Chris Brown, CEO of New York-based lighting distributor Wiedenbach Brown, announced his retirement via LinkedIn on January 2, 2018. Brown had been CEO for almost 42 years. He announced he is now the CEO at his own consulting company, NextGen Lighting (www.nextgenlighting.com).
“In the words of the great Willie Nelson……..TURN OUT THE LIGHTS, THE PARTY’S OVER!” Brown wrote on his Linkedin page. “And so I’ve left WB after almost 42 years, and I’m beginning my brand new position as the CEO of ME. And as I said to all my WB friends when I told them I was leaving, this time the words of Roy and Dale (Google them if you have to!)…..HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!”
Brown was a frequent contributor to tED magazine, tedmag.com and “lightED” over the past 5 years, including a series of stories on when he called “illumigeddon”, which is what Brown called the disintermediation of lighting distribution. Brown said “illumigeddon” refers to people who have not yet started the process of innovating and evolving their business to capture the lighting customers of the future. He also wrote frequent articles for tED on how distributors can continue to be a vital part of lighting sales, and on December 27, just six days before announcing his retirement, was interviewed for “lightED” about how Millennials can be a part of your lighting distribution future.
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