NEMA Appoints New Chief Operating Officer

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) recently announced the appointment of Ms. Sonia Vahedian to the position of Chief Operating Officer, where she will ensure the long-term financial and operational viability of NEMA through effective planning, forecasting and treasury oversight.

NEMA represents nearly 325 electrical equipment and medical imaging manufacturers that make safe, reliable, and efficient products and systems. The organization’s combined industries account for 370,000 American jobs in more than 6,100 facilities covering every state. These industries produce $130 billion in shipments and $38 billion in exports of electrical equipment and medical imaging technologies per year. NEMA is the parent organization of the Lighting Controls Association.

Ms. Vahedian joins NEMA from the American Petroleum Institute (API), where she served as the Vice President of revenue generating programs. While with API, Ms. Vahedian drove strategy and launched several mission-critical API programs, increased revenues by more than $2.5 million, established a Covid-19 strategy to mitigate potential business losses, and helped define and launch an industry-wide effort to enhance diversity equity and inclusion.

Prior to API, Ms. Vahedian served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Mobile Giving Foundation, the founding organization for the platform supporting mobile Text-to-Give campaigns for 1000+ charity organizations in the US and Canada. She previously served in multiple engineering executive roles in the wireless technology and interoperability startups, including Sybase/SAP, building, and managing world-class high availability data center operations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Ms. Vahedian began her career in energy, where she served in various industry segments in business development, technical, and operational roles with BP/Amoco, Statoil/Equinor, and Kinder Morgan in the Midcontinent and Appalachian Regions. Ms. Vahedian has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering & Material Science from the University of Oklahoma.