Cincinnati-based Top 40 distributor Cintas (asi/162167) is promoting a U.S. Navy veteran with more than 20 years of information technology experience to vice president and chief information officer.

Announced this week, Matt Hough’s promotion becomes effective June 1. Hough will lead Cintas’ entire IT operation. He’ll report directly to Mike Thompson, EVP/Chief Administrative Officer.

Matt Hough, Cintas

“This is a well-deserved promotion for Matt as his leadership, technical expertise and ability to attract and develop employee-partners has been instrumental to our company’s success,” said Thompson. “I am confident that under Matt’s leadership, Cintas’ IT department will continue to improve the technical support of our businesses and help to position the company for additional growth.”

Hough joined Cintas in 2013 as Director of Applications. He earned a promotion to Senior Director of Information Technology in 2016, the company said. In that director’s role, Hough spearheaded the implementation of important enterprise business systems across the corporation.

A graduate of American Sentinel University and a U.S. Navy veteran, Hough began his career leading several organizations through global SAP implementations. Hough has more than two decades of IT experience in the software, consumer electronics, semi-conductor and public utilities industries with a “deep knowledge of supply chain, ERP implementations and global IT operations,” Cintas said in a statement.

With estimated 2017 North American promotional product revenue of $168.2 million, Cintas ranked 14th on Counselor’s latest list of the largest distributors in the industry.