Executive Team

Kevin Bense joined McWane, Inc. as Group President-Waterworks in 2018. Prior to joining McWane Bense served for five years as president of A.J. Oster, a division of Global Brass and Copper Holdings. Previously he served as the vice president and general manager of the company’s Somers Thin Strip division. From 2007 to 2011, Bense served as a global business leader for Honeywell International, Inc.'s specialty additives business unit. Prior to that he served in various domestic and international executive, marketing and management positions of increasing responsibility in the chemicals industry. Bense holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Tommy Braxton joined McWane as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Valve & Hydrant Group, in December 2020. Prior to joining McWane, Tommy served four years as Vice President of North America for Kamstrup Water Metering, LLC. Before Kamstrup, Tommy served for 15 years at Badger Meter. While at Badger Meter, he served in the roles of Distribution Manager, Sales Solutions Manager, Regional Manager and Director of Sales (Distribution). Previous to Badger Meter, Tommy served in various sales and management roles with Pharmacia and Mitsubishi Electric. Tommy is a graduate of Shorter College in Rome, GA with a B.S in Business and a M.B.A from the University of Georgia. He is also an US Air Force veteran. Tommy and his wife Julie have two daughters and a grandson, who also live in Atlanta.

Mr. Willett started his long and successful career at Clow Valve Company in 2000. In 2007, he entered the McWane Management Trainee Program. During the course of his management training he worked for TylerUnion from 2009 to 2011 as their Inventory and Distribution Manager. In 2011, Mr. Willett was promoted to Finishing Manager at Kennedy Valve Company and then in 2012 he was promoted to Plant Manager of M&H Valve Company where he remained until coming back to Clow as our Assistant General Manager.

Mr. Willett graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, IA in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental Science/Geology. In 2009 he earned a Master of Business Administration from Drake University in Des Moines, IA.

Mr. Willett and his wife live in Oskaloosa, IA with their two sons.

Steve started working at Clow Valve Company after a 25-year career at Neenah Foundry. He started his professional career as an estimator for Water Products Company in Urbandale, Iowa. On March 1, 1991, Steve took a job as the outside sales person for Neenah Foundry covering the State of Iowa. In February 1997, he was transferred to Phoenix, Arizona where he was the salesman covering Arizona and California. On March 31, 2004, Steve was promoted to District Sales Manager covering the Western US. In 2006, he was promoted to Executive Sales Director handling the Western half of the US. Following a change in ownership at Neenah Foundry, Steve was promoted to Vice President of Sales for the Municipal Division on May 1, 2008. In this position he was responsible for the entire sales organization and the P&L of the municipal division. He remained in that position until he changed jobs to Clow Valve Company on October 4, 2015.

Steve is married to Pernilla and has one son. 

Griffin Herb is the Marketing Manager for the McWane Valve & Hydrant Group. Griff started at M&H in 2010 as an Inside Sales Representative.  In 2011 he entered the Sales Trainee Program with M&H and Kennedy Valve, traveling with District Sales Managers and getting product experience by working in the plants.  In 2012 he relocated to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to become the District Sales Manager for Louisiana and Southern Texas.  In 2017, Griff moved back to his hometown of Jacksonville, AL to become the Inside Sales Manager for M&H Valve Co.  In 2023, he was promoted to Marketing Manager.

Griff earned a Marketing Degree and MBA from Jacksonville State University.

Griff and his children reside on their farm in Jacksonville, AL. He enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, sport shooting, and spending time with family and friends.

Chris Prendergast started work at the Clow Valve Machine shop as a project engineer in 2006. In 2010 he changed roles and began working in Continuous improvement at all three Clow facilities. In 2018 he was promoted to the role of Assistant Metal Casting Facility Manger. In 2020 he was promoted to his current role as the Machine Shop manager.

Chris received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri- Columbia in 2005. In 2019 he earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

On a personal note Chris is married and has two daughters, his wife Kim is a local educator. They moved to Oskaloosa Iowa in 2010.

Annie Thomas started her career at Clow Valve in the payroll department in 2008, in 2011 Annie took a role in the Human Resources Department. Over the years Annie has worked within Clow's HR department functioning in increasing roles of responsibility and was promoted to the Human Resources Manager in 2022.

Annie received her B.A. in Human Resource Management from William Penn University in 2016. Annie, her husband Shane and their three children reside outside of Oskaloosa.

Deb Wellman started working at Clow Valve in July, 2020 as the Controller.  Prior to Clow Valve, she held the position as Branch Manager and then Controller, CFO for The Boulder Company (a division of AFC, Industries) for ten years.  Prior to this, she was at ITW Paslode where she started as the Controller and moved to the Plant Manager’s position for over 18 years.

Graduating Summa Cum Laude, Deb received her B.A. degree from Iowa Wesleyan College with a double major in Accounting and Business Management. 

 Deb lives in Pleasant Hill, IA and has three daughters.  In addition, she has 8 grandchildren.