Representing true global excellence, Wesco is the strategic partner driving supply chain efficiency amidst the energy transition
Leading at the intersection of technology and infrastructure, Wesco is a powerhouse for progress and innovation. Its mission? To ‘build, connect, power, and protect the world.’ Wesco delivers ingenuity through a dynamic pursuit of excellence that solves the industry’s toughest supply chain challenges and drives the highest standards of operational excellence. The company’s ethos is defined by its three-tiered strategy: to extend its industry-leading scale and value proposition, to further develop its team and its ongoing culture of excellence, and to digitalize and transform its B2B distribution business.
Wesco’s journey began back in 1922 and has since been nothing short of a true American success story. Wesco’s heritage has been closely entwined with some of
the greatest advancements in modern innovation; in fact, its roots can be traced back to the very rise of electrification with relations to legendary US inventor, George Westinghouse (1846-1914). Initially established as the distribution arm of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Wesco has remained at the forefront of technological transformation and is now a leader in strategic supply chain solutions across a number of industry sectors.
Today, Wesco is bigger, better and more innovative than ever before. The company serves a network of over 140,000 customers and 35,000 suppliers globally, generating approximately $22 billion in annual sales in 2024. Energy, Oil & Gas sat down with Sean Grasby, Senior Vice President and General Manager of US Construction and Energy Solutions at Wesco, to discover how the company continues to support the global energy transition while taking its project management expertise to even greater heights. Sean starts by offering a deep dive into Wesco’s scope of capabilities and its tenacity to provide an exceptional customer experience.
Reliable partner
“Wesco is a leading provider of business-to-business distribution, logistics services and supply chain solutions, offering a best-in-class portfolio of Electrical and Electronic Solutions, Communication and Security Solutions, and Utility and Broadband Solutions. We’re proud to be ranked number 199 on the Fortune 500 list in 2025 and to have more than 100 years of supply chain solutions experience as an organization. Our global footprint covers 50 countries and 700 locations all across the world,” he begins. “Specific to my role on the construction side of the business, we help customers navigate the complexities of their capital projects, whether that be megaprojects, data centers, or other large-scale projects. We aim to really understand their supply chain and labor challenges to find innovative solutions to meet their needs for any given project and make sure that we secure the right products needed for the job in a timely manner.
“Our strong and expansive relationships enable us to remain a seamless, reliable partner for our network, especially as many of our customers operate on a global scale,” Sean explains. “Supporting global deployments requires a robust international network, and that’s where we excel. Our access to critical electrical products gives us a distinct competitive edge in project execution. While the supply chain landscape is complex and often stretches beyond traditional capabilities, our broad network allows us to navigate challenges and deliver alternative or even entirely new solutions when needed.”
Successful project delivery
This expansive global network offers Wesco a competitive advantage in upholding its position as the leading strategic partner of choice for its customers. It’s no secret that the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a plethora of supply chain and labor challenges across all sectors, and with the current onslaught of macroeconomic difficulties sweeping the industrial sphere, Wesco’s unparalleled supplier network and extensive expertise makes it the perfect partner to mitigate such issues.
In one of its recent projects, for instance, Wesco worked collaboratively with a cloud technology provider who encountered problems sourcing cable for a series of large data center builds. The project includes the construction of 39 data centers, ranging from 30,000 to 150,000 square feet and requiring 1.8 million feet of cable. Wesco’s experienced sales, operations and inventory management team worked closely with the client to truly understand their needs and timeframe to formulate a bespoke supply chain services program that ensured that the project was delivered successfully and on time. The client took advantage of Wesco’s installation enhancement services, including its Insta-reel, pre-installed pulling eyes and paralleling solutions to boost efficiency and productivity on site, and the project was a great success.
Sean elaborates: “In this particular project, we worked in advance with our extensive supplier network to make sure we had all of that material across our national distribution centers and that it was coordinated, kitted and staged in the right locations to be delivered on time to the customer.”
Delivering innovation
Wesco is committed to the highest standards of safety and environmental responsibility. It supports customers and suppliers who are at the forefront of the global energy transition, and its vast global network only augments its ability to facilitate real change. The company’s approach is centered around reducing its environmental impact while empowering its customers and partners to do the same, working in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
“Our approach to sustainability is focused on reducing our own environmental impact and empowering our partners to make sustainable choices,” Sean explains. “Internally, we’re working towards goals for reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions. For our customers, we deliver expertise and solutions to help them meet sustainability goals, enhance efficiencies, and lower operating expenses especially with our energy management and renewables services.”
With the end of 2025 on the horizon, Wesco will continue to deliver innovation for supply chain management challenges for many more decades to come, and will also continue its focus on sustainability. Wesco’s 2030 goals are clearly outlined: to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30 percent, to provide 425,000 hours of safety training to its workforce, to reduce its landfill waste by 15 percent, and to achieve a 15 percent reduction in its Total Recordable Incident Rate. Building upon its extraordinary legacy, Wesco will continue to champion its core values of always striving to be the best, driving innovation as one team, and utilizing its people as its greatest asset to win alongside its customers and suppliers.
“It’s a great time to be in the industry, and it’s only going to continue to grow,” says Sean. “We’re really focusing on deepening our ability to manage complex projects, expanding the expertise within our own teams and proactively working with our global manufacturing partners to make sure that we’re securing materials way in advance of the demand.
“Looking to the future, we’re going to continue to expand and evolve the solutions that we have, to really help our customers optimize their skilled labor efficiency, taking away all the noise of their job and focusing on the things that add value. We will continue to be a steward of the industry, supporting the next generation of skilled labor and boosting efficiency and opportunity. The next 20 years are going to be exciting, so anybody who is looking for a place to call home, the electrical industry is the place to be.”