Shaker Brock, the new director, member, and supplier engagement at IMARK Electrical, has worked in the electrical industry for more than 23 years. He spent the first 22 working for an IMARK member company and last year with an electric supply company.
“I have had the opportunity to serve in many roles—operations, sales, marketing, e-commerce and social media, purchasing, technology and training. Outside of the finance department, I kind of did it all.” Brock said. “It’s an amazing industry.”
He considers the networking opportunities available through IMARK and NAED the highlights of his career. As his former company’s NAED liaison, “I’m the guy who went to all of the conferences and over those 22 years really developed a huge base of friends in the industry.”
Brock served in many roles within NAED—on the LEAD Committee and as its chair, on the SC Council and as SC vice president as well as on the Associates Advisory Council, on the Education & Research Foundation Board of Directors, SPA Task Force, Agile Distributor Task Force, Adventure Committee, Analytics Team, Emergency Preparedness Plan Committee and Board of Directors.
During his time with the IMARK member company, he served as that company’s IMARK delegate and navigator. He scheduled and attended all conferences and managed and tracked all the group’s benefits, giving him intimate knowledge of the GainShare, Group Growth incentives, Platinum recognition, Gateway to Growth, IMARK U training and Member Service Provider (MSP) programs. During this time, Brock became an I-Net Discussion leader and served on the IMARK Supplier Committee. During his time working for the supplier, Brock served as the company’s IMARK national account manager.
“I loved putting all of the pieces of the IMARK puzzle together to reap as many rewards as possible,” he said, adding that members who do not take advantage of all the benefits are “leaving a ridiculous amount of money on the table.”
“When I took over IMARK during my time as a member, we had only scratched the surface of the benefits we were taking advantage of,” Brock said. “It was like belonging to a country club and only using it for the pool.”
The lifelong friendships he’s gained via networking with other IMARK members is another benefit of membership of which Brock fondly speaks.
Now that his career trajectory has landed him a position within IMARK, Brock intends to use his relationships; overall knowledge of the electrical industry, IMARK and all its benefits and his past successful strategies as a former IMARK member to help current members take full advantage of all the group has to offer.
He wants to help drive positive relations between IMARK members and suppliers, identify prospective new members and present the group’s benefits to them, manage relations with current MSPs and explore new MSPs.
“I know from my past experience as an IMARK member how beneficial these MSPs are,” Brock said. “They offer great quality and competitive pricing through IMARK and a variety of services, some that wouldn’t be available to a standalone distributor.”
He plans to look for new types of MSPs with suggestions from IMARK members. “Electrical distributors use so many non-electrical goods and services and we will be looking for MSPs that would take some of those burdens away—AI, technology and social media,” he said.
Brock, who is married to his soulmate Tawna, has four children—Paden, Trey, Case and Heidi—and a dog and two cats participates in Ironman triathlons, enjoys cruises and spends lots of quality time with his family in his spare time.
“I am so excited to be starting my new journey. IMARK has been my passion for a long time now so joining the IMARK team is truly a dream come true,” he said.