MaxLite, West Caldwell, N.J., recently announced it has appointed Umesh Baheti as senior vice president of product management, engineering, and supplier relations. He will lead a cross-functional team to bring to market product enhancements and new product ideas that will grow the company’s market share in the commercial, industrial, residential, OEM, and horticultural channels.
Baheti brings 15 years of experience in product and business improvement to the company. Most recently, he served as principal product manager at Amazon, where he developed and managed the product and software innovation roadmaps for Amazon Go retail stores.
Throughout his professional career, Baheti has held progressive senior leadership positions in product management, manufacturing/engineering, and corporate development. As senior director at Philips Lighting, he led a team of product managers in overseeing the growth of the company’s multimillion-dollar downlight and track portfolio for the Americas. Prior to that, he was director of business improvement, providing strategic guidance and data analysis for the company’s wide portfolio of product categories and business units.
Before joining Philips Lighting, Baheti was business development manager at VantaCore Partners, where he was instrumental in the significant growth of the construction materials company and its eventual sale to Natural Resource Partners. He previously held positions in engineering and corporate finance at UBS Investment Bank, Coherent, Viavi Solutions, and Kennametal. Baheti holds an MBA from Yale University.
“Umesh possesses the perfect mix of technical prowess and multi-industry experience, including success in lighting, to lead our product management, engineering, and supplier relations teams,” said MaxLite CEO and President Spencer Bolgard. “We are looking forward to him leading and executing critical elements of our strategic business plan. His can-do attitude is the perfect complement to MaxLite’s culture of getting things done while being friendly and constructive to our teammates, reps, distributors, and customers.”
