Applied Industrial Technologies has named Todd Barlett vice president of acquisitions and global business development. He was previously Applied's vice president for global business development.

In his new position, Barlett will be responsible for all corporate merger and acquisition activity, and will continue to oversee Applied Industrial Technologies Ltd. (Canada), Applied Mexico, S.A. de C.V., and Rafael Benitez Carrillo, Inc. of Puerto Rico.

Based in Cleveland, Applied employs more than 4,000 people in more than 430 facilities in North America. The company deals primarily with MRO and OEM customers in virtually every industry, and provides engineering, design and systems integration for industrial and fluid power applications.

"Todd [has] played a major role in developing our businesses outside of the U.S.," said Bill Purser, Applied's president/CEO. "He helped us acquire good, quality companies in these markets, and that experience makes him the ideal person to lead our M&A efforts. Applied's growth strategy remains a mix of internal growth through sales expansion and external growth through acquisitions. We will continue to focus our efforts on evaluating acquisitions as we build long-term shareholder value."