The American Foundry Society (AFS) has hired Ben Yates as its vice president of business development and sales. Yates comes to AFS from the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) in Schaumburg, Illinois. Yates started his new position with AFS on Aug. 7. “For the last 14 years, Ben has been with Associated Equipment Dealers, a trade association that serves and represents distributors of heavy construction,…