Gail Kaufman elected new Chair of CIPH

The Canadian Institute of Plumbing & Heating (CIPH) had to pivot to a virtual online format for its 88th Annual General Meeting, held on Tuesday, June 16th. Some 115 member companies were represented at the virtual AGM, which was led by outgoing Chair, Andrew Dyck, the first manufacturer’s agent to hold the position.

The meeting highlights included celebrating the 25th anniversary of CIPH’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity Canada, and the election of Gail Kaufman, vice president of marketing and e-business for Wolseley Canada, as the 73rd Chair of CIPH.

Gail Kaufman, Chair CIPH 2020-21

Kaufman joined Wolseley Canada in 2005 in the role of director of marketing. Her CIPH Board experience includes serving on the CMPX Trade Show Committee, the CIPH Women’s Network, Chair of the Charity Committee in support of Habitat for Humanity and Chair of last year’s Annual Business Conference in Charlottetown, PEI themed “Get Connected”

Outlining her objectives for the year ahead, she pointed to three areas of focus:

• the need to provide more networking opportunities for members
• building revenue while adding value to members through tradeshows and more
• hosting events that attract and engage a broader demographic and promote the industry to a wider audience.

The AGM was followed by a keynote session presented by Ian Heller of the Distribution Strategy Group. The talk was entitled, ‘Distribution Will Shift Again, but Not Back to Normal’ and Heller emphasized the growth of online marketplaces, noting in particular the disruption being caused by Amazon Business, which entered the Canadian market in October last year.

After sharing results of a recent survey of distributors and manufacturers in the industry, he made it clear that especially since the COVID-19 pandemic everyone is learning to buy online, so for distributors and sales forces of all types, digital capabilities are no longer optional.