Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Universal Promotes Sean O’Connor to New Sales Post
April 18,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Executive Changes, Industry 
Universal Furniture has promoted Sean O’Connor to the newly created position of senior vice president of sales.
In this new position, O’Connor will be responsible for distribution of all Universal product lines into all sales channels across the nation. In addition, his merchandising responsibilities beyond upholstery will include all living room furnishings — accent tables, home entertainment and storage/display.
“We're confident this new role will deliver not only a more coordinated product development effort, but also produce a paradigm shift away from a structured category focus to something larger,” said Universal CEO Jeff Scheffer.
In addition to O’Connor’s promotion, the company has revamped its regional sales structure to move from three regions to two.
O’Connor joined Universal in 2012 as vice president of sales for the East region, where he helped relaunch the Universal upholstery program and managed upholstery merchandising and sales growth.
“Sean’s been an integral member of our team since joining us five years ago,” said Scheffer. “His development of the upholstery program has been instrumental to our brand becoming a whole home provider.”
Reporting to O’Connor are Mark Cowan and Kevin Miller, both vice presidents of sales. Cowan and Miller’s responsibilities will be expanded because of the new two-region structure. Cowan will manage the newly configured East region and Miller will manage the West region.