News Business Operations Workforce
Link-Belt names new manager of marketing

Bruce Kabalen, Manager, Marketing and Technical Communications has retired from Link-Belt Cranes, opening the door for some fresh blood.

“Bruce has been a big part of Link-Belt’s value-added services to our customers and dealers. Link-Belt is well-positioned in the crane industry as a leader in parts, service, training, and online information for crane owners. A lot of that success follows his tenure with the company,” said Bill Stramer, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Sales and Customer Support at Link-Belt Cranes.

Replacing Kabalen is Rebecca (Havlicek) Vaughn.

“Due to Rebecca’s strong contributions to previous marketing efforts, she is well-suited for this new position. She is known and well-liked by both our distributors and customers, and the perfect fit for carrying on Link-Belt’s growing online and marketing presence,” said Stramer.

Vaughn began her career at Link-Belt in 1999 as a Parts Technical Advisor and moved to the marketing communications department in 2009 as a Trade Show Coordinator. She excelled in that role until promotion to her most recent position as Promotion Manager in 2021. Vaughn has been a major contributor to Link-Belt’s circuit of promotional events including multiple ConExpos, CraneFest, and international events like Bauma.

Her new role will include oversight of technical communications and training.

Kabalen began his career at Link-Belt in 1998 as a Supervisor, Marketing Information Services. He was instrumental in his early experience at Link-Belt in creating Link-Belt Preferred, a comprehensive online customer information portal for Link-Belt customers and distributors that launched in 2002. He oversaw integration of lift planning services (3DLiftPlan) at Link-Belt via partnership with A1A Software in 2008 and iCraneTrax (Link-Belt’s telematics dashboard for customers and dealers) in 2013.