Page 43 - Lighting Magazine September 2018

“Central to our success is the relationships we’ve built on trust and respect with all our stakeholders, including customers, employees, and supplier partners.”
One of their biggest accomplishments was the development of under-cabinet lighting, proving that uorescents were not just for commercial and industrial applications.
In 1973, Bill Solomon joined his father in the business and was appointed to his current role of CEO 10 years later. Under his leadership, the company has steadily built market share and has spearheaded the development and introduction of energy-saving decorative uorescent xtures.
In re ecting on the company’s 80th anniversary, Solomon notes, “We continually strive to bring relevant and innovative lighting solutions to our customers. Central to our success is the relation- ships we’ve built on trust and respect with all our stakeholders, including customers, employees, and supplier partners.”
Bill is the last of the Solomons at American Fluo- rescent/AFX. There are no other family members involved in the business today — a far cry from
when he started at the company. “If anyone in the family was out of work, my dad gave them a job,” he laughs. “My grandmother was the o ce manager, my sister ran the switchboard, mom did payroll, my uncle managed sales, and throughout the ’60s and ’70s, probably half a dozen of my cousins worked here.”
Solomon is proud of the legacy built over the decades. He describes his grandfather as an entre- preneur and a bit of a rebel, whose handshake and word were as good as gold.
“He borrowed $10,000 from his father so he could get out of the banking business and start this company,” Solomon shares. “He was very much an ‘I did it my way’ type of business owner and was ex- tremely loyal to people and treated them very well. My father was a di erent type of leader. He would do anything for anybody. He was a storyteller and typical salesman. People really loved him because he was such a genuinely good person.”
clockwise from top left: The ground- breaking before the new (then American Fluorescent) head- quarters was built.
An advertisement from the early days of American Fluorescent.
Jerry Solomon and his son, Bill.
SepteMber 2018 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 41