Kingsdown Names Thomas Agan New Senior Vice President

Furniture World News

Kingsdown, Inc. announced that it has appointed Thomas Agan as Senior Vice President – Sleep to Live®, a newly created position, responsible for creating and implementing Kingsdown’s next generation of products, services and retail formats. Most recently, Mr. Agan served as Managing Director of North America with Prophet, a leading global branding and marketing consultancy. “Tom brings a proven track record for building global brands to this new position”, said Kingsdown Chairman and CEO Eric Hinshaw. “He played a major role in transforming UBS from a brand poorly known outside of Switzerland five years ago to becoming the 45th most valuable brand in the world today, as ranked by Business Week. In the United Kingdom he led a team that developed Sainsbury’s Local, a very successful retail format. And he helped Maidenform® U.S. refine and focus the brand, leading to the development of their best selling One Fabulous Fit™ line of bras. We expect that these and other experiences he brings, will help us to become the leading global brand we aspire to be.” “He has an unusual combination of being able to blend vision and strategy with a practical, common sense approach to implementation,” adds Pat Flippin, Kingsdown’s President and COO. “Not only has he done groundbreaking work, he has also built very profitable businesses.” “I am attracted to Kingsdown for a number of reasons,” states Agan. “First of all, in this category, many people are unhappy with the bed buying experience. DormoDiagnostics®, Kingsdown’s computerized system that matches an individual to their correct sleep system, is an innovative tool that helps consumers make a better choice. In addition, Kingsdown makes high quality products that I believe in and they are the only bedding company currently investing in important university research to improve sleep and health. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Eric and Pat are ethical, open-minded managers, dedicated to improving the lives of others, and motivated to continuously grow and evolve the company.” Mr. Agan received a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has been quoted widely in the media including The Wall Street Journal and The Nikkei Weekly, presented at many industry conferences including the National Retail Federation annual meeting and the Economist Marketing Director’s European Summit. He also led brand and marketing seminars with executives from IBM and GE, and has had several articles published. And has also been an instructor with the North Carolina Outward Bound Program, teaching team building programs to business executives. About Kingsdown: Kingsdown makes and markets a wide range of premium bedding products including inner-spring, foam and air sleep systems for leading retailers in 21 countries including the U.S. Long recognized as an industry leader and innovator, it has developed the proprietary DormoDiagnostics® system that matches a customer to a bed resulting in better sleep and health. It also offers exclusively to designers its ultra-premium Oscar de la Renta line of bedding. Kingsdown holds several patents and has won numerous industry awards. It is over 100 years old, employee-owned and based in Mebane, North Carolina.