Nilfisk-Advance Group announced that Jeff Barna has joined the company as President & General Manager of Nilfisk-Advance U.S., the company’s American headquarters located in Plymouth, Minnesota.

“Jeff Barna’s extensive professional background, skills and abilities make him the best choice to lead the growth and expansion of our business in the important U.S. market,” said Jorgen Jensen, President and CEO of Nilfisk-Advance Group. “Jeff has a proven record of innovation and driving growth. His strong leadership competencies will help us deliver best in industry products and customer service.”  

“Nilfisk-Advance is a company with impressive corporate fundamentals, including great people and great products,” said Barna. “I am eager to infuse my “customer-first” leadership style with Nilfisk-Advance’s strong foundation to continue growing our U.S. business and deliver great value and service to our customers.”

With 25 years of experience in the North American Commercial and Industrial markets, Barna comes to Nilfisk-Advance from the global battery manufacturer, Exide Technologies. Barna served two terms with Exide Technologies from 1987 – 2001 and again from 2005 – 2012. With consistent outstanding performance, Barna was most recently the Senior Vice President of Sales & Service of their America’s business, where he was responsible for sales of over $1.2 billion.

Prior to joining Exide Technologies for the second time, Barna was recruited by Millard Refrigerated Services in Omaha, Nebraska as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Millard provided refrigeration and logistics services to major retail, food service and food distribution companies, and within two years, Barna increased the company’s refrigeration storage occupancy rate from 55% to over 80%.

Barna also served as Founder and Co-President of Refrigerated Logistics Group, LLC in Alpheratta, Georgia from 2003 – 2005. His company provided state of the art logistics solutions for the frozen foods industry.

Barna holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Business Management from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He is married with three children.