International Home Furnishings Representatives Association Announces Furniture Industry Awards Gala Honorees for 2019

Furniture World News Desk on 10/6/2018

The International Home Furnishings Representatives Association has announced its honorees for the 24th annual Furniture Industry Gala set for April 8, 2019 at the Koury Convention Center, Greensboro, NC.

Bill Wittenberg, President and CEO of Klaussner Furniture Industries, will receive the Pillar of the Industry Award; Jeff Child, president of RC Willey, will be presented the Retailer of the Year Award, Bob Maricich, Chairman and CEO of International Market Centers, will receive the Icon Award, Frank Lorenzo, former IHFRA President, will be presented with the Distinguished Service Award, Tom Schuckert, also a past IHFRA President, will receive the Legacy Award and Alyssa Barrett, a rep with the Hooker Furniture Companies, will receive the Rising Star Award.

The Pillar of the Industry Award is presented to an industry leader who has distinguished himself with creative work and effort to improve, enhance and benefit relationships among industry representatives and other segments of the industry. Through their actions and deeds the recipient has shown his commitment to the home furnishings industry, their community and to mankind.

Bill Wittenberg has been President and CEO of Klaussner Furniture Industries in Asheboro, North Carolina since April 2010. Prior to this, he worked 16 years for Berkline Corporation in Morristown, Tennessee in various sales and operations capacities before becoming President and CEO in February 1997.

Each of these companies were in the top ten domestic furniture manufacturers in the United States. In total, Bill has been in the furniture industry 40 years. Bill is a native North Carolinian, growing up in Hickory, NC, and a graduate of Appalachian State University with a BSBA in marketing.

Bill currently serves as chairman of the American Home Furnishings Association (AHFA) and is on the Board of Directors for the American Furniture Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Bill was awarded the American Heritage Award in Manufacturing by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) National Home Furnishings Division and is currently a board member of ADL.  In April of 2016 the City of Hope, a world leader in cancer and diabetes research and treatment, honored Bill and Klaussner with the Spirit of Life Award, an award that recognizes a leader whose work has fundamentally impacted the home furnishings industry.

Jeff Child, President of Top 100 RC Willey Home Furnishings, will be presented the prestigious Retailer of the Year Award, the highest honor given within the retail home furnishings community.

Specifically, this award recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through superior industry leadership, business achievement and service to their community.

The furniture business has been a staple in Jeff Child’s life. He spent his childhood in Syracuse, Utah, learning the family business. He has held a myriad of positions with the company: starting in the warehouse as a teenager, he spent four years on the sales floor after graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in history; he worked as a buyer for several years before acting as a Merchandise Manager and Vice President of Merchandising.  In February of 2001, he was named President and says he was fortunate to have had two great mentors: his father, Sheldon, and his uncle, Bill.

Jeff is heavily involved in the furniture industry at large, having served as president of both the National Home Furnishings Association and the North American Home Furnishings Association. He currently also serves as President to the FMG buying group and the Furniture Hall of Fame Foundation.

In 2009 he received the City of Hope Spirit of Life Award and was named the National Home Furnishings Retailer of the Year. This year he was awarded the American Heritage Award by the Anti-Defamation League. Through his involvement with the NextGen Organization, Jeff also assists young business leaders by hosting a three-day immersion program at RC Willey.

Jeff has also worked on the board of the Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake City and served extensively at his church.

In receiving the Icon Award, Bob Maricich, Chairman and CEO of International Market Centers, will be recognized as an individual who has made significant and ongoing contributions to the industry throughout the course of his career. The award also recognizes Bob’s history of selfless acts, service, leadership and numerous instances of mentoring the industry’s future leaders.

Maricich was instrumental in envisioning and developing the strategy for the creation of International Market Centers, L.P. In 2011 he founded IMC with sponsors Bain Capital and Oaktree Capital Management by raising over $1billion to fund the purchase of the International Home Furnishings Center, ShowPlace properties, and the Market Square properties in High Point, NC and merging them with World Market Center Las Vegas to form the world’s largest operator of premier showroom space for the furnishing, home décor and gift industries.

In 2017, Maricich led the IMC migration to new ownership when Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms, and Fireside Investments, acquired IMC. Following that transition, he later directed the 2018 merger between International Market Centers and AmericasMart in Atlanta and the subsequent acquisition of the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center, creating a compelling International Market Centers presence on the east and west coast that now encompasses more than 20 million square feet of world-class B2B exhibition space.

