"We're delighted to welcome Bill to A.C.T Lighting after a distinguished career in design, teaching, and management at well-known lighting companies," says Bob Gordon, president and CEO of A.C.T Lighting. "Bill is a seasoned industry professional and throughout his career, he has used his exceptional people skills and unique management techniques to achieve significant success in design, systems integration, sales/marketing, business development and general management. In his new role at A.C.T Lighting he will focus on the specifier market by introducing our product lines to theater consultants and architectural lighting designers and supporting their efforts to use them on projects."
Groener, who will be based in the NY Metropolitan Area, says "Bob Gordon and A.C.T. Lighting have achieved great success by 'identifying future trends and finding products that define the cutting edge.' Having identified these products, their mantra is to 'stock them, sell them, and extensively support them.' I am excited to carry that message (and more) to the specification community and eager to get started." Groener most recently served as president of Tim Hunter Design, LCC in Stamford, Connecticut, a creative design firm offering a full range of media and experiential design, production, and implementation.
Prior to THD, he served in several roles within PRG, where he worked on numerous integration projects, including Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City, The Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas and (in NYC) Radio City Music Hall, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the CNN Studios at Time Warner Center.
Furthermore, Groener held key positions with Color Kinetics, Barbizon, elliptipar, and Strand Lighting. He was also the principal and sole owner of BGr + A, a sales agency covering the metro New York area that was dedicated to meeting the diverse lighting needs of the theatre, television, film, and architectural markets.
In addition to his management experience, Groener has professional design expertise as a show lighting designer at WED Enterprises, now Walt Disney Imagineering, where he did architectural and theatrical lighting design at EPCOT Center, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland. He also has served in technical director and designer/consultant roles for a number of theatrical companies and at his alma mater, the University of California, Santa Barbara. On the teaching side, Groener was assistant professor/technical director at the department of theatre at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Groener has B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara and has done post-graduate studies at London Business School and Harvard Business School.
He serves as one of nine members of the governing body of PLASA, is the immediate past president of the Entertainment Services and Technology Association and the current vice-chair of PLASA in North America., He also serves on the board of directors for the ESTA Foundation and the Southern Connecticut Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He is a member of several industry associations including USITT, IESNA, SEGD and TEA and actively supports their programs.
