Hooker Furnishings Announces 2 New Executive Hires

November 14, 2021  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

Hinman joins the company with more than 25 years’ experience in the furniture industry, as its new director of showroom design for HMI Group. In her new role, she will be responsible for the conception to execution of its showroom initiatives and will report to Alexandra O’Hare, vice president of marketing & interior design of Hooker Furnishings.

“Minoo not only brings with her years of experience within the home furnishings space, but also her creativity and her ability to design captivating showrooms and visuals,” said O’Hare. “We are very excited to have her join our team.”

Prior to joining, Minoo held the position of director of visual display and fabric merchandising at Theodore Alexander where she was responsible for a broad range of tasks involving all aspects of its retail experience. She oversaw driving the overall visual look and feel of the retail brand while also creating directives and training tools.

Earlier in her career, Minoo spent seven years with Maitland-Smith as its director of visual merchandising focusing on creating, implementing and maintaining visual standards and providing corporate direction relating to brand presentation.

She received her bachelors of science degree from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she majored in housing and interior design.

With nearly 30 years of experience in the home furnishings industry, Eremita replaces Jordan Noe as vice president of product development and merchandising for Accentrics Home. She will be based out of the High Point office and reports to Kevin Walker, president of Accentrics Home.

“Allison is a talented and innovative product designer and we couldn’t be happier that she is the newest member of our team,” said Walker. “She brings with her a wealth of product development and merchandising knowledge, and she will play a big role in our future collections.”

She will be responsible for developing new designs and creating the Homeware by Hooker Furnishings brand of upper to middle price-point products to compete online. Eremita will also oversee product line management, showroom concepts and product placements.

Previously, Eremita served as director of merchandising at Furniture Mart where she handled all aspects of merchandising for the seven-store chain, purchasing and negotiation as well as showroom management and training sales managers and retail personnel.

In addition, she spent time in Shandong, China as the creative director for Dinglong Furniture in where she focused on product development, merchandising and showroom design. Eremita has also held similar roles with Home Source, Violino and Magnussen.

Eremita received her bachelors of science degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology, where she majored in in architectural engineering. She also received a NCIDQ certification in interior design from the New England School of Art and Design. Both schools are in Boston, Massachusetts.