Device connectivity specialist ILS Technology this week announced that Chief Operating Officer Fred Yentz has been named CEO, replacing Joe Cestari, who has left the company to pursue other endeavors after four years in the top spot.
In a July 1 letter addressed to ILS employees, Edward F. Crawford, chairman and CEO of ILS parent company Park-Ohio Holdings Corp., announced the management change, saying, “I am confident that the management team, through Fred’s leadership, will be successful in capitalizing on the company’s current momentum and in turn create significant value for ILS and our customers.”
“A lot of the heavy lifting in terms of our product portfolios has been done in terms of creating the assets and gaining traction over the past couple of years,” Yentz said in an interview with Managing Automation today. In the near future, he said, ILS will focus on “moving forward with more technology partnerships and more commercialization [of the products],” areas in which Yentz, who joined ILS as senior vice president and chief operating officer in 2007, said he has considerable experience.
Prior to working at ILS Technology, Yentz was vice president and general manager of RadiSys Corp., a provider of embedded solutions for telecom, medical equipment, enterprise data, and industrial automation. At RadiSys, he was responsible for worldwide sales, marketing, professional services, and business development in addition to his executive management roles. Yentz earlier worked for IBM, where he held various positions, including in engineering, management, and new business development.