industrial Sales. “The combination of his deep industry knowledge, extensive experience in utility sales and management, and his specialized expertise in renewable energy and E-mobility solutions, means Allen really gets the unique challenges our customers, and their infrastructure stakeholders face.”

Austin says, “Greg’s vision fascinated me. We’re on an aligned, accelerated path to lead one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments. Joining JD Martin was a clear and easy decision for me due to their longevity, leadership, recent growth and customer-first culture.”

Allen brings more than 25 years of industry experience in test engineering, product and program management. Most recently at ABB, Inc. Austin was responsible for increasing awareness of their Renewable Energy and Power Generation solutions. His previous professional experience includes Underwriters Laboratories, Raytheon Defense, Siemens EC and Tyco Electronics.

Austin earned his B.S. from Purdue University with a dual major in Electrical Engineering and Technology. He holds a master’s certificate in Business Administration (C/MBA) from Tulane University and is a certified IACET Instructor. Austin is an active and contributing member of NEMA, ACP, SEIA, SEPA and EUIC.

Observation

Over the past 6 months or so a number of leading manufacturer representative agencies have aligned themselves with an EV charging company (that is typically someone “new” to the electrical distribution industry). These reps have shared that they are seeing strong growth and typically these opportunities complement other aspects of their offering due to being able to serve the remainder of the BoM.

It sounds as if JD Martin is taking a lead in soliciting opportunities in emerging growth markets given that renewables can represent a range of options from solar to wind to battery and storage and there are other elements emerging into the market that traditionally have been “direct sell” scenarios. Their EV opportunity will, presumably, expand beyond the Level 1 and Level 2 charging stations.

It will also be interesting to learn if JD Martin will be able to sell renewables and E-mobility offerings to channels beyond the electrical distribution industry as these product offerings are being sold “wherever the customer wants to buy from.”

This type of endeavor is the epitome of the rep of the future as highlighted in NEMRA’s Rep of the Future report. The key is having vision, focusing on demand generation, supporting endeavors with planning, marketing and product training.

Congratulations to JD Martin for expanding into this new endeavor and congratulations to Allen.