Comfort Solutions names two to SVP posts

David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 12, 2012

WilliamsWILLOWBROOK, Ill. - Top 10 bedding producer Comfort Solutions has reorganized its senior management team and has hired bedding veteran Cindy Williams.
     Williams, formerly of Info Retail, becomes one of the highest-ranking women on the manufacturing side of the industry as Comfort Solutions' senior vice president of marketing.
     The company also announced the promotion of Owen Shoemaker to senior vice president of product development and merchandising.
     Williams and Shoemaker both hold positions that are new for the company, and both report to Dave Roberts, president of Comfort Solutions. Roberts said the new structure is needed so the producer can "keep pace with the speed at which our business is moving."
     "This important reorganization divides management responsibilities for product innovation and marketing while allowing us to significantly increase the focus and intensity in each of those areas," he said.
     Williams will spearhead marketing and marketing communication programs for Comfort Solutions' multiple brands and products. She said she plans to relocate to the Chicago area in the near future.
     Before joiningShoemaker the producer, Williams since 2003 had been vice president of client services for Info Retail, an Atlanta-based retail strategy and design agency. She began her industry career in 1991 with Simmons, where she worked in several sales capacities before her promotion to national sales manager of the specialty sleep division. After that she was Southeast regional sales manager for International Bedding Corp. and worked for England Furniture, a division of La-Z-Boy, to establish a bedding division.
     "Cindy is an experienced, top-notch executive who will not only expand our marketing capabilities but also better position us to achieve our strategic objectives in 2012 and into the future," Roberts said.
     Shoemaker, who joined Comfort Solutions in 2009 and has been senior vice president of marketing and product development, will lead the company's efforts in product innovation, design and merchandising. He also will head international business development, a new responsibility.
     "With his singular expertise in sleep science, diagnostics and human physiology - combined with his strong marketing experience - Owen is well positioned to correlate product design and performance with marketing viability," Roberts said. "He also will have new opportunities to study developments and innovations among our international licensees and in overseas markets, which will advance both our corporate objectives and our business."