{"id":48275,"date":"2021-12-30T11:15:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T19:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=48275"},"modified":"2021-12-30T11:15:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T19:15:44","slug":"vale-elite-dealers-pay-respects-to-lost-team-family-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2021\/12\/vale-elite-dealers-pay-respects-to-lost-team-family-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale: Elite Dealers Pay Respects to Lost Team, Family Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Perhaps it is only fitting that as we sign off from this year\u2019s iteration of Elite Dealer challenges, not to mention a 2021 that was remarkable in oh-so-many ways (very few of them good), we provide our dealer community the opportunity to share a few stories about the members of their business and personal families who passed away during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Stone, the owner of Stone\u2019s Office Equipment in Richmond, Virginia, was heartened by how his team stepped up to keep things going strong after his son passed away following an auto accident. \u201cOur company and every employee stood in the gaps to cover everything, for as long as needed,\u201d Stone remarked. \u201cI never worried about the company or the customers, because they took care of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 was particularly tough on Doing Better Business of Altoona, Pennsylvania, which saw several employees suffer significant tragedies and losses, according to Deb Dellaposta, president and CEO. The losses resonated throughout the company, and team members responded in kind fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a close-knit, family business, this really impacted everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to rally together and we had to look past policies and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooklyn-based TGI Office Automation endured the loss of two significant members of their team, Wally Case and Kumar Persaud, and was gracious in sharing their individual stories. Here are TGI\u2019s reflections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter (Wally) Case was TGI\u2019s vice president of sales, service and operations. He was known for his professionalism, industry knowledge and attention to both employees and clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lost an incredible leader,\u201d said TGI CIO Ed Carroll. \u201cWally was, in the simplest of terms, a down-to-earth, wonderful guy who was very committed to everyone he worked with, and this company. There are many ways to describe him: respectful, committed, compassionate, driven and caring come to mind, but the one that resonates is one that I have heard from many over the years, \u2018The best boss I have ever worked for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added CEO Frank Grasso: \u201cWally was instrumental in the success of TGI and a good friend, he will be missed dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kumar Persaud joined TGI in March 2010, and during his time as the manager of the call center was very instrumental in elevating the level of customer service within TGI. \u201cKumar\u2019s attention to details, as well as his concerns for our customers, helped TGI reduce the level of open calls and shortened response time, enabling us to improve our overall level of customer service,\u201d Grasso said. \u201cHe surely will be missed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To these and other members of our dealer community and the entire office technology space who have suffered similar losses, we offer our sincerest condolences. May the New Year offer you and yours blessings of health and happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it is only fitting that as we sign off from this year\u2019s iteration of Elite Dealer challenges, not to mention a 2021 that was remarkable in oh-so-many ways (very few of them good), we provide our dealer community the opportunity to share a few stories about the members of their business and personal families who passed away during the year. Sam Stone, the owner of Stone\u2019s Office Equipment in Richmond, Virginia, was heartened by how his team stepped up to keep things going strong after his son passed away following an auto accident. \u201cOur company and every employee stood in the gaps to cover everything, for as long as needed,\u201d Stone remarked. \u201cI never worried about the company or the customers, because they took care of everything.\u201d 2021 was particularly tough on Doing Better Business of Altoona, Pennsylvania, which saw several employees suffer significant tragedies and losses, according to Deb Dellaposta, president and CEO. The losses resonated throughout the company, and team members responded in kind fashion. \u201cAs a close-knit, family business, this really impacted everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to rally together and we had to look past policies and procedures.\u201d Brooklyn-based TGI Office Automation endured the loss of two significant members of their team, Wally Case and Kumar Persaud, and was gracious in sharing their individual stories. Here are TGI\u2019s reflections: Walter (Wally) Case was TGI\u2019s vice president of sales, service and operations. He was known for his professionalism, industry knowledge and attention to both employees and clients. \u201cWe lost an incredible leader,\u201d said TGI CIO Ed Carroll. \u201cWally was, in the simplest of terms, a down-to-earth, wonderful guy who was very committed to everyone he worked with, and this company. There are many ways to describe him: respectful, committed, compassionate, driven and caring come to mind, but the one that resonates is one that I have heard from many over the years, \u2018The best boss I have ever worked for.\u2019\u201d Added CEO Frank Grasso: \u201cWally was instrumental in the success of TGI and a good friend, he will be missed dearly.\u201d Kumar Persaud joined TGI in March 2010, and during his time as the manager of the call center was very instrumental in elevating the level of customer service within TGI. \u201cKumar\u2019s attention to details, as well as his concerns for our customers, helped TGI reduce the level of open calls and shortened response time, enabling us to improve our overall level of customer service,\u201d Grasso said. \u201cHe surely will be missed.\u201d To these and other members of our dealer community and the entire office technology space who have suffered similar losses, we offer our sincerest condolences. May the New Year offer you and yours blessings of health and happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":48276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[2897,3436,662],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48278,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48275\/revisions\/48278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}