Jeremy Angel: The Nine-Year-Old Electrician Who Grew Up to Be Branch Manager
If you hired an electrician to wire receptacles in your house and walked in to find a nine-year-old boy doing the work, it might give you pause. You’d probably try to stop him.
This is exactly what happened when a homeowner walked in on a young Jeremy Angel wiring receptacles all by himself. The homeowner took Angel to the next room where Angel’s father was also working on wiring.
Angel’s father quickly calmed the homeowner’s fears, taking one of Angel’s pieces apart.
“See, this is exactly how I would have done it,” explained Angel’s father.
“The guy was impressed,” laughed Angel, “but I don’t think I did any more wiring on my own that day.”
Born To Be Branch Manager
You could say new City Electric Supply Franklin Branch Manager Angel was born into the electrical industry as the son of an electrical contractor. Since he was a kid, he’d work with his dad during summers and afternoons, whenever he needed help.
In college, he worked at an electrical distributor, and it solidified his passion and future.
“This guy would drive up in a really nice truck, get out and come in. Anything he wanted, we’d do it,” said Angel. “I said, ‘Who’s that?’ and a coworker said, ‘That’s an outside sales rep.’ I said, ‘I want to do that.’”
Several years later, in 2000, he reached that goal.
Life in Franklin
“I really love outside sales. I stayed doing that for 25 years,” said Angel. “My heart’s there.”
To be more specific, his heart is in outside sales work in Franklin, North Carolina, where he grew up. In fact, his family has lived there for generations before him.
And nestled in the Nantahala National Forest, it’s a beautiful place to live. It offers white water rafting, over 600 miles of hiking trails with some on the Appalachian Trail, camping, and waterfall sight-seeing.
“The CES branch Jeremy works at is in the foothills of North Carolina,” explained District Manager Don Corbett. “A lot of people come up there this time of year — leaf-lookers. It’s a beautiful, mountainous area, and it contributes to a lot of their business. One of the big needs in the area is standby generators for mountainside homes that are susceptible to losing power in the wintertime.”
“It’s a beautiful area,” said Angel. “I’m an outside guy. I like being outside and changes of scenery. I love driving around, and when you’re in outside sales, you get to do that a lot.”
The Job Offer
He loved outside sales so much that when he was offered a promotion, he did something not many other people would do — he hesitated.
“I worried about less time in the field as a branch manager,” said Angel. “When he offered me the job, I said I’d have to think about it.”
The position seems to suit him — he’s been the branch manager of CES Franklin for two months now, and it hasn’t eaten away too much of his field time.
“He’s pretty much a one-man band right now. He has an operations manager, but he’s doing a lot,” said Corbett.
He generally opens and closes, and it’s not weird for his phone to ring in the middle of the night or on the weekend. But he loves the work; it’s what he knows.
Life as Branch Manager
“Because of his electrical background, he understands what it’s like to be on that side of the counter,” explained Corbett. “He knows that if we don’t have product to customers and these guys are delayed, it costs them money.”
So, he stays on top of things. He knows the business from both sides of the counter, and he’s invested in the success of his customers and community.
“When you go out to lunch with him, he knows everybody in town. He’s well-liked and very personable,” said Corbett. “A community-minded guy who has done a lot for us to build in the Franklin market. He did a fantastic job as a sales rep, and he is doing a fantastic job as a branch manager now.”
“I like CES, and I try not to take the autonomy for granted,” said Angel. “I guess what I enjoy most about being branch manager is that I grew up with most of the guys I sell with, and now when they call, I can answer all their questions, and I don’t have to go to anyone.”
The Future of CES Franklin
Over the past two months, he’s been enjoying that perk, and he’s also been strategizing. He has one goal in particular for CES Franklin.
“Down the line, I want to be able to look around, breathe, and feel confident about where we are as a branch,” said Angel.
And with all of his experience and connections in the business as well as Franklin, we don’t doubt his success for a second. He went from rewiring receptacles as a kid to running his own branch now — all in the place he loves to call home.
He couldn’t be more thankful for support from CES and from his family — his wife Jennifer, his son Phillip, and his daughter Hannah. And we couldn’t be more thankful for all that he does for City Electric Supply.
