The Allied Group Sales team is united by a passion for excellence, as defined by the AGS Vision, Mission, Core Values and Key Principles.
AGS started in business on July 1, 1997 with 9 employees when founders Don Kaminski and Dave Mehrer purchased Allied Geis Agency and renamed the company Allied Group Sales, Inc. In February 2006, Mick Upchurch purchased 50% of AGS stock from Dave and became Don’s partner for the next 10 years.
Current President & CEO, Tim Klei, has been with AGS since August 31, 2015. He initially served as the Vice President of Sales, until becoming the sole owner on March 1, 2016. Tim leads the overall business and focuses sales time on distribution and contractors in Phoenix, Albuquerque and El Paso. Tim’s ownership structure strategy included eventually bringing on partners to help drive growth and realize the agencies full potential.
On January 1, 2017, Tim brought on partner Michael Knoblock, VP Sales Lighting & Controls, to build and lead the lighting side of the business. AGS’s plan to grow the lighting business included adding numerous lighting lines as well as a number of talented people which Michael accomplished throughout 2017. The year culminated with an agreement to acquire another local lighting agency. On January 1, 2018 Allied Group Sales acquired Total Lighting & Control, bringing 7 new employees and many top lighting manufacturers to AGS, immediately more than doubling the size of the agency's lighting business. Michael leads the lighting & controls business and focuses most of his sales time with distributors and contractors in Arizona.
On January 1, 2020, Tim brought on Nick Hobbs partner and VP Sales Legrand. While leading our Legrand inside sales team and working closely with each of the factories for all six Legrand EWS brands, Nick works with each of our outside salespersons and our Legrand customers daily in every territory to drive sales growth and mutual success. The primary focus of all team members at AGS is to provide our manufacturers with the most aggressive and professional sales & marketing channel in the Southwest, while providing our local electrical distributors, contractors, and specifiers a value based, trustworthy and local partnership with the industry’s premier electrical and lighting manufacturers.