Leadership

Jonathan Dawley
President & CEO

Jonathan Dawley has been President & CEO of KION North America Corporation, a member of the KION Group, since 2020 and is responsible for all financial, commercial, engineering, and operational activities. Since 2020, KION North America has grown its revenue by over 125% and order intake by over 300%. A key element of growth has been organizational and distribution development, in which Mr. Dawley has led establishing strong leadership at all levels to enable sustainable results.

Under Mr. Dawley’s leadership, KION North America announced an operational expansion doubling production capacity and installing deep vertical integration. This focus, on localized manufacturing capability and an enhanced global supply chain, supports KION North America’s ability to unlock profitable growth, advance market penetration and achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Before joining KION Group, Mr. Dawley was the Americas CEO of Putzmeister Holding GmbH, a subsidiary of Sany Heavy Industry Corporation. It was there that he led all corporate functions and sites from Canada to Brazil. Between 2014 and 2018, he led the global aftermarket business at JLG Industries Corporation, a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation, where he, amongst other major Initiatives, established a global warehousing and distribution strategy with new operations in the U.S., EMEA, and China.

From 2005 to 2014, Mr. Dawley gained extensive executive leadership experience at Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Corporation as President of Hyster, President of the Large Capacity equipment division, and Vice President of Marketing, including Product strategy.

Before 2005, Mr. Dawley spent 10 years in the automotive sector, working with Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler headquarters on product and distribution strategy and technology deployment.

Mr. Dawley currently serves as a board member with the German American Chamber of Commerce Southeast, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. Additionally, he serves on the President's Council for Industry and Innovation at the College of Charleston.

Christoph Brand
Vice President, Finance & CFO

Christoph Brand is the Vice President, Finance & CFO of KION North America Corporation.

Christoph joined the KION Group with the STILL Brand in Hamburg, Germany, in 2011. For more than ten years, Christoph has performed a variety of Finance, Controlling, and Commercial functions within STILL and Linde Material Handling in Germany and Eastern Europe. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Luneburg in northern Germany and a master’s degree in finance and accounting from the Nordakademie Graduate School in Hamburg, Germany.

Daniel Schlegel
Vice President, Operations and Customer Service

Daniel Schlegel is the Vice President of Operations and Customer Service. Previously he was Vice President, Operations for KION North America. Daniel has been with the organization for 18 years, including service at Linde Hydraulics, Linde Material Handling and KION North America. Schlegel’s role as Vice President of Customer Service is a commercially-oriented, customer-focused position.

His prior experience includes a three-year Six Sigma Project Management role as a certified Six Sigma Black Belt at the Linde Material Handling headquarters in Aschaffenburg, Germany. He previously worked as the director of manufacturing and logistics at KION North America. Before joining KION Group, he also served as an industrial engineer at Linde Hydraulics-one of KION Group’s former brand companies.

Schlegel holds an engineering and business administration degree from West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He also spent a semester abroad at the NHL Hogeschool in the Netherlands.

Christian Loew
Vice President, Product Development

Christian Loew is the Vice President of Product Development.

He has been with KION North America since 2015 and previously held the role of Program Manager for Warehouse Products. Prior to joining KION NA, Christian was an R&D manager for STILL and Linde in Germany.

Christian holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Todd Pawlik
Vice President of Procurement

Todd Pawlik is the Vice President of Procurement. He joined KION North America in January 2023 after serving as the KNA Home Turf project leader in 2022 as a consultant. Todd spent many years with General Motors. He successfully executed two major global programs as a Vehicle Chief Engineer (2014 Chevrolet Impala and 2019 Cadillac XT4) that received third-party recognition for performance and initial quality (Consumer Reports and JD Power). Todd has both large OEM and small startup exposure, having also served as a Senior Program Director at Fisker Inc. Academically, Todd received a Master's in Engineering Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Mick McCormick
Director, Warehouse and Advanced Applications

Mick McCormick is the Director of Intralogistic Systems. He comes from Hyster-Yale Group, where he led as Vice President, Warehouse Solutions from 2014-2017 and Business Unit Leader of Robotics and Automation from 2018-2020.

Mick holds many years of experience in business development, product management, and sales and has held various strategic leadership positions in companies including, Caterpillar Industrial, Inc., Daewoo Heavy Industries (now Doosan) and Toyota. Mick’s additional expertise includes 12 years of global product management and marketing management, 9 years of global sales and distribution channel development, and 12 years of sales and marketing GM/VP with P&L responsibility.

Mick has a B.S. in Business from Miami University, Farmer School of Business.

Shawn Lennes
Director, Pricing & Demand Planning

Shawn Lennes is the Director of Pricing and Demand Planning for KION North America. He joined the team in 2022 with over 20 years of experience serving both Toyota Material Handling and Navistar Corporation in the commercial truck industry.

His broader leadership experience includes strategic planning, analytics, and pricing roles with new and aftermarket products.

Lennes holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Jeff Peterson
Director, Manufacturing

Jeff Peterson serves as the director of Manufacturing for KION North America Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for all manufacturing operations, industrial engineering and facility/equipment maintenance activities.

He joined KION North America in March 2017 as production manager. Since that time, he has been instrumental in increasing production capacity and installing a variety of improvements to the company’s manufacturing systems.

His prior experience includes working in a variety of manufacturing capacities as plant manager at Saint-Gobain Corporation, manufacturing manager at Daimler Chrysler AG/MTU Driveshafts, and maintenance manager and operations manager at IFA-Rotorion. He also spent 12 years working for Detroit Diesel Corporation and Westinghouse. In total, he has nearly 30 years of experience in a variety of engineering and manufacturing operations leadership.

Peterson holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University.

Andy Street
Director, Supply Chain

Andy joined the KION North America organization in January of 2021 and is responsibile for developing and leading the supply chain team which consists of four primary functions; order administration, demand scheduling, materials planning, and transportation.

Prior to joining KION, Andy worked with Hyster-Yale Group for 20 years in various supply chain roles ranging from finished goods distribution to Sales & Operations Planning. He began his career in logistics working for FedEx Supply Chain Services with a focus on warehouse operations and transportation management.

A graduate of University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, he went on to complete a Master of Science degree in Industrial Distribution from East Carolina Unversity and holds professional certifcations from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Associate for Supply Chain Management.

Joe Ritter
Director, East Region

Joe Ritter is the Director of the East Region for KION North America and manages the East Regional Sales Managers and Dealer Network.

Joe joined KION North America in March of 2019 as the Regional Sales Manager for the North East and, in October of 2020, was promoted as the Director of the East Region.

Joe began his career in the Material Handling Industry in 2004. Before joining KION North America, he spent several years in retail and OEM operations working alongside industry leaders in North America, including Crown Equipment Corporation, Hyster / Yale Group, and Toyota Material Handling. During that time, Joe obtained a vast knowledge base while holding sales, warehouse products management, and sales management positions.

Joe studied business at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis and later left to serve four years in the United States Marine Corps.