victoria.kickham@reedbusiness.com

It's no surprise that former Secretary of State Colin Powell has varied interests, but would you guess he's a tool buff? The military hero-turned-foreign policy expert revealed a bit of his lighter side at the recent Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Assn. convention in Baltimore, at which he was the keynote speaker.

Politics, foreign policy and technology figured highly in his speech on leadership, but when the speech was over, it was on to a private, guided tour of the STAFDA trade show. Some of STAFDA's top brass led the tour, noting later that Powell was enthusiastic about the many tools on display, picking them up, asking about different brands and talking about new technologies that power the tools.

Powell delivered his speech to STAFDA members during the convention's General Session on Monday, Nov. 7. He covered national security, technology, global socio-economic change, and U.S. foreign policy—all in the context of what it takes to be a leader.

STAFDA's 29th Annual Convention & Trade Show was held Nov. 6–8 in Baltimore, at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Vertex Fasteners changed its name to Vertex Distribution. The company sells corrosion-resistant standard-inch and metric fasteners and is headquartered in Pawtucket, R.I.... Distributor alliance IDC-USA added Novelty Machine & Supply Co. to its national group of bearing and power transmission distributors... Evergreen Marketing Group established a disaster relief fund to support its members and their families, as well as other industry companies and their families, impacted by hurricanes. As of late October, the group had raised more than $10,000... Distributor network idi Independent Distributors Inc. began its 25th year in business this fall. Based in Canada, idi specializes in industrial supplies, bearing and power transmission products, safety supplies, fluid power products and janitorial supplies....

Distributor Tencarva Machinery Co. acquired the UniGuard Machine Guard line of products as a result of its purchase of the assets of Computer Cut, Inc. of New Bern, N.C...Parker Hannifin acquired Sterling Hydraulics, which designs custom hydraulic screw-in cartridge valves and manifold systems. Parker also acquired Porter Instrument Co., which makes analytical, industrial, medical and dental instrumentation...Manufacturer Pentair announced plans to acquire certain assets of APW Ltd., including the McLean Thermal Management, Aspen Motion Technologies and Electronic Solutions businesses, which provide thermal management solutions and integration services to the telecommunications, data communication, medical and security markets....

Independent distributor alliance Network Services Co. was named to CIO magazine's Bold 100, which recognizes organizations for excellence in information technology... BoschTools.com was named to BtoB magazine's 10 Great Web Sites list...Industry software provider Infor was named a 2005 Emerging Technology Company of the Year by Automation Alley, Southeast Michigan's regional technology cluster...Applied Industrial Technologies was named to the Information Week 500, a list of the leading corporate users of IT in the United States. Applied was also named a NorthCoast 99 winner for 2005. NorthCoast 99 is an annual recognition program that honors 99 great workplaces for top talent in Northeast Ohio.