Southerland realigns, adds to management team

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, July 5, 2012

Scott Miller	Leo Echeverria
Tim Tyler	Dan Thigpen

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Top 15 bedding producer Southerland has made several changes and additions to its management team.

Scott Miller has been named to the new role of chief marketing officer, with responsibility for leading product development, merchandizing, marketing and brand management. He reports to Steve Russo, CEO.

Leo Echeverria has joined Southerland as vice president, manufacturing. He will be responsible for Southerland's operations in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arizona. Echeverria has held key operations positions at Serta, King Koil, and Southern Dreams, and operated an international consulting business prior to joining Southerland. He reports to Russo.

Tim Tyler is expanding his responsibilities as vice president of sales to include the Central division as well as the Eastern U.S. He will manage the Tennessee and Oklahoma-based sales teams, and the newly created position of national sales coordinator. He continues to report to Russo.

Dan Thigpen has joined Southerland as vice president of sales, Western U.S. He will manage the sales team that supports Southerland's Arizona operations. His industry experience has included sales management positions at Comfort Solutions and Kingsdown. He reports to Russo.

Dave Delaney

Dave Delaney has joined Southerland in the newly created position of national sales coordinator. He will be based in Nashville and will be responsible for internal support to the sales reps in the field in order to allow Southerland's sales organization to more effectively execute new account growth and existing account support needs. He was previously a Spring Air major account representative, Corsicana regional sales manager and Therapedic key account representative. He reports to Tyler.

"Our executive team has an excellent balance of customer focus, industry experience, product and market knowledge and operational skills," Russo said. "We have now completed staffing the executive team roles needed for our business to achieve its long-term goals; we are very well positioned to execute our business model and create meaningful customer value."

Southerland is based in Nashville and has manufacturing and distribution operations in Nashville, Oklahoma City and Phoenix.