Page 40 - Lighting Magazine March 2020

HALL OF
FEMME
LAURIE GROSS
President of Gross Electric & Hardware
Our second Hall of Femme recipient is well- respected for her family values, hard work, and for giving back to the lighting community.
Laurie Gross had no plans or desire to go into the family business when she was growing up. She’d accompany her father, Richard, to the store on Saturdays and help by affixing stickers on catalogs and other man- ageable tasks for a child, and in her high school years, she’d help out over the holidays in customer service and the cash register.
When it came her career goals, Gross set her sights on television broad- casting — and not behind the scenes. “I wanted to be the first female TV news anchor,” she states. But the only job offers that came were as a secretary, and her father said, “Well, I’ll pay you more than that [to work at the business].” So she took him up on his proposition and joined the family company that her grandfather, George, founded. “My dad knew me better than I knew myself,” she admits. After working in the office at the flagship Toledo, Ohio store, her father moved her to their Ann Arbor, Michigan showroom as the sales man- ager. With no management or lighting experience, “I immediately found out I loved selling and learning about lighting,” she confesses.
36 enLIGHTenment Magazine | March 2020
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