Wojan Window & Door announced the retirement of Vice President of Sales Rick Pagano. A 50-plus year veteran of the fenestration and building products industries, Pagano has led Wojan’s sales team for fourteen years and will be succeeded by current Regional Sales Manager, Jeff Collis.
About Pagano
Pagano started in the lumber industry after high school and while earning his degree in college. He spent most of his career in operations and sales, working his way up into general management and sales leadership roles. He’s been involved in numerous industry associations throughout his career including BOMA, NAHRO, CSI-Chicago, and as a trainer for AAMA, now FGIA. Pagano joined Wojan Window & Door in 2009 and has been instrumental in cultivating significant growth since then, according to a company release.
“Rick was a tremendous asset for Wojan right from the beginning,” says Wojan’s VP of Business Operations, Mike Wojan. “He’s played a pivotal role in expanding our reach not only by growing our sales team, but also by being closely involved when we’ve launched new products and by building our brand within the architectural community. We’ll miss him for sure, there aren’t many people with his kind of industry knowledge and influence.”
“I’m looking forward to celebrating my 49th anniversary this year and spending some more time in service to my church and the community. I’ll be retired but expect to keep my toes in the water so to speak, as an industry consultant on occasion,” says Pagano.
What's next?
Collis, Pagano’s successor, has been with Wojan since 2012 and represented them as an independent sales rep prior to that. He joined Wojan as a rep for Ohio and has served as Regional Sales Manager since 2019, overseeing a number of reps and territories in the Midwest. He was also once a partner in a glazing business.
“The transition has been ongoing for some months now and we couldn’t be more confident in Jeff’s abilities,” says Wojan. “He knows the company, our products, and our people so it really wasn’t a hard decision to promote him and let him drive Wojan to the next era of growth.”
As part of the succession plan, Wojan brought sales professional Thomas Holewinski on board in the Regional Sales Manager role last fall.
