Our executive management team is committed to advancing the organization through thoughtful, experienced leadership and enhancing the lives of our employees, customers and partners.
Udayan Senapati
CEO
Udayan joined Rittal in May of 2026 as the CEO of Rittal LLC. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, his Ph.D from Alfred University in New York and Executive Education in General Management from Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Udayan joins Rittal with over 30 years of global leadership experience spanning sales, product management, marketing, operations and engineering. He has held senior executive roles at industry-leading organizations where he established a proven track record of driving sustainable growth by strengthening customer partnerships and building high performance teams. As a leader, Udayan is passionate about growth by leveraging a balanced ecosystem of customers, partners and talent.
Bob Jennings
CFO
Robert joined Rittal in July of 2021 as the CFO of Rittal in the U.S. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Illinois State University and his Master’s (MBA) in Accounting from DePaul University.
Robert comes with tremendous knowledge of over 30 years of experience managing Accounting, Finance, Information Technology, Purchasing, Logistics, Treasury and other support functions as part of US and overseas operations of global enterprises in various industries including manufacturing, automotive, industrial equipment and electronics.
Robert has worked in the US, Japan, China, France and various other locations including a 3-year assignment in Germany with his family. He is passionate about people and achieving success by building and nurturing high performance teams.
Kris Cannon-Schmitt
COO
Kris joined Rittal in August 2022 as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for North & South America, supporting Canada, USA, and Latin America. In this role she is focusing on building strong plant operations, logistics, and transportation solutions to meet the growing demand of our customers.
Kris graduated with an Industrial Engineering degree from The University of Iowa and an MBA from St. Ambrose University. She brings over 20 years of senior management experience covering a variety of areas including manufacturing, supply chain management, marketing, sales operations and customer engagement.
Craig Shirley
VP, Human Resources Americas
Craig joined Rittal in November of 2023 and is the Vice President of Human Resources for North America.
In this role he is focusing on leading human resources strategy while improving culture, diversity and engagement, acquiring, developing and retaining talent, directing total rewards and optimizing technology to improve the employee experience and driving data-based decisions to continually improve sustainable processes.
Craig graduated with two MBA’s from the University of Illinois, Chicago specializing in Management and Entrepreneurship in addition to deep exposure in Lean/Six Sigma within global Fortune 500 organizations. He brings nearly 30 years of senior and C-level experience in manufacturing including technology, food ingredients, packaging and medical devices.
Andrew Prichard
VP, IA & IT Distributors
Andrew joined Rittal in 2001 as part of the Rittal sales trainee program. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH. During his tenure at Rittal, Andrew has held multiple sales and sales management roles in different segments of our business.
Sarah Groden
VP Sales - Eastern Region
After studying engineering at the University of Michigan, Sarah spent over a decade sharpening her skills in the industrial automation world at Electro-matic, one of Rittal's largest national channel partners. Sarah’s leadership style is all about deep industry knowledge, a laser focus on optimizing sales channels, and a passion for learning and sharing that knowledge with others.
Ross Albu
VP Sales - Western Region
Ross is a senior sales executive with over 25 years of experience in the industrial automation and
electrical components industry, primarily focused on the Western U.S. region. He has held leadership roles at Keyence Corp., Rittal USA, Carlo Gavazzi, and Littelfuse, where he led direct and channel sales teams, built strategic OEM partnerships, and consistently driven year-over-year growth. Ross's background spans multiple industries including semiconductor manufacturing, food and beverage processing, packaging automation, renewable energy, data centers and EV charging infrastructure.
Melanie Corbolotti
Executive Assistant
Melanie was born and raised in Herborn, Germany and started her career with Rittal in January 1996 at the headquarters location in Herborn. After 7 ½ years and gaining experience in various roles from Inside Sales, Customer Service, Key Account Relations, Distributor Inside Support, and assisting the Sales Manager, she took the opportunity for an expat assignment in 2003 at our U.S. location in Springfield and later Urbana, OH.
During the expat assignment Melanie further advanced as the Assistant to the Sales Director and since 2006 holds the position as the Assistant to the Managing Director/President. Her main focus is to support the MD but also assisting the Executive Team as well as the office management in our Schaumburg, IL location.