In
Gregory Cominos
Profile
As a freshman coming from a blue collar family in Pittsburgh, Greg Cominos never imagined that he would have a career that would take him to all parts of the world. Greg is especially proud that his career at General Electric allowed him to provide electrification to many of the developing nations in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Greg’s college career wasn’t easy. He had to take off the second semester in college to support his family. Being a first generation college student, Greg relied on his advisor for a lot of the career support he needed. He also had strong support from two of his classmates, both of whom have become senior executives in their own careers. Greg believes that the ambition, work ethic, and street smarts that he and his close friends shared contributed to their success.
You need to have the ability to teach and develop people.
The threshold moment in Greg’s career was when his span of control and geographic territory increased dramatically. Greg believes that what you achieve will get you recognized, but how you brought about the results gets more and more critical the higher you go in an organization. “You need to have the ability to teach and develop people, “Greg says. “ The best person at a specific job may not be able to manage people. “The higher level jobs require strategic thinking and personnel development.”
After 30 years on the job, Greg still has ambition. While he was among the top 400 executives in GE, he wanted more responsibility. That led to a recent move to become Executive Vice President at Benchmark Electronics.
When Greg thinks about his experience at WVU, he comments that WVU offered him everything he needed. Greg especially liked the mix of academic preparation and real world experience.
Bio
Greg Cominos is Executive Vice President of Benchmark Electronics, a $3B electronics business, Headquartered in Houston, TX. Benchmark provides integrated manufacturing, design and engineering services to original equipment manufacturers of industrial equipment including defense and aerospace products, telecommunication equipment, computers and related products for business enterprises, medical devices, and semiconductor capital equipment. Greg is an Executive Corporate Officer and leads the Sales and Marketing Organization.
Prior to joining Benchmark in July of 2015, Greg spent 29 years in the Energy business across the many sectors of Oil and Gas and Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution. He led global commercial organizations with General Electric and Westinghouse Electric and completed multi-billion dollar agreements in every electrified continent of the world.
Greg spent 18 years with General Electric, the last 6 of which as a Corporate Senior Executive; he was one of 400 in the company of 350,000.
In 2013, Greg was President and CEO of GE’s $1B Valves business. He had profit and loss responsibility for the business that designed and manufactured highly engineered control and pressure relief valves, and natural gas solutions for customers in the power generation, oil & gas, and industrial segments. For more than 130 years, customers have relied on GE’s solutions to enable safer, smarter and more efficient operations.
Greg joined the business from GE Energy Management, a $ 7 Billion business, employing over 27,000 people, and providing electrical infrastructure products and technologies to the utility, industrial, and commercial sectors. Greg was the Chief Commercial Officer and had global commercial responsibility for the business including its people, strategy, structure, and process.
Prior to serving in this capacity, Greg was the Global Commercial Leader for GE’s Digital Energy business. The Digital Energy business provided integrated smart grid solutions and reliable power delivery to the utility, oil & gas, critical power, and industrial sectors. In the role, Greg led DE’s global organization with an emphasis on smarter technologies. He led the smart grid commercialization strategy and engaged regularly with industry associations, utilities, regulators, and other stakeholders to promote the benefits and paybacks of modernizing the world’s electrical grids.
Greg began his GE career with the Energy business in 1997 and prior to his Digital Energy role, held the positions of Region Turbine Sales GM, Contractual Services Global Commercial GM, Energy Services Global Commercial Ops GM (an $8 Billion/Year enterprise).
Prior to GE, Greg spent 11 years with Westinghouse Electric Corporation culminating in various Management and Executive roles in the Sales and Marketing of Power Generation Equipment and Services.
Greg is a 1986 graduate of West Virginia University and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering. He is married, has 3 children, and enjoys golf, tennis and visits to Napa Valley in the U.S.
