Beacon — No. 5 on MDM’s 2022 Top Building Materials Distributors list — announced Aug. 15 that it has appointed Birte von Schwarzenfeld as the company’s senior vice president of Commercial Solutions. She joins Beacon in a newly-created strategic role where she will be responsible for the company’s Commercial business serving non-residential roofing customers.

Prior to joining Beacon, von Schwarzenfeld spent the past three and a half years at Hilti Group, most recently serving as SVP, head of corporate strategy and development at the group’s headquarters in Liechtenstein. Earlier in her career at Hilti, she was based in California and oversaw the Energy & Industry West Sales Division as sales director/division manager. 

Prior to Hilti von Schwarzenfeld spent six years at Flex Inc., growing progressively from director to VP and head of corporate strategy, followed by VP and general manager of global account management. Before that, she worked eight years at The Boston Consulting Group. 

Von Schwarzenfeld holds an M.S. in Physics with Distinction from the Technical University of Berlin and an M.B.A. with High Distinction from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.

“We are very pleased to welcome Birte to the Beacon team,” said Jonathan Bennett, Beacon EVP and CCO. “Her unique background in sales leadership, corporate strategy and management consulting in the supply chain and construction industries will bring additional expertise and momentum to achieving our Ambition 2025 plan. As we focus on our two core markets of residential and commercial roofing, Birte will lead our commercial team in our pursuit of relentless customer focus that drives growth and shareholder value. Her relationship-building style and strategic transformation and sales leadership experience will be important assets as we step further ahead in building a world-class sales and marketing team.”

With over 400 branches throughout the U.S. and six Canadian provinces, Herndon, Virginia-based Beacon had 2021 total sales of $6.6 billion.