E. F. Johnson jettisons Hattey, promotes Blaine in restructuring
David L. Hattey, president of the E. F. Johnson Company, Waseca, Minn., was let go on July 8 in a company restructuring that saw several others promoted. Meanwhile, Michael Jalbert, chairman of Johnson’s parent company, EFJ, has assumed responsibility as president at Johnson.
“This represents a change in the phase that E. F. Johnson is in,” Hattey said. “We had a difference in philosophy in how we could be moving forward. Michael and I decided the best outcome was for me to pursue other interests and for him to reshuffle things a bit.”
Hattey said that although his plans are uncertain, “I’ve been in land mobile radio my whole life, and I would expect that involvement to continue.”
Hattey joined Johnson as senior vice president in March 2000 and moved up to president in June 2001. Previously, he was vice president of technical operations at Racom, Marshalltown, Iowa, the operator of a regional EDACS network. Prior to joining Racom, Hattey was a vice president at Ericsson-GE, the company that made EDACS equipment at the time. EDACS now is a product of M/A-Com Wireless.
In the restructuring, Dennis Blaine, vice president of EFJ’s Transcrypt International division, was promoted to executive vice president of sales and marketing for Johnson. Michael Kelley, director of sales and marketing at Transcrypt International, was promoted to general manager. Massoud Safavi, EFJ’s chief financial officer, was given overall responsibility for Transcrypt International.
To increase Johnson’s focus on homeland security, James Ridgell has been appointed Johnson’s vice president of business development for federal sales.
Nancy Morrison EFJ’s vice president of human resources, was promoted to vice president of administration.
“These appointments place each business unit in a strong position to capitalize on the strengths of these individuals to continue to move the organization forward in achieving strategic initiatives,” said Jalbert.
Jalbert said that Johnson would continue its focus on federal customers, on homeland security and on Project 25 products for federal, state and local government users.
