The Industrial Supply Association named Allan Chartier the posthumous recipient of its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Product Show & Conference in San Diego on June 2. The industry veteran began his career in the industrial supply industry as a salesman for Midwest Industrial Tools in the 1970s.
“It was very soon after I met Allan that I knew we had hired someone with great integrity,” recalls Richard Cohen, former president of Minnesota Industrial Tools of Minneapolis. Chartier quickly moved from a top salesman to branch manager of MIT’s Omaha location. “It was Allan’s ability to act as a salesman and implement tactically, while maintaining the strategic integrity of our business plan, that made him a natural choice to lead our Nebraska facility.”
Chartier became majority stockholder, president, and CEO of Omaha-based Midwest Industrial Tools Inc. when the parent company sold its branch operations. Throughout his career, he held positions on many executive boards and industry committees, including serving as president of the Central States Industrial Distribution Association (1988), the Industrial Distribution Association (1993-1994), and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association (1998-1999). He was the only industry professional to serve as president of I.D.A., CSIDA and AMTDA. He was also chairman of the ISD network of Affiliated Distributors (1995-1997), and chairman of the ISA Education Foundation board of trustees (2011-2012). He also served on numerous supplier advisory boards and councils and was active in his local community.
A strong supporter of education, he served on the University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Engineering - Industrial Advisory Committee, Bellevue University - President’s Entrepreneurial Advisory Council and the University of Alabama-Birmingham Industrial Distribution Steering Committee.
“Allan was known as a hard worker and was well respected by everyone in the industrial distribution community. He managed a very successful industrial distribution business for many years, mentored many young people in the industrial distribution space and actively gave back to the industry with his leadership roles in ISA, I.D.A., and AMTDA,” said David Crawford, senior vice president of DGI Supply, which acquired MIT in 2011.
