Yon founded MaxLite in New Jersey in 1993 as a joint venture with his father’s South Korea-based company, SK Enterprise Co., Ltd., a pioneer in manufacturing energy-efficient fluorescent lighting products since 1955. In 1998, he acquired full ownership of MaxLite and began expanding its reach by developing new business channels within the green technology industry.

Under his leadership, MaxLite became one of the first manufacturers in the lighting industry to adopt LED technology, evolving into a global leader in energy-efficient lighting solutions. In 2020, Yon transitioned from his role as President and CEO to Chairman of a Board of Advisors, where he continued to help guide the company’s strategic direction. In 2025, he resumed an executive leadership role as Chairman and CEO, reaffirming his commitment to driving innovation and sustainable growth at MaxLite.

Yon holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Prior to founding MaxLite, he spent 13 years in international banking at J.P. Morgan and Marine Midland Bank, serving in both Seoul and New York City as Vice President and Manager of the Asia Pacific Region.

Thomas Rhee returns to MaxLite with over 30 years of experience in sales, marketing, and strategic leadership across the consumer electronics and lighting industries. He previously served as MaxLite’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing from 2010 to 2014, where he helped rebrand the company, introduced breakthrough LED products, and led organizational transformation.

In his new role, Thomas will oversee product development, engineering, operations, sourcing, and human resources. His mission will be to align the company’s operations with its long-term strategic vision, enhance innovation, and ensure efficient execution in the face of industry challenges such as supply chain disruptions and market transformation.

Thomas holds a Master of Science in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He served as a Board Member of the Consumer Electronics Association from 2000 to 2006 and most recently taught as an Adjunct Professor at Yonsei University.

Dwight Kitchen joins MaxLite as CRO and will lead all revenue-generating and marketing functions. He brings over two decades of lighting industry leadership, with successful tenures at Sylvania, Osram, Electrix, and most recently ESI Lighting.

At Osram Sylvania, Dwight launched the Americas Luminaires Division, transforming the business from traditional lighting components to solid-state lighting solutions. He also held pivotal roles in Sylvania Lighting Solutions and the OEM business unit, where he enhanced OEM partnerships and drove revenue growth.

Dwight’s appointment represents a significant step in strengthening MaxLite’s commercial capabilities as the company accelerates its go-to-market efforts in luminaires, lamps, controls, and EV infrastructure.

Umesh leads a cross-functional team to develop and bring to market product enhancements and new product ideas and technologies that will grow MaxLite’s market share in the commercial, industrial, residential, OEM and horticulture channels. Umesh brings more than 15 years of experience in product and business improvement to MaxLite. Prior to joining MaxLite, Umesh was principal product manager at Amazon, where he developed and managed the product and software innovation roadmaps for Amazon Go retail stores. He has held progressively senior leadership positions in product management, manufacturing-engineering and corporate development across diverse organizations ranging from startup to Fortune 10. As senior director of product management at Philips Lighting, he led a team of product managers in overseeing the growth of the company’s multimillion-dollar downlight and track portfolio for the Americas. Prior to that, he was director of business improvement, providing strategic guidance and data analysis for the company’s wide portfolio of product categories and business units. He previously held positions in engineering and corporate finance at VantaCore Partners, UBS Investment Bank, Coherent, Viavi Solutions and Kennametal. Umesh holds an MBA from Yale University.

Todd has more than 30 years experience in a variety of industries including international trade and consumer electronics. Today, Todd manages the operational and financial aspects of MaxLite. Since he joined MaxLite in 2006, he has helped MaxLite to build strong supply chain management systems and banking relationships. He launched MaxLite’s China-to-China original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business in 2008, and established a subsidiary of MaxLite in China in 2010.

Mark brings over 20 years’ experience in the lighting/controls industry while working at Lutron Electronics, with roles in three areas: Product R&D and Mechanical Design for their Residential Solutions, Manufacturing/Operations (including leadership assignments at Lutron’s Caribbean manufacturing locations), and HR Strategy, where he was focused on every company’s key resource - their people - for Lutron’s Commercial Service and Systems business.

Originally from Cleveland, and a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mark began his professional career with multiple Co-Op work assignments at Toyota, where he started his training and practice of Lean Methodologies, 5S, and Kaizen. Mark is located in Indianapolis, IN near MaxLite’s largest distribution center.

Dan joined Maxlite as a Senior Engineering Manager in April 2019 and was subsequently promoted to the position of Engineering Director in March 2020. In September 2022, he assumed the role of Vice President of Operations, where he is now tasked with overseeing the supply chain, sourcing, inventory management, warehouse operations, logistics, manufacturing, and quality control. Dans primary focus revolves around enhancing operational processes and procedures at Maxlite.

Prior to joining Maxlite, Dan accumulated a decade of experience at Samsung Electronics, where he held a principal engineer position in product management and LED chip development. During his tenure at Samsung Electronics, he spent the last three years as the head of the North American LED sales support team. In this capacity, he was responsible for sales management, technical support, order management, and business development. Notably, Dan received the Award of the Year on two occasions – once as an engineer in 2010(Samsung LED) and again as a sales professional in 2016(LED business team, Samsung Electronics).

Dan holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Hanyang University, South Korea.

Elio brings over 20 years of experience in the LED lighting industry and a strong background in marketing to his new role. He will oversee the product management and engineering of indoor and outdoor luminaires and lamps, as well as the company’s overall marketing. He will lead his team of product managers and engineers as well as the marketing group from the company’s headquarters in New Jersey.

Prior to joining MaxLite, Kim was Head of the Lighting Marketing Group at Samsung Electronics in Korea. While at Samsung, he also worked as Principal Engineer and Head of Product Management and Application Engineering for the company’s LED Business Team. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Bachelor’s and a Master’s of Science degrees in Physics from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.