Riverside Furniture Appoints Shepard to VP of IT and Watson to Showroom & Sales Operation Manager

April 8, 2021  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

Shepard was with Tempur Sealy for 11 years prior to joining Riverside in the position of vice president of information services. “Mike is a classically-trained IT professional who worked his way up through the ranks from programming roles to senior leadership positions in IT,” said Beth Brown, chief operations officer and chief financial officer for Riverside. “Mike’s track record, acumen and strategic thinking has been proven through his implementations of successful IT solutions, designing systems and evaluating current and new technology needs.” Shepard reports to Brown and will work out of Riverside’s North Carolina office.

Watson will manage Riverside’s 70,000-square-foot, four-story showroom, product development, office and hospitality complex, a renovation of the historic 1925 YMCA gymnasium opening this month at 401 S. Main Street in High Point.  She has experience in merchandising, buying and design, and most recently was with Casual Furniture World. She has served as showroom director for Kinwai USA and as an accessory buyer for Ashley Home Stores and as a design consultant for Drexel Heritage. She is a graduate of Randolph Technical College with an Applied Science Degree in Interior Design, and she also has some communication skills in Mandarin, Chinese.

“We are excited to have someone of Elisa’s talent and experience to join our team as we open our state-of-the-art showroom complex that will be one of the most visible properties in the High Point Market District,” said John Iasiello, president of Riverside.  The office portion of the complex will be open year-round and includes a 40,000-square-foot High Point Market showroom, along with a 3^rd floor studio for private label products and future concepts, 4^th floor offices, a “Collab Lab” for product development and a 4^th floor terrace and indoor-outdoor hospitality area. Reporting to Iasiello, Watson will work in the North Carolina office of Riverside.