Foodservice equipment industry veteran Chris Karssiens joined The Middleby Corp. in the newly created position of group vice president, Crown Steam Companies.

This group includes Crown Steam, which Middleby acquired in December 2018, along with Market Forge and Firex.

In his new position Karssiens becomes responsible for leading the sales, strategy and marketing for the Crown Steam Companies.

Most recently, Karssiens was vice president of sales at Master-Bilt. Prior to that, he spent 18 years with Welbilt, previously known as Manitowoc and Enodis. During his time at Welbilt his senior leadership positions included managing director in Asia Pacific.