It’s a season of new beginnings for many industry professionals as they embark on new careers. Read on for BOH’s monthly roundup of arrivals and departures in design, manufacturing and media.

Media & PR
Communications and PR firm Camron has promoted senior managing partner Max Tobias to a new role as global CEO, where he will oversee the client services, strategy and operations for the company’s teams in London, New York, Milan and Los Angeles. This is Tobias’s 10th year at the firm.

Janice Browne has joined Modern Luxury Media as the vice president of interiors. Browne was previously the group publisher at Hudson One Media and the vice president of revenue for Galerie.

Luxe Interiors + Design announced Theresa Catena as its new vice president of events.
Catena most recently served as a consultant at the PR firm Alison Mazzola Communications and before that, executive director of communications and events at Hudson One Media for Galerie and Aspire Design and Home.

Redgert Comms, the Stockholm-based PR firm with offices spread across five countries, has hired two new members at its New York office. Ashley Bohnaker joined as senior account executive after holding the position of account coordinator at The Consultancy PR. New account manager Alexander Larsen arrived from Derris, where he was senior account executive.

The Consultancy PR welcomes Megan Cunningham as an account coordinator. Cunningham previously held the same position at boutique firm PKPR.

Design & Architecture
V Starr, the South Florida–based interior design team owned by Venus Williams, promoted Sonya Haffey to CEO. Haffey, who previously ran her own design firm, joined V Starr in 2009 as principal when there were only two team members, and oversaw its transition from primarily residential to a mix of residential and commercial work.

Global hospitality firm WATG announced John Page will be its principal and senior director of business development for the Americas. Prior to joining the firm, Page was the director of business development at Yates Construction and held positions at Balfour Beatty Construction and VallyCrest Companies.

Jon Subity is now co-owner of Delaware-based Marnie Custom Homes with president Marnie Oursler. Subity joined the firm 10 years ago as a project manager and eventually became vice president.

London-based hospitality and residential design firm 1508 appointed Scott Miller regional director of North America. Scott joins the company from design firm AvroKO, where he had held the position of global director of development since 2016.

To the Trade
Andmore has appointed Joy Valle vice president of business development, a newly created role at the company, which owns and produces markets at World Market Center in Las Vegas; ADAC and AmericasMart in Atlanta; and more than a dozen showroom buildings in High Point, North Carolina. Valle has been with the company since 2012 and previously held the positions of vice president of leasing and director of leasing.

The Made Goods family of brands has hired Sean Gillespie as director of sales for its newly acquired Burton James upholstery brand. Gillespie had been the national and New York territory sales manager for Made Goods until 2022. He returns to the company after serving as eastern U.S. director of architecture and design for outdoor furniture company Brown Jordan.

Jim Thompson, the fabric company based in Bangkok, has appointed Vichada Sitakalin as creative director of its home furnishings business unit. Sitakalin, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, has worked in architectural firms in New York and Boston and was recently design director for Premier Resorts & Hotels Co., a luxury hotel group in her native Thailand.

Retail & Manufacturing
Hooker Furnishings, the Virginia-based furniture maker, named Caroline Hipple as chief creative officer, a new role within the company, and Jeff Behmer as executive vice president of merchandising for Hooker Casegoods. Hipple was most recently president of Norwalk Furniture, and Behmer previously was senior vice president of merchandising at Hickory White for Sherrill Furniture Companies. The announcement of these hires follows the company’s elimination of the position of president in a move toward a more collaborative strategy of merchandising and marketing across its four legacy brands: Bradington-Young, Hooker Furniture, HF Custom and M.

California-based commercial and residential kitchen brand Hestan Commercial has appointed Jan Heck as president and CEO of Hestan Commercial Group. He replaces Eric Deng in the role, and will report to Stanley Cheng, the founder and CEO of Meyer Corporation and chairman of Hestan Commercial Group. Heck previously held the position of president and CEO of luxury appliance company Miele USA.

The Good Plastic Company, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of sustainable surface materials, has appointed Diane Barnes as president and Linda Zupan as sales operation manager for North America. Barnes, who is based in New York, recently held the position of senior vice president of contract sales for Swiss furniture company Vitra and was the sales director for Michigan-based office furniture company Haworth. Zupan, based in Los Angeles, served as a project manager for Vitra for the past 20 years.

Deer Park, New York–based stone company Artisan Stoneworks has appointed Diana Revkin as vice president of strategy, marketing and business development. Revkin previously was the vice president of strategy, client services and business development at the Toronto-based construction company Cornerstone Building and Property Services.

Minneapolis-based Mercury Mosaics, the female-founded maker of sustainable ceramic tiles, has expanded its leadership team. Sarah Lien joins the company as chief marketing officer, Emma Remer as product manager, and Emily Awaijane as sales and business development director. Lien previously served as vice president of marketing at Cambria; Remer was the operations manager at Voyager Campervans; and Awaijane was the director of channel marketing at Cambria.

Eco-friendly wholesale furniture company Home Trends & Design appointed Anna Ogden Coots as its new director of product development. Coots previously worked as a product developer at Crate & Barrel and creative director at Four Hands and most recently ran her own Austin-based furniture design and consulting firm.

Dorothy Kostek has been named the first managing director of Philip Stein Design Collective, a 10-year-old company that represents luxury brands in the hospitality and residential design industry with showrooms in Chicago, Las Vegas and New York. Kostek had been the U.S. managing director of textile company Zimmer + Rohde.

Content-meets-commerce site Food52 has welcomed Jojo Feld back as general manager. She had been with the New York–based company from 2014 to 2020, working her way up from buyer to vice president of buying, merchandising and supply chain; most recently, she was the head of growth and engagement for the home goods trade show Shoppe Object.

Industry Organizations
Design Leadership Network has named Michael Diaz-Griffith as CEO and executive director. He joined the membership-based design organization in 2022 as COO and executive director after holding several roles at The Winter Show. Diaz-Griffith is also a contributing editor for The Magazine Antiques, and is the founder of Material Cult, the creative consultancy for antiques and historic art.