Our Story
How two friends with twenty-five years of industry relationships formed one great company.
In 2013, Matt Chriss and John Glon were already seasoned professionals at GE Industrial Solutions, enjoying the fruits of working for a great corporation. While they relished every moment at the Fortune 500 conglomerate, they still had a feeling something was missing. They both agreed that they wanted to make some changes to better serve Detroit and its surrounding markets. They brainstormed ways to leverage their skillset and market knowledge, and still maintain the relationships they had built for the last 25 years. They loved their work, and knew they could make things even better. Together, they would become a game-changer for GE, and the Midwest market.
At the time, GE had multiple divisions that catered to the electrical industry in different capacities. They each sold products into the electrical industry, but they all chose different commercial paths to sell their products. It was not clear to the market who the point-of-contact was for respective products. That’s when the light bulb went off.
The idea was fairly simple. GE Industrial Solutions provided the product mix that Matt and John spent their careers selling. GE Critical Power had not had representation in the market in a number of years. Almost all of the product lines mixed and matched in the same markets, with the only difference being the path of purchase. So, Matt and John approached both divisions with their business plan to become an independent sales representative, uniting all products together in a packaged format. At the end of 2013, GE agreed with the plan.
Great Lakes Essential Power (GLEP) was born in January 2014 with 3 employees in home offices with GE Industrial Solutions as their flagship vendor. GLEP grew exponentially over the first 4 years. Our current office in Southfield houses 7 employees who contribute to our steady, continued growth. GLEP currently represents 8 product lines across 3 states, bringing 6 different GE Business units to the Midwest market.