Update September 17, 2026: Chervon added two more executives under new CEO Joe Galli. Matthew H. DeFeo joins as Senior Vice President of Sales, Training, and Recruiting after nearly 20 years at TTI plus 19 more at Black & Decker. Jeffrey P. Campbell becomes Senior Vice President of Industrial Commercial Sales. His 25 years include Porter Cable, Irwin/Lenox, Werner Ladder, and Apex Tool Group. Both report directly to Galli.
Read these hires alongside the CEO pick and the picture sharpens. Chervon’s tools test well; its problem has been getting shelves and ad budget behind them. DeFeo’s whole career is retail sales execution, and Campbell spent decades selling into industrial channels where FLEX barely registers today. The board is buying distribution muscle, not engineering. For buyers, nothing changes on the shelf this month, but FLEX discounting through the transition remains likely as the brand fights for its place, which is worth watching if you have been eyeing the platform.
Chervon, the company behind FLEX and Skil, named a new CEO on September 10, 2026. It is a big hire.
Chervon, the company behind FLEX and Skil, named a new CEO on September 10, 2026. It is a big hire.
Joseph Galli Jr., who ran TTI from 2008 to 2024 and drove the growth of Milwaukee Tool and Ryobi, is taking over from founder Longquan Pan. Pan stays on as Chairman of the Board and Executive Director.
The timeline
- 2024: Galli steps down as TTI CEO after sixteen years at the top of Milwaukee Tool and Ryobi.
- 2025 and 2026: FLEX and Skil both get dropped from Lowe’s shelves, and FLEX loses most of its retail footprint in the US.
- September 10, 2026: Chervon announces Galli as CEO.
Why this matters
Galli does not have a background in making tools so much as in selling them at scale. At TTI he oversaw the rise of Milwaukee from a contractor favorite to the pro market’s biggest cordless platform, and built Ryobi into the dominant DIY brand at Home Depot.
Chervon’s engineering has rarely been the problem. Its products measure up on paper. The gap has been distribution and brand pull, and that is exactly the gap Galli was brought in to close.
The timing is not accidental. FLEX is still tying new releases to the 24V platform and pushing tools like the mini grinder and the cut-off saw, but it now sells mostly online through Amazon. Skil sells through Amazon and Walmart.
Chervon clearly wants someone who knows how to win shelf space and mindshare, not just design catalogs.
What Galli brings
His track record is real. Under Galli, TTI took Milwaukee from a respected niche brand into the largest cordless pro system in the country, and turned Ryobi into the default starter platform for DIYers.
That is exactly the kind of commercial muscle that FLEX and Skil do not currently have anywhere in their leadership.
A fair bit of skepticism is healthy here. One longtime industry observer points out that the tool market is far more mature than it was when Galli caught lightning twice, and that platform lock-in makes a third home run a much taller ask.
Another argues FLEX has creative tools coming and a marketing problem, not a quality problem. Both can be true, and both mean the fix here is commercial, not engineering.
What this means for buyers
For FLEX owners, this is the closest thing to good news in a while. The platform is not being wound down. The company just hired the most commercially successful leader in the industry to fix why it has been stuck.
For Skil, expect the new-stuff pipeline (the HK0001 hex key and the incoming dual-drive ratchet) to keep coming, with more energy spent on getting those tools in front of buyers.
Do not expect overnight changes at either brand. Rebuilding two retail lines takes years, and Galli is steering a much more mature market than the one he mastered a decade ago. Still, a hire like this is a real bet on the brands, and it is worth reading it that way.
More on the brands involved
FLEX disappeared from Lowe’s shelves earlier this year, and we covered what that meant for the 24V platform. If you are weighing which cordless system to commit to, our run-down of the big brands helps put FLEX and Skil in context.
Source: ToolGuyd