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Info Retail Shuffles Client Services Team
June 22,
2011 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on June 23, 2011
Info Retail has restructured its management team to better meet the needs of its clients in the bedding and furniture markets, as well as to expand into new areas.
We continue to redefine our core business to better serve our expanding client base, said Ron Bushman, president. The strategic shift in our client services better aligns with our focus on high-growth manufacturing and retail clients. We are positioning the company to grow and scale our offerings to meet the needs of current clients and those we seek to attract.
Info Retail recently adjusted positions and added a number of professionals across several key areas including business development and account management.
This strategic realignment leverages Info Retails core strengths in service design and environments, enabling us to better help our clients to build and shape the customer experience, said Bushman. We are working to expand our platform to include all aspects of service design and environments management, as well to expand our market footprint. This realignment initiative further demonstrates Info Retails strong commitment to delivering customer solutions that are useful, profitable and desirable for the user and unique, efficient, and effective for the provider.
As part of the strategic realignment, the company is repositioning its client services and accounts management units into one groupthe client services team. In connection with this change, Info Retail made the following senior management appointments:
¢ Cindy Williams, previous vice president of retail strategy/furnishings, has been named vice president of client services and will lead the customer services team. The newly formed group will focus on idea generation for existing clients as well as attracting new clients in target industries. Williams will also maintain her primary responsibility in bedding and furniture markets. She joined Info Retail in 2003 following a distinguished 10-year career in the bedding market, where she was Southeast regional sales manager for
International Bedding Corporation and manager of specialty sleep at
Simmons Co. At Info Retail, she has led the companys business development strategies, and in her new role she will continue to oversee this strategy.
Our focus will be to discover opportunities where our strategy, design, and solution management services can be applied to help clients to innovate and to increase return on investment in customer environments, Williams said.
¢ Jacqueline LaScala has joined the company as director of business development. She will lead the companys expansion into new markets. LaScala comes to Info Retail with a 22-year career in media sales. Prior to joining Info Retail, she was account executive at Microsoft where she managed strategic accounts including The Home Depot, Verizon, DHLWorldwide, Glaxo-Smithkline, Porsche and Aflac. Before joining Microsoft, she was with
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she held dual roles: account executive managing high-volume accounts and project manager of Mundo Hispanico, a Hispanic publication acquired by newspaper.
¢ Suzanne Donohoe has joined the company as account manager in the home improvement market. She will assist clients with implementing their service objectives and customer environment strategies. Prior to joining Info Retail, Donohoe worked more than eight years at The Home Depot where she served in roles as merchandise marketing manager and media manager, developing integrated marketing plans and strategies supporting merchandising objectives for the company.
¢ Nathan Shannon has joined the company as account and new business development manager in furnishings and bedding markets. Experienced in leveraging consumer insight and markets trend analysis, Shannon will expand Info Retails strategic offerings to clients in home furnishings and sleep products manufacture and retail, and will lead client projects from start to finish. Prior to joining the company, Shannon owned a wholesale furniture business and was an independent sales representative for
Klaussner Home Furnishings and memory foam importer Spirit Sleep. Prior to entering the furnishings arena, he was a business manager for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.
¢ Betsy Gardner, previous project manager, has been named account manager and a member of the companys strategic overview team. Gardner joined Info Retail in 2009. Prior to joining the company, she was a store planning associate at ACS Architectural Construction executing site surveys, merchandise plans, and three-dimension interior renderings for clients such as Macys, JCPenney, Belk, and Trader Joes.
¢ Brooks Ballard, previous director of marketing, has been named director of business intelligence. He will connect Info Retail clients with the agencys multiple sources of business intelligence including quantifiable data, user-centric analytics, and discoveries relevant to each clients unique challenges and market segment. Prior to joining Info Retail in 2007, Brooks was senior manager of e-business and manager of corporate marketing/merchandising at HomeBanc Mortgage and account manager at Georgia-Pacific Corporation where he managed 200+ East Coast accounts including high-volume retail.
With these changes we are capitalizing on the enormous talents of a very diverse and seasoned group of executives to strengthen leadership across our offerings in service design and customer environments," Bushman said. "We are also building an interdisciplinary team of dedicated business leaders consistent with our focus on customer experience and operational rigor.