LIRC Ambassador Spotlight: Michelle Chan, Deltalight North America; Tara Dietz, DMF Lighting; Joe Grinstead, iGuzzini; Graham Whittaker, Zumtobel
Our LIRC Ambassadors are key representatives for LIRC member companies and the Lighting Industry Resource Council globally. Working closely with IALD Region + Chapter Coordinators, they engage with the local lighting design community, bolster communications, promote events, encourage networking, and promote the IALD and LIRC.
This edition, we shine the LIRC Ambassador Spotlight on four professionals of value to the IALD New York chapter: Michelle Chan, Specification Sales Manager at Deltalight North America; Tara Dietz, Director of Sales at DMF Lighting; Joe Grinstead, New York Sales Representative at iGuzzini; Graham Whittaker, Regional Director of Sales for Metro New York at Zumtobel.
Michelle Chan has been in the lighting industry for over ten years, working as a manufacturing and lighting representative in New York City. She wants to help create memorable, engaging, and exciting events for the IALD New York Chapter and is becoming an LIRC Ambassador to develop meaningful connections and get more involved in the lighting design community.
With a background in interior design and a decade of experience on the manufacturing side of the lighting industry,
Tara Dietz has learned that lighting design does more than illuminate a space: it provides emotion, translates and communicates to the users in the space how to interact with the architecture, and manipulates light to bring that space to life. The lighting community has provided her with a rich and fulfilling career she never thought possible, and she hopes to give back to the community by supporting the LIRC and IALD as highly respected industry groups.
After settling in New York City, Joe Grinstead worked as an LED retrofitting foreman and a controls specialist before transitioning to sales. With a background in entertainment, he excels at getting people out and involved by creating unique events that anyone can leverage to advance relationships, community, and careers. As an LIRC Ambassador, Joe wants to foster community and create mentorship opportunities for the industry so that everyone—manufacturers and designers—feels they are part of a collective rather than competing forces.
Originally from the UK, Graham Whittaker studied product design before transitioning to lighting design. Since arriving in the US, he has been an active member of the IALD LIRC and serves on the IALD LERN Committee. Graham held leading lighting application roles within Zumtobel in the UK and Australia before joining the US team in 2015 as Director of Lighting Application and is currently their Regional Director of Sales for Metro New York. A long-term supporter of the IALD on three continents and an active member of the LIRC, Graham sees the ambassador role as the next step in his desire to see the IALD LERN education platform flourish in the coming months and years.
Those interested in becoming an LIRC Ambassador or nominating a colleague can read more about the program, the responsibilities and benefits of the role, and how to apply.