After being named president and CEO of Electrolux Home Care Products North America in September 2004, he hopes to utilize and build on this knowledge. “I believe if you create a positive work environment where people feel respected for what they do and appreciated for what they do, you’ll win every time,” he says. When employees wake up in the morning, he wants them to be excited about coming to work.

Mr. Case graduated from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI, U.S.) in 1973 with a B.A. degree in Telecommunications. He went on to receive his teaching certificate from Eastern Michigan University’s Graduate School of Education in 1976. Mr. Case has also completed the Advanced Management Program at the University of North Carolina.

In 1977, Mr. Case began working at La-Z-Boy as an assistant national accounts manager. During his career at La-Z-Boy, he moved through several management positions ranging from national accounts sales manager to vice president of Marketing.

After 12 years at La-Z-Boy, he left the company to join the full-service advertising agency Stone, August, Baker Communications of Troy, MI, U.S. In 1990, Mr. Case formed Case Communications, a consulting firm for companies in the home furnishings industry. In January 1992, Mr. Case rejoined La-Z-Boy as vice president of Retail Development and Services. By the time he left the company in 2003, he was president of the La-Z-Boy Upholstery Group and responsible for all divisions using the La-Z-Boy name.

In 2004, Mr. Case left La-Z-Boy and moved on to Electrolux. His position includes oversight of the Eureka, Electrolux, and Sanitaire floor care brands as well as Beam central vacuum systems. “I’m pleased with the smooth transition that we managed with Marty Holleran, who was the interim president, to my taking the helm,” Mr. Case says. “More importantly, I was very happy to find a solid core of talented, dedicated employees to build on.”

The most pressing goal that Mr. Case has for his new position is to get out and meet the customers of Electrolux. “Second to that is to reinvigorate the Eureka brand and continue to ‘feed’ the Electrolux brand with new products,” he tells APPLIANCE.

Years of experience taught Mr. Case that in an organization, people want to do a good job, but many times simply do not know what is expected. He feels it is important for everyone in an organization to know exactly what the priorities are. “If you ask anyone at Electrolux what our focus is, they’ll tell you that launching innovative products on time and on target is priority number one—everything else is secondary to that,” notes Mr. Case.

Mr. Case’s personal life is just as busy as his professional life. “I’ve got a daughter getting married in October, a son leaving for college in August, and another son who will be moving with my wife from Michigan as soon as we sell one house and find another,” he explains. “Other than that, things should be relatively calm!”