Council of Fellows' Spotlight: Jeff Valles

DPHA created the Council of Fellows to recognize career accomplishments. In keeping with DPHA’s tradition of innovation and defying convention, election to DPHA’s Council of Fellows is not simply an honor. It also is a call to continue to serve our organization and industry. The Council of Fellows does not have an agenda or mandate. The Council is expected to undertake projects that it deems important and vital to the continued success of our industry. As DPHA has matured, the organization continues to look to the Council of Fellows as a strategic think tank.

This week we feature Jeff Valles ...

Jeff has spent his entire professional career in the decorative plumbing and hardware industry, a rarity for someone who is not associated with a family business. His name is well known in DPH circles. He started at Phylrich in 1979 and in a relatively short time became the company's senior vice president of marketing and sales. He was the face and driving force of Phylrich, which became known for quality products, limited distribution and customization capabilities. When Elkay Manufacturing purchased Phylrich in 2004, Jeff relocated to Chicago to become director of showroom merchandising where he was responsible for expanding faucetry to existing Elkay product portfolios and developing the marketing and operations to support the new offerings.

Jeff was also one of the dozen individuals that were tapped to attend an organizational meeting in December of 2001 to determine if creating a new organization dedicated exclusively to the decorative plumbing and hardware industry was viable. That meeting led to the creation of DPHA. In 2008, Jeff joined the DPHA management team as executive director and then accepted a similar role with the Forte Buying Group in 2010.

Jeff's service at DPHA resulted in record numbers of members and attendance at the DPHA annual conference. He pioneered new content, blogs, sales guidance and social media involvement. He was a sounding board for new ideas, always exploring and asking "what if", "why not" and "what's preventing us from moving forward". He was a go-to, highly sought after resource for manufacturers, dealers and representatives.

Jeff's involvement with Forte produced equally impressive results. At Forte, Jeff pioneered a private label fixture line and nearly doubled the sales volume of the group with fewer manufacturers than when he started and with the same number of Forte members.