WASHINGTON, D.C. (16 July 2012) – The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers has opened its new Canadian office and has named Steve Caldow, senior product manager of Miele Canada as chairman of the new AHAM Canada Council. He will also serve as a voting member of AHAM's board of directors.

The AHAM Canada Council is the membership body that will oversee the association’s work in Canada. It succeeds the Canadian Appliance Manufacturers Association (CAMA) which closed down operations at the end of June.

Steve Caldow

The AHAM Canada office, located in Ottawa, is now open and it has hired its first full-time staff member, Bruce Rebel, as director of technical services.

Rebel has more than 15 years of regulatory and quality assurance experience in Canada, most recently as associate director regulatory affairs at Bell Canada. He will manage all technical and standards related activities in Canada.

“With Steve Caldow leading the AHAM Canada Council and Bruce Rebel leading our technical efforts, AHAM Canada is off to a great start in representing the appliance manufacturing sector in Canada,” said AHAM president Joe McGuire. “AHAM looks forward to representing the appliance industry in Canada and the U.S. on issues unique to each country and on important cross border issues as well.”

McGuire also said AHAM Canada will represent the industry before the federal and provincial governments and work closely with technical bodies impacting the home appliance industry. AHAM also provides a robust market statistics program for Canada.

Based here, the members of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers produce the vast majority of home appliances sold in the United States and Canada. Its membership includes the manufacturers of major, portable and floor care appliances and suppliers to the industry. AHAM also is a standards development organization, authoring numerous appliance test standards as well as appliance sustainability standards in partnership with the Canadian Standards Association and UL Environment.

The new Canadian branch operates a web site at www.ahamcanada.ca. Bruce Rebel may be contacted by e-mail at .