Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Soft-Tex Announces New Appointments and Restructures Organization
August 19,
2020 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
Sleep product manufacturer Soft-Tex International has announced its new organizational structure, divided into three functional groups (Innovation, Sales & Marketing, and Finance / Administrative) to better align with key objectives as well as several new roles and promotions.
Mark Smiderle has been appointed to the top post of principal and is a member of the board of directors. Smiderle oversees the three chief executives responsible for the Innovation, Sales & Marketing, and Finance / Administrative functional areas.
Scott Thayer has been promoted to a newly created chief innovation officer role which oversees all innovation efforts as well as operations, production, planning, sourcing, and forecasting.
Chris Marsh has been promoted to chief sales and marketing officer with direct responsibility for all sales divisions and global marketing.
Tom Gibbs, who previously served as Interim CEO, returns to his role as chief financial officer overseeing all finance and administrative functions of the company.
Taylor Jones was promoted to vice president of marketing & ecommerce overseeing product commercialization and Soft-Tex's ecommerce business. Also, the Marketing/ecommerce team, Katie Burr has been promoted to the position of ecommerce manager and home textile industry graphic design veteran Lisa Edwards has been hired as a graphic design manager.
VP of Furniture and Mattress, John Timmerman, now has an expanded role overseeing international sales pursuits. International sales consultants Owen Shoemaker and Steve Riley report to Timmerman.
Gary Semon who joined Soft-Tex in 2019 as the manager of Soft-Tex's South Carolina warehouse has been promoted to director of Shipping & Distribution supervising shipping for Soft-Tex at all locations.