MaxLite appoints new Senior Vice President

Baheti will lead a cross-functional team to develop and bring to market product enhancements and new product ideas and technologies that will grow MaxLite’s market share in the commercial, industrial, residential, OEM and horticulture channels. Baheti brings 15 years of experience in product and business improvement to MaxLite. Most recently, he was principal product manager at Amazon, where he developed and managed the product and software innovation roadmaps for Amazon Go retail stores.

Baheti has held progressively senior leadership positions in product management, manufacturing-engineering and corporate development across diverse organizations ranging from startup to Fortune 10. As senior director of product management at Philips Lighting, he led a team of product managers in overseeing the growth of the company’s multimillion-dollar downlight and track portfolio for the Americas. Prior to that, he was director of business improvement, providing strategic guidance and data analysis for the company’s wide portfolio of product categories and business units.

Before joining Philips Lighting, Baheti was business development manager at VantaCore Partners, where he was instrumental in the significant growth of the construction materials company and its eventual sale to Natural Resource Partners. He previously held positions in engineering and corporate finance at UBS Investment Bank, Coherent, Viavi Solutions and Kennametal. Baheti holds an MBA from Yale University.

“Umesh possesses the perfect mix of technical prowess and multi-industry experience, including success in lighting, to lead our product management, engineering and supplier relations teams,” said MaxLite CEO and President Spencer Bolgard. “We are looking forward to him leading and executing critical elements of our strategic business plan. His can-do attitude is the perfect complement to MaxLite’s culture of getting things done while being friendly and constructive to our teammates, reps, distributors and customers.”

Despite economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, MaxLite has continued to build its leadership team with new hires in strategic areas. In March, Maxlite appointed Frank Molander as vice president of commercial and industrial utility markets and the newly formed horticulture business unit.