International Market Centers (IMC) will realign responsibilities for its sales and marketing teams, effective January 1.
These changes will better serve cross-market customers and internal promotions for several senior staff members. In the new year, IMC will create a home furnishings business unit, which will unify all furniture, accessory and casual and bedding accounts across all campuses in High Point and Las Vegas.
As part of the customer analysis, IMC identified more than 100 accounts that were previously within the home décor business unit in Las Vegas, but were located within the furniture business unit in High Point. Now those customers will have one primary point of contact for both markets.
“These customer-facing changes are the result of a year-long IMC examination of our leasing organizational structure, the goal of which was to identify opportunities to improve collaboration, cross-selling, value creation and customer experience,” said Robert Maricich, Chief Executive Officer of IMC. “This new account-based leasing organization, under which agents manage vertical categories across both campuses, not only achieves these goals, but also allows us to recognize and reward several key members of our team. I am confident that these changes will result in a more cohesive and collaborative leasing organization and will enable our already highly successful team to take our business to the next level.”
The new home furnishings business unit will be led by Julie Messner, Senior Vice President of Furniture and Home Décor Leasing/Chief Strategy Officer, and Ryan Mahoney, newly promoted Senior Vice President of Furniture Leasing. Messner will continue to manage traditional furniture accounts, with new responsibilities for all home accent and accessory accounts, high-end and designer channel home furnishings, the Las Vegas Design Center and Showtime, as well as all temporary tradeshow leasing in High Point. Mahoney will assume cross-campus responsibility for furniture and bedding accounts, in addition to his current responsibility for temporary furniture leasing in Las Vegas.
The new role of Vice President, Home Décor Leasing and Las Vegas Design Center will be filled by Lee Hershberg. He will assume cross-campus responsibility for key account performance within this business unit, while also assuming responsibility for daily management of the LVDC, establishing partnerships with key accounts and related industry resources to support audience-building initiatives in Las Vegas. Hershberg will report to Messner.
Dorothy Belshaw will continue her role as IMC’s President of Gift Leasing, while also assuming the role of Chief Marketing Officer, with oversight of the Marketing Department and associated Digital initiatives.
Terence Morris has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Gift and Tradeshow Leasing. He will oversee all Las Vegas Market gift-specific permanent showroom and gift and home décor temporary exhibit leasing in the Pavilions. Morris reports to Belshaw.
“We have identified gift verticals and digital initiatives as important opportunities for strategic growth beyond our core, and this restructuring puts in place key internal resources to pursue that growth and further define the ‘what’s next’ for IMC,” said Maricich. “As our Las Vegas Market nears full occupancy, we expect that this organizational restructuring will further maximize the impact of marketing and digital initiatives designed to drive market attendance and increase return on investment for our customers.”
