Who We Are
Executive Profiles
Bob Ruff
Senior Vice President, Control Products & Solutions
Robert Ruff was named senior vice president, Americas Region in November 2002. In addition to being responsible for leading the Americas Sales Region, Ruff has the responsibility to accelerate programs that are designed to increase market and customer share and drive business performance.
Ruff joined Reliance Electric in 1976 as a service engineer and also provided customer training. In 1978, he was assigned as a sales engineer in Philadelphia until 1978, when he became a marketing/application engineer manager at the Regional Drive Center in Edison, N.J. In 1980, he was promoted to operations manager at the Regional Drive Center in Edison. In 1986, he moved into field sales as an executive account manager in Boston, Mass. Later that year, Ruff was appointed regional sales manager based in Milwaukee. He held that position until 1990, when he accepted the responsibility of regional sales manager for the New York/New Haven Region.
Ruff was named director of Sales Systems in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1993 and in 1994 became the regional sales manager for the Cleveland/Pittsburgh Region. Then, in 1996, he was promoted to the position of industry vice president for metals in Pittsburgh. In January, 1999, he was appointed vice president for account sales for the Central Region, and in August, 2000, was promoted to vice president of the East Region. In February 2001, Ruff was named regional vice president of the Detroit Region.
Ruff received an AAS in mathematics from Ohio University in 1968, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Akron University in 1976. He was an Aviation Wing Pilot in the U. S. Navy from 1968-1971.