Colleen Rowe is acting CFO & COO. She was born in Wisconsin and grew up in a large family. She ventured out west in her mid 20’s and met Tony in Long Beach, they were married a few years later. When Tony had the opportunity to move to Hawaii and start selling for a rep agency there it was an easy decision to move. While living on Oahu they grew their family with 3 children. Heading back to the mainland, Tony & Colleen agreed on the Phoenix area due to the strength of the economy & growth. Colleen has a background in accounting and office management, so it was a natural fit to take over all the back-end office responsibilities when Steve Smith decided it was time retire. She enjoys traveling and playing games with friends and family.

Kim is our Administrative Assistant. She was born in California and grew up in Iowa where she had two wonderful children and owned her own business for 14 years as a Certified Daycare Provider. Kim moved to Arizona eight years ago and worked in the healthcare industry as a Human Resource Manager. Her interests range from coaching, which she did for over 18 years, spending as much time outside hiking, working in her yard and exercising. Kim also LOVES traveling.

Mel Hutchinson was born in Colorado Springs at the Fort Carson Army Base, but spent the next years growing up in the Midwest – Michigan & Ohio. From there his family moved to Las Vegas then San Jose. He attended college at the University of New Mexico and then moved back to Las Vegas where he worked at McCarran International Airport until 2001. His electrical career has a wide variety of positions; industrial control and drives specialist, low voltage & major projects manager, a negotiator for solar modules as a business development manager, general manager with a contractor, and eventually doing outside sales in Las Vegas. Another interesting job amidst those was as a keyboard tech for several major recording artist. Mel says he jumped at the chance to work with Desert States when the opportunity arose. He is an avid sports fan, with his favorite saying “if they keep score I probably watch it.”

​Bob started his electrical career in 1973 with 3M in their electrical division. He worked for 3M for 28 years and then retired. He came out of retirement to work for Desert States for 10 years before retiring again. He came back to the electrical industry to work for Abott & Associates as an account manager for 6 years and retired again. Bob is now back working as an outside salesman for Desert States. He enjoys helping out the younger staff and is on pace to set the record for most retirements in a lifetime.

​Steve has worked in the electrical industry for 45 years. He began his career as an inside salesman for Rome Cable. Steve founded Pacific Coast Electrical Sales with his wife in Orange County California. They ran this business for 10 years. Steve then went to work for Burndy for 10 years as an outside salesman. He left Burndy and took a regional sales manager position with NSI for 10 years. He then took a regional sales manager position with Penn Union until his recent retirement. He is now back in the electrical industry working as an outside salesman for Desert States. Steve's hobbies are restoring old Schwinn bikes and photography. Steve has been married to his wife Diane for 32 years. They have 5 adult children and 5 grandchildren.

Steve Enright joined us in March of 2019 as an Inside Salesman, and after a few years of learning product & our industry, Steve is venturing to the Outside Sales world. He is bright and eager to learn. Steve grew up in the Chicago suburbs and attended Illinois State University. He worked in education for 8 years, teaching Special Education & Health. Steve moved to Phoenix in the summer of 2017 and decided to change career paths. He really enjoys being outdoors and hiking, which makes this area a great play land. With Steve on board we feel we have a great mix of seasoned salesmen and young and upcoming stars.

Tyler is a third generation Arizona native. He started in the restaurant industry in 2009 where he spent 11 years learning the ins and outs. Tyler made some lifelong friends and a lot a great regulars along the way. He loves working with people and is excited to bring his customer service skills to a new industry. Tyler is married with two amazing kids. Across the board he is an Arizona sports fan with football and baseball as his favorites. Tyler loves a wide range of music. The Office and Friends are his favorite shows.

Mayra has come to us from within our industry, She’s worked for ESA Fabrication for 10 years. She comes from a family of accountants and even though she likes numbers and has a background in accounting, she always wanted to do more for people. So she went to physical and massage therapy school in Baltimore Maryland. She worked as a massage therapist for several years until she hurt my hand and couldn’t do it anymore. After that Mayra came back to AZ. She likes horror movies and is fascinated by SFX makeup (she also has a great talent there) and Astrology.

Lizeth comes from Mexico, moving here in 1989. Her father was a car salesman and mother an accountant. After working as a customer service rep for a few companies she decided to go back to school at the age of 30. She went from an AA to a BFA and finally graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Sculpture. Her artistic career did not last long as she had an opportunity as a production coordinator. She fell in love with manufacturing and the hands-on ability she acquired from the jobs she performed. She’s always had an interest in the processes; thus, manufacturing offered a wide array of concepts that involved problem solving and critical thinking. A great asset for us! After working in Phoenix for ESA Fabrication as a production supervisor for 3 years she moved to NC and got married. She returned back to The Valley to assist her mother. She’s been in manufacturing for almost 10 years and decided to now give “light work” a try. Liz love’s art in all it’s forms, she enjoys all musical genres, and LOVE’s her cat, Pastelito. Other things that bring her great joy – cooking, baking, taking care of her husband & helping family.

Our warehouse manager is Rigo Rocha-Zavala. He has been with Desert States longer than anyone, starting in 1997. He takes charge of every aspect of the warehouse, inventory & shipping – we couldn’t ask for a more dedicated employee. Rigo moved to Phoenix in 1990 from Mexico, and has a wonderful wife, Maria, and 2 daughters. Cooking and eating are his thing, and he brings a feast to the office to help us celebrate the big holidays

Our warehouse assistant manager is Rigo’s brother – David Rocha-Zavala. He has also been with the company a long time, starting in 2001. David is always happy and working hard. We are so lucky to have him on our team. He moved to Phoenix in 1995, following his brother and sister to the area. He helps his wife, Luc, raise her son and they just celebrated the birth of the their daughter, Layla in early 2021. David loves movies – almost all genres – and says that is how he mostly learned to understand the English language. He also really likes riding his ATV.

Les brings a depth of knowledge for building client relationships and clarity in achieving high standards of performance and manages our business development efforts in Arizona with this same approach.
Prior to Desert States, Les was a founder of a company providing refrigerant abatement services to HVAC, Demolition Contractors, Municipalities, Landfills, DOD and Facilities Management Teams. As an entrepreneur and family man, Les enjoys the opportunity to offer businesses value-infused service which creates competitive advantages for his clients.
Longevity, stability, and his reputation as a man of integrity has resulted in proven business successes which in turn affords him the ability to also enjoy time with his wife and children whose ages range from adult to 20 months old.“

Patrick is a partner and lighting specialist for SATCO. He started his career in the electrical industry in 1987 with GTE Sylvania as their Southern Arizona Sales Representative. Over the years, Patrick’s market responsibility has grown to include Southeast New Mexico and El Paso, along with Metro-Phoenix and Northern Arizona. Today, as the factory representative for SATCO lighting. Patrick has been married to his beautiful wife Kristin for the past 33 years. They have three amazing young adult children that all reside in the Phoenix area.