GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Sonny Gordon has been hired as regional sales manager in the Midwest for American Seating. His territory consists of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Gordon joins American Seating with more than 16 years of sales and customer service experience in the metals and automotive industry. "Sonny brings a wealth of knowledge and proven sales experience, along with a personality that blends very well with our company. Our customers will be very well served by Sonny," said Dave McLaughlin, national sales manager for American Seating.

Gordon attended The Ohio State University where he was captain of the football team. He holds a bachelors of science degree in business management from the University of Phoenix.

Gordon is taking over for Matt Hemmelgarn who has been named national sales manager for Otaco Seating in Canada, a division of American Seating.

TAVARES, Fla. - CoachCrafters Inc. has created two new positions in safety and environmental protection.

Wayne Wolf, president of CoachCrafters, said that after looking at the hard and soft costs of workplace injuries he had decided to elevate company safety policies. Promoted to safety officer was Aaron Atkins, who joined CoachCrafters in February.

"We were very fortunate that one of our mechanics had a strong background in industrial safety, and we appointed him our safety officer and empowered him to make whatever changes he felt necessary to make our facility as safe as it possibly can be," said Tom Quay, vice president of CoachCrafters.

Wolf said the new position had "helped foster a greater sense of teamwork among our employees, which was an unexpected benefit to the initiative."

CoachCrafters has hired an environmental services consultant, Jami Wolf, to perform a full environmental audit. "Our eyes were really opened by the improvements we could make as far as recycling and proper disposal of items we never had really thought of as a danger to the environment in the past," said Quay.