The design industry is always evolving with new and changing faces in manufacturing and retail, marketing and publishing, interior design and architecture, and industry organizations and design centers. Editor at Large is keeping tabs on who’s coming and going in this monthly column.
Manufacturing/Retail
Century Furniture has promoted Jay Paschall to Vice President of Sales, reporting to Century President Alex Shuford III. He will be directly responsible for all domestic US sales and distribution for Century branded products as well as licensing initiatives.
David McCuen has joined the custom upholstery showroom Bespoke as part of the sales and design team. Most recently, he was a Sales Representative at Avery Boardman.
Angel Rios, who was most recently Vice President of Sales at Hokanson, has taken a position as a Sales Associate at Fortuny in the D&D Building.
Vitra has appointed Jessica Hicks who has over 13 years experience in the contract furniture market as the President of Vitra. She takes over the role from Josef Kaiser, who returned to Vitra in Switzerland as Region I, Head of Vitra Office, after six years in the USA.
Richard Ginori has a new executive management team that includes CEO Micaela Le Divelec Lemmi and Creative Director Alessandro Michele. Both are longtime executives with Gucci, which acquired Richard Ginori in June 2013.
Duravit USA has announced that longtime team member Janina Griebe has been appointed Marketing Manager. Griebe has been with Duravit for 15 years and most recently served as National Project Manager.
Thorsten Klapproth has assumed the role of CEO of Hansgrohe SE, taking over from Siegfried Gaensslen. Prior to joining Hansgrohe, Klapproth successfully led Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF) for 10 years. In addition, Benjamin Newcombe has joined Hansgrohe North America as Senior Product Manager. Newcombe's most recent employment was at ACO Polymer Products, where he became a specialist in the kitchen and bath sector responsible for the successful launch of a new bath product line.
Diane Neal has been named CEO of Sur La Table, succeeding Jack Schwefel. Prior to this appointment, Neal served as president and CEO of Bath & Body Works. She also serves on the boards of directors at other retail companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch and Fossil Group.
Outdoor furniture manufacturer Brown Jordan International has announced three promotions at the company. Frederick G. King has been promoted to COO, Randy Danielson to Executive VP, and Rick Dawson to Division President.
Leather upholstery resource Kuka Furniture has hired industry veteran Peter Halunen as Vice President of Sales and Merchandising, a new position. Halunen had worked for Natuzzi since 2007, most recently as Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for Natuzzi Editions.
Pulp Studio has announced the addition of four new sales associates: Katie Grimes is now covering the Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland territories; Chris Harris is assigned to Texas and Oklahoma; Kami Panbechi (currently in Los Angeles) will be relocating at the end of the year to cover the New York region; and Brian Peregrina will be taking over in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California.
Interior Designers/Architects
Mancini Duffy has promoted Christian D. Giordano to President of the firm. In this role, Giordano will be charged with leadership of the growing firm as it moves into its 100th year in 2015 and beyond.
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has promoted architects Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long and Michael Kokora. The four newly appointed Partners, all previously Associates within the company, bring the number of OMA equity partners to ten.
Evens Architects has added a new member to its senior leadership team, John Margolis, AIA. A native Bostonian, Margolis joins Evens Architects as a Senior Project Manager after maintaining his own practice Margolis, Incorporated, for more than 20 years.
M Moser Associates has expanded Steven M. Lawler’s role to that of Director–USA, managing the M Moser team in the US.
Mindy Graves, a senior interior designer at HOK with more than 20 years of experience, has relocated from the firm’s Dallas office to serve as Senior Project Manager in HOK’s Miami office.
The Boston office of Perkins Eastman has announced that David M. Owens has joined the firm as a Design Principal. Owens brings insights from his 35 years of strong design experience across a range of building types. In addition, Perkins Eastman announced that Nina Giglio has joined the firm as Specifications Manager. Based in the Charlotte, NC office, Giglio will lead the firm’s specifications group. Giglio was most recently President of Hall Building Information Group in Charlotte.
Landscape design firm Callison has hired Collin Koonce, Susan Hubenthal and Taylor Jacobsen to join its Dallas office. The three designers bring a breadth of experience in landscape architecture and will support commercial initiatives at Callison Dallas.
Organizations/Design Centers
Dina Friedman has joined the Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) as Vice President, Director of Marketing. Friedman spent more than 10 years at Niche Media, starting as Design Sales Director for Florida InsideOut magazine and rising to National Account Executive.
The American Society of Interior Designers has appointed five new members to its senior leadership team: Laura Horsley, Vice President of Communications and Marketing; Karol Kaiser, Vice President of Education and Engagement; Christopher Wojcik, Vice President of Membership and Industry Development; Fernando Arias, Director of Strategic Initiatives; and Reed Kroloff, Strategic Partnership Consultant.
The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced the 2015 RIBA International Fellowships, which will be awarded to 11 non-UK architects. The new title will be given to Emilio Ambasz, Julia Bolles and Peter Wilson, Santiago Cirugeda, Joao Luis Carrilho, Richard Leplastrier, Thom Mayne, Antonie Predock, Peter Rich and Wang Shu and Lu Yenu.
In addition, RIBA will award 13 UK-based architects, educators, media members and artists with the title of Honorary Fellow. They include Peter Carl, Marilyn Dyer, Gerald Hines, Niall Hobhouse, Ola Kolehamianen Ian Latham, Frosso Pimenides, Vicky Richardson, Peter Sweasey, Mark Swenarton, Neil Thomas and Dalibor Vesely.
Interior Designers of Canada has announced its newest Honorary and Fellow members. Fellowships have been awarded to Victoria Horobin and Adele Bonetti, and honorary membership was presented to Susan Wiggins.
Emerald Expositions announced that three veterans of the tradeshow industry, and long-time members of the NY NOW sales team, have been promoted. Randi Mohr and Scott Kramer have been appointed to the new positions of Vice Presidents, Show Directors for NY NOW, and Allison Garafalo has been promoted to Sales Director.
Coverings, one of the largest tile and stone exhibitions in North America, has named Alena Capra its Industry Ambassador, a newly created role in which she will serve as a liaison to the local industries related to tile and stone, as well as media. She will be sharing her tile and stone trend insights through interviews and presentations at trade association events for builders, contractors, installers and distributors, as well as architects and designers, leading up to the show, which takes place in April 2015.
Media/PR
C Publishing, publisher of C Home, has hired four new staff members including Bernard Scharf as Creative Director; Heather Severs as Style Director; Amanda Tisch Weitzman as Home + Design Editor; and Lesley McKenzie as Deputy Editor.
After more than six years with the Loukin Company, Judy Nelson is joining IA Interior Architects as its Director of Communications.
Public Relations Manager for One King’s Lane, Andres (Dru) Ortega has taken on a new role as Assistant Vice President, Manager, eCommerce Public Relations at the auction house Christie’s.
Comings and goings we missed? Drop us a line at ssnowden@editoratlarge.com and let us know!
