Bob Appleby named vice president and general manager of ADI North America

AUSTIN, Texas—Bob Appleby recently joined Resideo Technologies' ADI Global Distribution business as vice president and general manager of ADI North America to oversee business operations across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and help the company deliver on financial commitments, modernize operations and continue to reinforce its commitment to customer service excellence.

Appleby is based out of Melville, N.Y. and reports directly to Rob Aarnes, president, ADI Global Distribution. “Bob is an accomplished leader in the distribution industry, with a proven track record of exceeding financial results while delivering exceptional customer service, Aarnes said in the announcement, referring to Appleby's previous position where he achieved more than 90 percent customer retention and over-delivered on financial targets. “His deep expertise and understanding of the needs of the customer will help ADI drive growth and deliver on our commitment to serving the professional contractor channel,” Aarnes concluded.

Prior to joining the security industry, Appleby told SSN in an exclusive interview that he served in the pharmaceutical distribution industry for the last 20 years. “One of the things I always enjoyed about being within the healthcare industry was what we did actually helped people and it parallels the security industry from that standpoint,” Appleby said. “Where we're headed in society today and what we're looking at — providing people a safe place to go to work and go home — is just about as essential as it is for healthcare.”

Appleby sees distinct similarities between the security industry and pharmaceutical industry, one of which fulfills his primary passion — helping people. “What I do at ADI has the ability to actually help people's lives,” he said, acknowledging ADI as a leader in the industry with the scale big enough to help large customers become more efficient while also serving over 100,000 installers. This correlates to what he did in the pharmaceutical industry where Appleby engaged with single, family-owned businesses to create a great customer experience while helping build their businesses.

The ever-changing security industry, in general, is quite exciting and Appleby echoes this excitement in his new role at ADI. “What excites me the most about my new position at ADI is I'm coming to an industry leader that has been very successful,” explained Appleby. “I'm very excited about the people I'll be working with as well as the customer focus ADI has, and to me, it's really about how we partner with our customers and how we make their businesses better.” Appleby is equally excited about having a very good team in place. “Rob and I, we talk about the business, and looking into the future we ask, 'How do we improve the customer experience? And, how do we get more intimate with our customers?'”

At ADI, it's all about the customer. Initiatives are already underway that, according to Appleby, will make the company better, more effective and more efficient with the ultimate goal of further improving the customer experience. He is determined to bring his leadership capabilities to help drive them. “Hopefully I can help from a change management standpoint” by asking things like “'what are we doing to make sure we're more efficient? What are we doing about getting close to the customer?'” Appleby explained. He is also forward-looking in his management approach and will “bring in some ideas that are outside the industry to see other things that we can do even a little bit differently that will help the customer.”

Although new to the security industry, Appleby is a tenured executive who believes being a customer-centric business starts with three important things: empowering employees, bringing passion to work and building trust within an organization. “I like to talk about a clear line of sight,” said Appleby. “In my world, leading North America, I have to give employees a clear line of sight as to what we're trying to accomplish because if they can understand that, down to any level within the organization, then we can work together, and if we can work together and bring the power ADI has and the scale ADI has, it's only going to help our customers be more successful.”

Finishing out 2019 and looking ahead into 2020, customers can expect only positive things from ADI. “One thing I did get the chance to do is talk to some customers before I actually got the job,” Appleby said, “and I think the customers understand that our employees are passionate about helping them.”

SSN congratulates Appleby in his new role at ADI, welcomes him to the security industry and had the chance to celebrate along with him for a few minutes last week. “It's only like day four for me, so what I can say is being here right now, I'm even more excited about this opportunity. When I look at the quality of people that I interact with � and I'm getting the lucky chance to interact with somebody almost every half hour � I know I made the right choice with a company that is very passionate about what they do. That's who I am, so I'm very excited about starting my career here.”