Management Team Historic Timeline

- Founding of William Nolan Co., a machining and steam fitting firm, in Lockport, NY

-Addition of a line of mill supplies which will become the major part of the business

1931-

-Official incorporation as Ward Brothers Mill Supply Co., Inc.

-After serving in various capacities since 1947, Sam Ward, Jr. becomes president of the firm.

-Dan Judge joins the firm and participates in all aspects of operations, sales and management

-Recent acquisitions - including a firm dating back to 1826 - further extend the firm's product range into the Industrial Supplies market

-Implementation of an in-house, state-of-the-art distribution management system, designed in cooperation with five other distributors

-To reflect the breadth brought to the company by acquisitions over the past decade, the name is changed to Ward, Beals & McCarthy, Inc.

-Dan Judge is named president and general manager

-With five other distributorships, founded I. D. ONE, the first buying group in the industrial distribution industry.

-Dan Judge serves as president of NIDA (National Industrial Distributors Association) and as founding co-president of IDA (Industrial Distribution Association)

-Trumbull Industries acquires Ward, Beals & McCarthy, retaining Dan Judge to manage Lockport operations and Industrial Marketing initiatives

-Dan Judge becomes president of I.D. ONE. With Sam Ward, Jr. he forms Dansam, Inc. to operate the group.

-Dansam, Inc. begins acquiring and developing specialized management tools relevant to the needs of industrial supplies distributors

-Services of Dansam, Inc. are retained by National Caster Alliance and The Piping Connection for Industrial Buying Group management, and by VANTAGE GROUP for National Account transaction processing

-Dansam management systems are utilized by Prime Advantage, a large purchasing alliance of manufacturers, for a period of three years while developing their infrastructure.

-Dansam develops and manages Co-opBuy.com, the exclusive Internet marketplace for cooperatives. Endorsed by many leading cooperative organizations, Co-opBuy.com membership grows to over 4,300 cooperatives in less than two years.

-Successful management of I.D. One continues - growing to 64 companies with 720 locations in five countries, collecting over $4 million rebate dollars annually from 90 manufacturers - until the cooperative members vote to merge with another large group in April of 2000.

-In April, Dansam launches SourcePlus Business Services, a suite of back office service solutions from leading suppliers offered as a turn-key solution to buying groups.

-In September, decades of industrial distribution and buying group management experience are culminated in the launching of NetPlus Alliance.

-In February, the 35 members of Equity Industrial Associates merge into NetPlus Alliance, bringing NetPlus  membership to 90 distributors

-In May, at ISCON in Chicago, Industrial Supply Association president Tom Berger announces formation of a strategic partnership that enables NetPlus Alliance to hold annual meetings within the context of ISA conventions

-In January, Industrial Network merges its 21 members and many of its suppliers into NetPlus Alliance

-NetPlus Alliance holds its first annual meeting at ISCON in Toronto, Ontario May 14 - 16

-In August, following positive feedback at ISCON in Toronto and months of market research, NetPlus Alliance takes steps to extend its footprint northward into Canada