Belgrad, Bernhardt, Segal Join Hall of Fame

October 23, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Special Events on October 24, 2011

Donald Belgrad, Alex Bernhadt and Gordon Segal were inducted into the American Furniture Hall of Fame at Sunday night's Hall of Fame banquet.

The sold-out event at High Point Furniture Market was hosted by Kathy Ireland, CEO and chief designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, and attended by leading retailers, buying group members, interior designers, manufacturers, suppliers and other foundation members.

Belgrad, former president and CEO of Schnadig International Corp., worked tirelessly for industry and philanthropic causes, spending his entire furniture career at Schnadig, where he built it into the largest U.S. family-owned upholstery producer. He pioneered the correlated approach to upholstery starting with occasional groups, and then moving to living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms. Identifying the global manufacturing trend, he quickly established a Chinese subsidiary to ensure quality, production control and supply chain management before orchestrating the sale of Schnadig to Markor International Furniture in 2009.

Bernhardt, chairman and CEO of Bernhardt Furniture, led the company to become an award-winning design leader in residential and contract furniture. During his tenure, he quadrupled the size of the business founded by his grandfather in 1889, making it the largest high-end furniture company in the United States. Bernhardt Furniture has won nine Pinnacle awards and 32 Best of Neocon awards. The company also was one of the first American manufacturers to import parts and later fully-made furniture from Asia.

Segal, co-founder and former CEO of Crate and Barrel, built the retailer from one store in Chicago to an internationally renowned home furnishings business with more than 100 stores in the U.S. and abroad. With a focus on design and a reputation for flawless customer service and integrity, Segal was among the first to buy directly from factories in Europe. He introduced innovative and much emulated methods of visual and product merchandising, dubbed "the Crate and Barrel look." For decades, Crate and Barrel has been among the nation's top 20 furniture stores.

"This election was the first year using our new selection process, which incorporated a vote by the membership with a points-based rating system of each nominee by the Foundation€™s Industry Fellow Selection Committee," said Kurt Darrow, president of the American Furniture Hall of Fame Foundation and CEO of La-Z-Boy. "The nomination process also was more thorough, insuring that the Hall of Fame will always represent an elite field of industry leaders.  We congratulate each new member for their enduring excellence, superior accomplishments, innovation and creativity, and philanthropic generosity in their time, talents and resources."

Under the new selection system, the inductees were determined by the combination of a vote of the membership and a points-based rating system of each nominee by the Foundation€™s Industry Fellow Selection Committee. The voting period began July 8 and ended August 5.