FAIRFIELD, CA and CLEVELAND, OH — Artisan Group has inducted two new board members: Fadi Halabi, owner of Duracite in Fairfield, CA, and Tom Rocks, owner of Rocksolid Stone Works in Cleveland, OH. Halabi and Rocks are taking the slots vacated by members, Mitch Hires, owner of Construction Resources in Atlanta, GA and Gus Blume, owner of Blume’s Solid Surfaces in Pittsburgh, PA, after serving their two-year-terms. Halabi and Rocks join Brad Pearce, owner of Front Range Stone in Denver, CO, Layton Day, owner of Bangor Wholesale Laminates in Bangor, ME, Kellie Akins, Sales & Marketing Manager of Innovative Surfaces in Minneapolis, MN, and Joe Hoffman, Jr., owner of Hoffman Fixtures Company in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, OK as well as Artisan Group Executive Director Chad Seiders to complete the board.

Fadi Halabi, originally from Jordan, attended San Francisco State University and graduated from UC Berkeley. At the age of 23, after only a few years, Halabi became owner and President of Duracite. Halabi now has 24 years in the countertop fabrication business and has expanded Duracite to a network of nine locations throughout Northern California and Nevada. Duracite provides the gamut of surfacing fabrication and installation to both commercial and residential clients, including design, manufacture and installation of Artisan Granite, marble, Saratoga Soapstone, Heritage Wood, quartz and recycled products. The company is one of two companies in the state of California that has earned accreditation from the Marble Institute of America. Accredited Natural Stone Fabricators represent the best companies that work on residential and commercial stone projects. Halabi has served on the Work Force Investment Board of Solano County for four years, and is currently the Vice Chairman. He joined the Artisan Group in 2000 and has continued to be an active member. Despite earning the awards and accreditations, Halabi believes that the greatest product he offers is not granite, but his employees.

Tom Rocks studied business and accounting at Cleveland State University in 1979, and then began his entrepreneurial career with a small custom cabinet shop in Cleveland, OH, that quickly grew into Wood Dimensions, Inc. His vision to grow the business expanded with solid surface fabrication and a new corporate division called Solid Surfaces Plus was born. Rocks’ broad experience with solid surfaces grew into yet another company division for stone fabrication leading the company to form Rocksolid Stone Works. Rocksolid Stone Works and Solid Surfaces Plus now offer one of the largest selections of stone and solid surfacing in Northern Ohio.