C.R. Hall, Chair-Elect of DAC 

CR Hall, President and Owner of Hall’s Culligan Water, has been a Culligan dealer since 1988. His dealerships have 11 locations, and employ 168 people in Arkansas, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska, and his corporate office is in Wichita, KS.

CR is an active member in the Culligan Dealers Association of North America (CDANA) as the past President, The Water Quality Association (WQA) as its past President, and is currently the Chair-Elect for the Culligan Dealer Advisory Council (DAC). 

CR is married to Lindsay and they have two boys, Jack (age 10), and Carson (age 5).

Buzz Cooksey, Chairman of DAC

Buzz Cooksey is at third generation Culligan man and a classic example of indenture servitude that a family business encumbers a next generation family member by having to work like a dog to pay off the previous generation. Buzz always worked in the business, starting in the plant at an age that was in clear violation of child labor laws and eventually getting promoted to routes and service. Buzz was demoted when assigned to become manager of a small branch dealership in 1977. He must have really screwed up as he took over active management of the entire company in 1981 and has been the owner since 1988. He says it has been fun and giggles since then. To overcome boredom, he has been a member and past president of the DAC since 1991. He is also a member of the infamous CDANA 6 for the past 6 1/2 years. Buzz enjoys farming as well as in hunting and killing critters.

Larry Holzman, Senior Vice President, Franchise and Marketing, Culligan International

Larry Holzman has been with Culligan for 20 years.  He has held various positions including Director of Marketing, General Manager of Household, VP of Sales, and Senior VP of Franchise.  Today he is responsible for the North American dealer network and oversees Marketing and Product Management functions.

Prior to joining Culligan he held a variety of marketing positions with General Electric’s Major Appliance Business Group, and with Tenneco Automotive where he was responsible for the Monroe Shock Absorber business. 

He holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Jeff Larson, Rock Valley Water, Inc., Rockford, IL

Jeff Larson, Rock Valley Water, is a second Generation Culligan Man and the son of Dennis Larson. Jeff became a Culligan man in 1986 and served as the Service Counsel Chairman from 2000-2005. He also served as a Dealer Advisory Counsel Rep from 2002-2005 and was the Commercial Chairman from 2002-2007. Jeff has been married to Gina for fifteen years and his four children are Emily 13, Sara 10, Jacob 3, and Andrew 2.

David Mehrbrodt, Executive VP, North American Franchisees, Culligan

Dave has been with Culligan since 2000 and is currently responsible for the North American franchise business.  Prior to joining Culligan, he spent sixteen years at Whirlpool Corporation in various senior sales and marketing positions. 

Diane A. Testa, Vice President, Commercial Sales Operations, Culligan International

Diane joined Culligan in January of 2006.   She is responsible for Commercial Sales Operations which includes tactical and strategic support activities like pipeline/forecasting tools, compensation, recognition, training, and marketing programs, process tools and sales force automation.  Her team is also responsible for providing lead generation and training support for our national bid spec program.  The Commercial Application Engineering team who manage the design, drafting and documentation of equipment also report to her. 

Here previous work experience includes various positions in Training, Marketing, Business Development, Sales Operations and Corporate Communications with Moore Business Forms, MooreWallace, RR Donnelley and Catalyst International. Diane holds a B.A. from Northeastern Illinois University and an M.A. from DePaul University. 

Tom Baumeister

Tom Baumeister started working for Culligan as a route man/serviceman in Burlington, WI in 1971. He also worked as a salesman and sales supervisor for Culligan at the ripe old age of 23. He bought his first Culligan dealership in 1983 in Carroll, IA and since has bought several others and combined them into his Carroll, IA store or Percival , IA store. His rural dealerships cover southwest Iowa and southeast Nebraska and northwest Missouri. Tom is the father of six children and grandpa to nine grandchildren. Both of his sons are now involved in the business and they are currently in the process of acquiring more dealerships. Tom has served on the CDANA Board and has served on the DAC on and off for 20 years. In 2007, he will be the DAC Chair-Elect.

Jeanette Higham, Corporate HR Director with Culligan International

Jeanette Higham, Corporate HR Director with Culligan International Company started with Culligan on October 10, 2005. She is currently responsible for all corporate related HR activity and, provides HR Leadership for both Corporate Headquarters and Manufacturing, supports over 500 employees in the following functions: Executive Management, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Human Resources, Strategic Business, Operations, Franchise Development and Commercial Sales. 

Janet’s prior experience to Culligan International includes companies such as Black Diamond Capital Management as HR Director, General Electric – Consumer Finance as HR Manager, and Avon Products, Inc. as Human Resources Supervisor. Janet has had a wealth of experience in administering payroll, medical insurance, 401k plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, Disability, FMLA, and Worker’s Compensation. In addition, she has also ensured the effective delivery of HR core processes including recruitment/selection, performance management, reward and recognition, training and career development,  employment law, employee relations, redeployment, workforce planning, discipline efforts, compensation, and salary planning.

Mark Seals, CEO Culligan

Mark joined Culligan as CEO in January of 2005.  Prior to joining Culligan, he was Kinko’s where he was the executive vice president of operations.  Before that he spent 10 years with PepsiCo/Tricon, where he was instrumental in improving operations of Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell.  He also held several important executive positions with Anhueser-Busch Companies.

A summer salt route job was Gordon’s first experience as a Culligan man. He was later recruited as a salesman, leaving his position as appliance department manager for a K-mart store in Southern CA, for the North Platte Nebraska dealership.  In 1982, he took over as “interim manager” at the dealership in Cozad, NE, which he eventually purchased. Twenty years later, he also acquired the North Platte Dealership. A single father with 3 sons in college and one daughter in high school, his family remains his primary focus.

Darrell Perkins is Director of Sales, Northern California for Sterling HSA™. Darrell brings years of successful insurance industry sales experience to Sterling. Prior to joining Sterling, Darrell was an Account Director with Colonial Life & Accident Insurance where he created cost-saving benefit strategies for his clients nationwide. While with Colonial, Darrell was honored with numerous sales awards, including the Northern California Rookie of the Year for highest sales.

Complimenting his sales experience, Darrell spent six years of his career in account management and marketing roles with agencies and companies in the San Francisco Bay area. His successful focus on marketing program development and client service led to significant sales growth for his clients.

Darrell received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia where he majored in advertising.

Ricky Sanders is the Vice President of Coastal Pump and Water in North Charleston, SC. Ricky joined the dealership after graduation from The Citadel in May of 1996. The Sanders Family operates two dealerships in South Carolina. Ricky is a member of The Culligan One 20 Group.

Bob Boerner and Bill London have worked together on the Culligan Southwest team since 1977 and can recount numerous Culligan War Stories (except of course those they have forgotten !!).  Bob is the Dealer in San Antonio, Midland - Odessa, Kerrville and Seguin - New Braunfels (all in Texas) and Bill is the General Manager in San Antonio, as well as assisting in managing the other 3 dealerships in the group.  Both have worked at times in just about every role in the dealerships, and they have come to deeply appreciate the role every team member plays in creating value in the business, as well as in the mind of the consumer.