Prior to his tenure at IMC, Maricich spent 11 years at Century Furniture Industries. As chief executive officer at Century, he managed 1,200 associates and drove innovations that elevated the $175 million company into one of the industry’s most admired manufacturers of high-end residential furniture.

From 1989-1996 Maricich was president and CEO of American Drew Furniture and American of Martinsville, divisions of LADD Furniture. Prior to that, he was an executive with Flexsteel Industries, Inc.

Maricich also has served for many years on the American Furniture Manufacturers Association Board of Directors as well as the past chairman of the executive committee. In 2000, he was appointed by the Governor of North Carolina to be chairman of North Carolina Furniture Export Council, a position he held until 2004.

Maricich currently sits on the executive committee for the home furnishings industry charity, City of Hope and Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas based charity dedicated to serving the disabled.

In 2017, Maricich was honored with the American Heritage Distinguished Service Award by the American Home Furnishings Alliance and also been honored with the American Heritage Award by the Anti-Defamation League and the Man of the Year award from the Tri-State Home Furnishings Association.

Currently Maricich serves on the Board of Directors of NASDAQ traded Flexsteel Industries, Inc. and is the Chairman of the Home Furnishings Hall of Fame.

The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) will be presented to sales representative and former IHFRA president Frank Lorenzo. The DSA was first presented in 1975 and represents the highest honor that IHFRA bestows to a member of the organization.

The DSA is given to a sales representative who embodies certain qualities and character and who has distinguished himself of behalf of IHFRA to sales representatives and the industry.

Lorenzo, whose family migrated from Cuba in 1960 to escape the Castro regime, joined his family’s furniture business in 1984, as a floor sales representative. In 1986, he decided to venture out and explore his options as an independent Sale Representative for several small local factories.

After a few years representing local factories, Lorenzo interviewed with Coaster Fine Furniture in High Point, joining their company in 1988.

Lorenzo later joined Ashley Furniture in 1989 as a sub rep with a focus of cultivating, growing and selling to the Hispanic furniture market in South Florida, which later became one of Lorenzo’s many success stories.

In 1993, Lorenzo decided to make a career move and join Michael Amini, representing AICO in South Florida; a spot he has enjoyed for the past 25 years.

Lorenzo has been married to his wife, Ofelia for 34 years and currently has four of his children working with him in the furniture industry.

In 2015, Lorenzo was elected the 77th president of the International Home Furnishings Representatives Assn.

The Rising Star Award is given to a rep who has been on the road for five years or less and displays qualities that stand out to both their retail customers and their manufacturers.

Alyssa Barrett joined the Hooker Furniture Companies in 2018. Based in Houston, TX, she is partly responsible for the South Texas territory for all Hooker Furniture brands.

A brief glance at Alyssa's resume tells the unlikely story of a Wall Street commodities trading analyst turned interior designer. Alyssa began her career with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and spent the next several years analyzing and developing options structures.

In 2013, she decided to use her talents in a different way and make a bold move into the interior design space. "Though the two careers seem unrelated, they are actually very similar. I started by moving money around and ended up doing the same with furniture.  One is simply more tangible than the other," Ms. Barrett noted.

After five years working with private clients full-time, Alyssa joined the Hooker Furniture Brands as a sales representative, a role in which she marries her interior design savvy with her affinity for the numbers. Ms. Barrett is a graduate of Texas A&M University and currently resides in the Houston area with her daughter Caroline and their labradoodle, Penny.

The Legacy Award is given to a rep who has been on the road for 30 years or more, is still active and has established relationships that have lasted throughout the years.

When Tom Schuckert, a longtime member and former president of the International Home Furnishings Representatives Assn., receives the Legacy Award, he will also have the distinction of having received IHFRA’s highest honor, the Harold P. Braun Distinguished Service Award, which was presented to him in 2008.

Schuckert worked in retail for 11 years and has been a sales representative for 50 years, having worked with leading companies including Chintaly Imports, Palliser, Stearns and Foster, Vermont Tubbs, Conover Chair and CR Laine.

Always a believer in higher education, Schuckert successfully completed IHFRA’s Certified Home Representative (CHR) program in 1997.

He has been active in IHFRA at the state level in his native Ohio and at the national level, serving as the association’s 65th president in 2003.

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