Rochester Hills Man Finds Calling in LED Industry

Samer Yokhana of Rochester Hills has worked in the electrical contracting business since he was a teenager, assisting his father at his Sterling Heights-based Sandos Electric Services (S.E.S.), learning the ropes on weekends while in high school and by working full-time while simultaneously earning his Bachelor's degree from Southfield-based Lawrence Technical University.

Yokhana, who now serves as vice president at S.E.S., has turned his focus to LED technology as a franchise owner with LED Source, the first Detroit-area franchisee for the Florida-based company. LED Source provides LED lighting to commercial spaces, schools, churches, theaters, art galleries and other venues looking to trim energy costs by adopting the energy-efficient technology.

Yokhana, who said he worked at General Motors after college, said he had initially tried to bring an LED manufacturer over from overseas.

"It was going to cost a fortune," he said. "I came across LED Source and it was exactly what I wanted."

Yokhana plans to open the business' physical location this fall alongside S.E.S. at 6095 E. 15 Mile Road in Sterling Heights. The two companies, Yokhana said, will remain separate, with LED Source serving companies that might compete directly with S.E.S. The company will run out of a 3,200-square-foot office space and warehouse that will have the company's samples on display.

Yokhana will initially look to hire 3-4 salespeople.

Yokhana said government incentives and energy costs, coupled with a decreasing price for LED technology, makes adopting LEDs an attractive option for businesses. LED Source, Yokhana said, can finance LED purchases to give adopters an earlier return on their investment by way of energy savings.

The new career choice is all the more rewarding for Yokhana, who immigrated to the U.S. 21 years ago with his family from Iraq.

"After the Gulf War, we were a Christian minority in Iraq," Yokhana said. 

Yokhana faced a future serving in the military in Iraq if his family had remained put.

"We fled right after the Gulf War, in the middle of the night, to Jordan, then to Spain for fourth grade, then came here in 1992," he said.

He calls the United States "the land of opportunity," and said with his father's background as an electrical contractor, the family was able to thrive behind S.E.S., which was started in 1996. 

Taking on LED technology, Yokhana said, stems from his passion to work with environmentally friendly technologies. He even drives a Chevy Volt—a car he had worked on while at GM—to lessen his environmental impact.

"I'm passionate about it," he said. "I love what I do, I like going green."