Program Managers

Ralph Torning

Ralph Torning , International Trade Manager 22776-H Timberlake Road Lynchburg, Virginia 24502-7310 Phone: (434) 582-5182 Fax: (434) 582-5184 Email: RTorning@YesVirginia.org

BIO

Ralph joined VEDP in January 2008. He was born and raised in Germany, and attended schools in Germany and in the USA. As an International Trade Manager, he serves companies located in the Central Virginia (Lynchburg, Roanoke, and Southside (Danville, Martinsville) that have an interest in exporting their products or services.

Ralph’s professional experience includes a successful career in product design engineering and engineering management, followed by a career switch to business administration and sales and marketing. Past employers included the General Electric Company, Colt’s Fire Arms, Jacobs Manufacturing, Safeway Products (all in Connecticut), and TVI Corporation, a defense contractor in Maryland, where he served as Vice President of Engineering, Production, and Purchasing.

In late 1985, Ralph decided to return to Connecticut and start his own international business consultancy, which he operated for three years until he was recruited by Forkardt GmbH, a major German manufacturer of machine tool accessories to manage their U.S. sales and service office located near Hartford, CT. As part of his responsibilities, Ralph sold machine tools imported from the company’s manufacturing facilities in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom by visiting prospects and customers throughout North America.

When the German parent company decided in 1996 to acquire the manufacturing operations of an American competitor in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ralph was chosen to manage the Michigan operation and to continue the company’s sales and marketing efforts for imported and domestically manufactured products. His frequent business travels throughout North America made Ralph very fond of the Southeast region, and when Wexco Corporation of Lynchburg, VA, offered him the position of Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 2000, he gladly accepted and moved to Lynchburg. 

Ralph’s diversified professional career includes substantial “hands-on” import and export activities, including foreign market research, and direct sales and marketing activities in Europe and throughout North America. He wants to use that experience to help Virginia businesses to succeed in their own exporting efforts.