(l-r) Christopher Lockery and Alan Lockery
(l-r) ABLE Machine Tool Sales Partners Christopher Lockery, Alan Lockery and Georgia Sappleton
Since January 1987, the president's position at ABLE Machine Tool Sales has been filled by one of its three founders. The first was Alfred Barile, the second was Lynne Anderson, and for the last 14 years the president has been Alan Lockery. Each contributed to ABLE's growth.
Alan has now assumed the CEO role, and his business partner and son Christopher Lockery has become ABLE's fourth president. Chris has worked full-time for ABLE for over 16 years, and prior to this appointment was general manager.
"Chris will continue the same stable leadership the company has had for 36 years," said Alan. "Taking the CEO roll is exciting for me. I feel like I can reclaim my roots. I will be able to get more involved with sales, service, training and customer support. Chris has been associated with the business since he was a child. He knows the business and our customers well. As President, he will take over all the administrative functions of running the company. I will be here if he needs me, but this will allow both of us to accomplish more for our customers and take ABLE into the future."
Since 2016 Chris has participated in the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Leadership forum. The group regularly meets to discuss current challenges and strategies that manufacturing related businesses face daily. Chris is an AMT Certified Manufacturing Technology Sales Engineer (CMTSE).
"Chris is a strategic thinker who well understands the technology our company sells and its necessity and value to our customers. What is unique about Chris is his management style," said former VP of operations Joe Halik. "He is adaptive, confident and optimistic that nearly all problems are solvable. This comes from experience and from his drive to stay current on machine features and capabilities."
Sappleton Becomes Partner
ABLE Machine Tool Sales also announced that its Vice President (VP) of Human Resources Georgia Sappleton is now a partner in the organization along with Alan and Christopher.
"What our industry, our company and our customers have accomplished through these last few years shows how strong and determined we are," said Alan. "Georgia has been a dynamic part of helping us to change operations and support staff needs through it all. We want her creative mind to help us all grow and prosper. For 10 years, she has been an organized and focused administrator at ABLE bringing knowledge and vision to the table every day. We count on her for a lot. I am confident she and Christopher will help take ABLE into a positive and exciting future."
With over 20 years of experience in business administration, Sappleton's responsibilities include evaluating and upholding company policies, recruiting and supporting skilled individuals and seeing that company resources are used wisely. She oversees employee benefits and safe work practices and maintains a healthy environment. She is also a member of the Employers Association of the NorthEast (EANE), a leadership forum for business and human resource experts focused on organizational success.
"I try to match individuals to the right jobs and work with our managers to develop programs and training opportunities that tap into the employee's full potential," said Sappleton. "When you communicate with employees, try to understand what is important to them, offer them training so they are confident in their work and what is expected of them, and support their career goals, they feel inspired, valued and empowered to make decisions. Prepared employees naturally do a good job, motivate their coworkers,and stay on the job longer. Employees are our backbone and our future."
Other staff promotions at ABLE include service and parts manager Marcy Venne, who is now Vice President of Product Support. Reporting to Venne is Sean Donahue, who takes on the role of Service Manager, and Emily Rose, who becomes Parts Coordinator. Anthony King has assumed the Operations Manager position recently vacated by Joseph Halik, who retired in December 2022.
ABLE Machine Tool Sales sells nine top OEM machine brands and distributes machine tools to customers throughout the Northeast. For 36 years, ABLE has provided customers with sales, training, technical support, service, parts and turn-key solutions.
For more information contact:
ABLE Machine Tool Sales
253 Silver Street
Agawan, MA 01001
800-423-4959
sales@ablemts.com
www.ablemts.com