IHFC taps Lindh, promotes Miller
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, January 14, 2002
HIGH POINT — The International Home Furnishings Center, High Point's largest showroom complex, has named Tom Lindh president and chief operating officer and promoted longtime President Bruce Miller to vice chairman and chief executive officer.
Lindh, a former banker who joined the IHFC staff in June 1999, will oversee day-to-day operations at the 3.5-million-square-foot complex.
Miller had been IHFC president since 1986, when the facility was known as the Southern Furniture Market Center. It has more than doubled in size under his watch, the latest expansion being a 250,000-square-foot addition to the Hamilton Wing that opened in April 2001.
The leadership changes were first made public last week in advertisements in the High Point Enterprise and Greensboro News & Record. Lindh declined further comment.
The newspaper advertisements said the building's owners "view IHFC's role as a critical leader of the market process. Furthermore, IHFC will not waiver from its policy of creating a pleasant environment for buyers and sellers to conduct business."
The ads concluded by saying that Miller and Lindh "will work closely together to ensure the viability of the market in High Point."
Many High Point community leaders and furniture industry executives believe that a proposed furniture market in Las Vegas could threaten the High Point show, and organizers have taken several steps in recent months to shore up the local market's infrastructure.
The High Point market is now governed by a public-private partnership called the International Home Furnishings Market Authority, a group funded largely by a showroom tax and a High Point lodging tax approved last year by the North Carolina legislature.
Bassett Furniture Inds. and Lane Furniture are the IHFC's largest stockholders. Minority shareholders include Randall Terry, president of the High Point Enterprise.
