Our Management Team

Elliot Younessian, Chief Executive Officer

Elliot has served Kärcher since June of 2006 initially with the Kärcher Floor Care, Inc. and more recently as Chief Operating Officer of Kärcher North America, Inc. He joined Castle Rock Industries, the holding company of brands such as Windsor, Prochem, Tecserv and Graco in Sept of 2000 with more than 25 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Operations.

Elliot’s unique Marketing and Engineering background allowed him to manage both the Engineering and Marketing teams with Castle Rock and subsequently with Kärcher Floor Care. More recently, Elliot was part of the team that consolidated all the North American companies and created a single holding company of Kärcher North America, managing 11 different and unique brands with in North America.

Prior to Castle Rock, Elliot was at Samsonite Corporation for over 15 years, where he was involved in the areas of corporate strategy, Marketing and Engineering servicing the US, European and Asian markets. He was involved in extensive international market evaluation and product development.

Elliot began his professional career in 1981 upon earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and subsequently received his MBA degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. Being a certified expert in Lean Management, he has applied Lean Manufacturing principles as part of the operational and engineering excellence.

Thomas Brendel, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Brendel joined Kärcher North America in 2008 as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG in Germany where he was the Head of Group Accounting and Tax Services. Mr. Brendel has more than 14 years of experience in tax consulting and production companies including Arthur Anderson and Berner GmbH.

He earned a Masters degree in Business Administration from Bayerische Julius-Maximilians University at Wurzburg, Germany and also studied at the University of Wales in Swansea, Great Britain.

Matthias Rohde, Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Rohde joined Kärcher North America in 2009 as Chief Technology Officer from Kärcher GmbH & CO KG in Germany where he held managerial positions in engineering, product development and project management, highlighted with extensive knowledge in process management in Research and Development.

Prior to Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co KG, Matthias Rohde worked with Lenze Drive Systems for more than 14 years, where he held positions in electronic engineering, product design and international project management. Additionally, he was involved in extensive product development and new product technology.

Mr. Rohde received a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering from Hannover, Germany.

Donita Gardner, Vice President of Human Resources

As Vice President of Human Resources, Donita’s responsibilities encompass all Kärcher HR, employee benefits and payroll functions in North America. Donita has held senior Human Resources positions within Kärcher since 2004. Prior to joining the company, she was employed in various HR management roles with manufacturing, aerospace and defense, telecommunications, and higher education organizations.

Donita earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelors degree in Management from Michigan State University. She also holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources certification from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), and is a past President of the Colorado Human Resources Association and National Committee Member with SHRM.

Tom Bettis, Vice President of Sourcing and Asian Operations

Tom has served Kärcher since June 2006, initially with Kärcher Floor Care, Inc. He joined Windsor Industries, Inc. in July 1995 with 20 years of both domestic and international Materials and Operational Management experience.

Tom’s extensive knowledge of business practices in Asia spans from 1989 to present, including 2 years of living in China as a General Manager of an electronics manufacturer.

Mr. Bettis received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay.

Neal Necastro, Vice President of Operations

Neal has served the company in a number of different capacities during the last ten years including operating management positions in Prescott Arizona and Englewood Colorado prior to assuming responsibility for all North American operations in January of 2009.

He has 25 years of experience in durable goods manufacturing in the automotive, capital equipment and consumer products industries and holds a Bachelor of Science degree and an MBA in management.

As a certified lean manager, Neal has spent most of his career developing and implementing the value, quality and delivery benefits of effective lean management to better serve customer expectations.

Jeff Fithian, Senior Director of Information Technology

Jeff joined Kärcher in October 2009 and was initially responsible for leading Kärcher North America’s SAP operations and project teams, before taking his current role as head of Kärcher’s Information Technology department. He brings over 16 years of experience in the office products, electronics, software, and consumer products industries with leadership roles in ERP Systems Implementations, Business Process Re-Engineering, Custom and Packaged Software Application Development, and IT Management.

He has worked in both the US and Europe with leading Fortune 500 companies and consulting organizations, including Andersen Consulting, Corporate Express, Sun Microsystems, Storage Technology Corporation, and Siemens AG.

Jeff is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.