Founder

As the Founder of Southwest Industrial Electric, Evan has been a part of the company since day one. He started doing electrical work in 1978 by apprenticing for an electrical contractor in So Cal. He was like a duck to water in that he found the subject very intriguing and almost natural to him. He studied the subject all the time and to this day has not lost any interest in the electrical field. And so, with that spark of interest, in 1981 Evan and two of his friends decided to start a partnership and form their own electrical company. They ran the company together for several years, but by the late 80s Evan’s natural attraction to the trade left him as the last partner standing, and in the 90s he decided to re-brand to Southwest Industrial Electric, creating the company that is today.

The most interesting part of electricity for Evan, is the simplicity of it and how easy it can be to predict. It is these predictions, the ability to understand electricity and create solutions, that drives the high standards we hold at SIE. Our standards are higher than the norm, and it is something Evan appreciates the most about the company. He loves the fact that we can take pride in the way we care about doing any job right, the first time, every time.

Chief Executive Officer

Kristin, our CEO started working at Southwest Industrial Electric as the Director of Technical Services over 14 years ago. Prior to coming to SIE she had spent years working for a non-profit tutoring center. There, she was equipped with skills on training people, sales, recruiting and even finance, serving as a great platform to handle all the aspects that come with running SIE. Her goal and interest to always help people do well, especially at SIE, built the current environment found today—a strong, great organization where people can thrive and bring the best possible electrical services to our customers every day.

She believes that when everyone in the company is happy and doing well, they will bring the best to our customers. This is something Kristin loves about her job, the people. Whether it be the staff, our customers or our vendors, she finds that we have the best and most wonderful people to work with. Plus, electricity is an extremely valuable and crucial industry to be in. Kristin likes the technical aspects of having solutions to make the world go round with all industry requiring electricity to perform its functions. When Kristin is not helping the world go round at SIE, you can find her dancing or hanging out with her two adorable daughters.

Chief Financial Officer

Our CFO, Laura, has been with Southwest Industrial Electric since the early days of 1987. With her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and experience in working for non-profits as a liaison for legal and finance professionals, she was ready to take on the Finance Division of SIE. To this day, and with a growing team, Laura continues to run this division for us, ensuring every transaction runs smoothly. One of the things that Laura has always enjoyed about her job is the ability to continually learn and the ability to put that learning to use in creating a truly fine organization. Additionally, she thinks that it is really neat how we are able to control electrons as an industrial electric company.

Chief Administrative Officer

Jessica started at Southwest Industrial as our receptionist, but her will to take on and continuously ask for more earned her the position as CAO. Her previous experience as an Office Manager well equipped her to take on the growth of the company and for her to grow with it. Since being at SIE she has found electricity to be a fascinating part of how the entire planet operates. She sees how electricity has completely changed the world and is the reason behind mass amounts of productivity that could have never been accomplished without it.

When it comes to the work environment, Jessica takes pride in the strong ethics and integrity that SIE upholds. She sees how we really value our customers and will move mountains for them to get them exactly what they need when it comes to their electrical systems, which is an important part of her job. It is the upstanding people and the quality of work that inspires Jessica to continue to hold the same standards for herself and the success of SIE every day.

Chief Operations Officer

Elizabeth started as out Invoicing Administrator in the beginning of 2010 and over time became our COO at Southwest Industrial Electric. Fresh out of school, she had the knowledge and training on how to manage people while working towards a product. Although this training was not specific to the electrical field, she was interested in how much electricity affects our daily lives and how it has become such a necessity to the world.

More than anything, Elizabeth enjoys the people at SIE. She finds everyone to be very hardworking and fun to be around. She not only enjoys being a part of the culture, but she loves the care she feels is put into each and every individual. She believes that this care has helped the company, and the individuals who are a part of it, thrive. This thriving is due in no small part to the way Elizabeth has continued to plan how to better the company and executed those plans through her management abilities and skills.

Production Manager

When Daniel first started at Southwest Industrial Electric, he did not have much experience in the electrical world, and so he initially started in our training program. After years of experience and the willingness to learn, he worked his way up the ladder to his position today as our Production Manager. In fact, one thing Daniel really enjoys about working at SIE is that any person can go from knowing next to nothing about electrical, to participating in the training program that allows them to become a full-fledged electrician in a relatively short amount of time.

In addition to the training program, Daniel enjoys the group and atmosphere of the company. He finds that each person is in good spirits and ready to get the job done every day, which he, as a manager, has undoubtably helped shape. In ways similar to Daniel’s ability to lead and create a positive space for our electricians, he finds the most interesting part of electricity to be how we have managed to be able to harness it and use it to create work that would otherwise be impossible.

Chief Production Officer

Our CPO, Alix, came to Southwest Industrial Electric right out of high school. After seeing his cousin begin to work in the electrical field and working on a commercial fishing boat when he was 15, he was inspired. Electrical work offered him the opportunity to work outside of the office and to work with his hands every day, which really excited him because he learned he enjoyed that while working on the boat. To this day he thanks these first experiences for sparking his understanding of good work ethic, the importance of hard work and being patient with whatever you do--an important skill when working on electrical systems.

Now, with almost 15 years of experience in the industry and with SIE, Alix appreciates that through it all, the common atmosphere of family has remained even through the company’s growth. One thing that has not changed over the years is Alix’s interest in how electricity keeps the world moving. It is part of almost every process worldwide and will always be needed in one form or another, which is why he finds the ability to understand and control electricity to be such a valuable skill. He sees SIE as a place that has big goals with a Mom and Pop attitude, which no doubt has been reflected in the leadership role he has by treating all employees like family.

Personnel Manager

Valerie became a part of the Southwest Industrial Electric team in the beginning of 2019, bringing her experience in personnel with her. Although she did not know anything about electricity when she first started, she soon learned that electricity does not have to be complicated. In fact, she credits SIE’s training program for breaking down this idea for her into something simple and easy to understand. It is one thing that Valerie enjoys most about her job—the ability to learn all about electricity and the high standards of electrical work that SIE holds and produces through our hands-on training program.

As our Personnel Manager, it is no surprise that Valerie values our entire staff and fun atmosphere, especially since she plays such an important role in creating this environment for us all. She is the person that any of our staff can rely on for thorough communication and understanding, which is one of the things that makes Valerie so awesome!

Quality Manager

Near the end of 2018 Patrick began handling our training and quality management at Southwest Industrial Electric. With his background in commercial/industrial electrical and real estate inspection, he hit the ground running with helping others learn about electricity. Having always been fascinated with the field itself, from the physics of electricity, to the near infinite number of devices that control and convey it, Patrick has found it extremely rewarding helping others get excited about electricity too. He has even found himself enjoying reading through the 1400 page National Electrical Code book, a valuable thing to know when you are in charge of ensuring the quality of our work and training program.

Since not doing hands on electrical work anymore, Patrick has found pure enjoyment in training and teaching others all about electricity and SIE’s standards. A nice moment for him is when someone suddenly understands a new piece of information about an installation or how electricity works because that person truly feels like they now know that information and it is not just something they have memorized. In addition to keeping our standards high and employees engaged, Patrick keeps his hands busy in his spare time by tinkering with things like furniture making, surfboard repair and beer making.