E.S. Kluft Restructures Sales Team, Promotes Four

October 25, 2017  by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Executive Changes, Industry   

Headlining the changes is the promotion of Dominick Azevedo to the newly created position of executive vice president of sales. He will be responsible for all domestic and international sales for the E.S. Kluft and Aireloom brands, and will report to acting CEO Alain Rauh.

The other executives promoted, and their new roles, are: Howard Galant, senior vice president of sales for the western U.S. and international business; Chad Megard, senior vice president of sales for the eastern U.S. and Canada; and Doug Kinde, vice president of national accounts. The three report to Azevedo.

Azevedo joined E.S. Kluft in 2015 after 13 years at Simmons to head national accounts and spearhead the company’s growing business with Macy’s and Bloomingdales. He also created the company’s “Kluft University” training program for its sales representatives.

As one of the company’s first sales representatives, Galant has been instrumental in growing the business to its current stature. Prior to his promotion, Galant was vice president of sales for the western region. He joined the company in 2010 as national vice president of sales. Laurent Boilly, vice president of international sales, will report to Galant. 

Megard was formerly vice president of sales for the eastern region, credited with expanding the company’s business in that region to the size of its traditionally strong western U.S. business in less than five years. Prior to joining E.S. Kluft, Megard held sales leadership positions with Dormeo, King Koil, Spring Air and Serta.

In his new position, Megard will continue to expand the company’s distribution in the east, while overseeing the work of Valerie Stranix, who heads sales in Canada.

Kinde was previously key account executive and joined the company in 2015. Prior to E.S. Kluft, Kinde worked with Simmons in various product development posts. Kinde will also work with David Long, vice president of marketing, as the company continues to enhance and develop new lines for Bloomingdales and Macy’s.

“We have an incredibly talented sales team. In the last five years, the team has grown the business well above the industry average and have established good and long-lasting relationships with many key retailers. As we continue to expand, we felt we needed a more structured matrix to provide better customer service and support,” said Rauh. “There is a wonderful esprit de corps, a way of doing things that is special to E.S. Kluft & Co. This magnificent sales team has a clear strategy that we see being scalable to further domestic and international growth.”