Trend watch: I believe technology innovation is a big trend for both industrial and lighting solutions. Being creative and using new technology is extending the life of products and delivering solutions to customers.  

What do you do for fun? Travel is a big part of my DNA. I try to do a big trip every year and I have been to more than 33 countries and counting. 

A professional problem solver, Karl Hatton brings more than 35 years of experience and expertise to Gescan clients in the industrial segment.  

Starting at a warehouse in Ontario where he pushed a broom and stocked shelves, Karl began building his knowledge base by learning about the products and their functions. Once promoted to working the counter for an industrial distributor, where he dealt directly with customers, he found his calling.  

Joining Gescan in 1997, Karl has built on that love of working directly with clients, solving problems with the right array of products. Over the course of his career with Gescan, he has worked in industrial inside and outside sales, taking pride in creating relationships with new customers, continuing those with ongoing clients and taking advantage of all the guidance and training the company offers.  

Today, working in industrial business development, he uses his expertise and ‘street smarts’ to look at every angle of a customer’s need, creating cost-effective and beneficial solutions — including layouts and simulations — for day-to-day requirements for industrial end users, contractors, panel shops, OEMs, as well as lighting solutions.  

“My approach is to build trust and relationships with customers, to show them I have the capabilities to help them in every part of their business,” he says. “I am not giving customers just a price — I am giving them solutions.”