Soft-Tex Announces New Key Hires

Furniture World News Desk on 1/15/2020

In response to continued organizational growth and acquiring full ownership of REACTEX technology intellectual property, Soft-Tex announced a number of key new hires and functional capabilities to support its key objectives of new product & technology innovation, channel expansion, and continued digital growth.

New Personnel

• Product Development
  
  
  • Mark Smiderle, Inventor of REACTEX™, has joined Soft-Tex as a consultant leading global innovation efforts and a member of Soft-Tex’s Board of Directors and Senior Management Team.
    
    
  • Stephanie Shugart and Gwen Furslew have joined Soft-Tex as Product Development Managers reporting to Erik Sanchez, Vice President of Sourcing & Product Development. Stephanie comes to Soft-Tex with a diverse array of product development and merchandising experience in textiles with stents at Perfect Fit and Springs Global while Gwen joins Soft-Tex from product development and design experience from Design Weave and Duck River Textiles, respectively.
    
    
• Operations
  
  
  • Brian Waghorn has been hired to Soft-Tex as a Director of Engineering to support the creation of new production capabilities and other special projects related to the development of REACTEX product lines and reports to Michael Wilker, Senior Vice President of Operations.
    
    
• Marketing
  
  
  • Jennifer Hillman has joined the Soft-Tex marketing group as the Director of Training and In-Store Marketing reporting to Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Marsh. Jennifer previously served as a Vice President of Training & Development and Director of Key Accounts at Protect-A-Bed and brings with her a wealth of industry knowledge for this newly created position at Soft-Tex.
    
    
  • Wendi Hauck joins the Soft-Tex graphic design department as a Graphic Design Manager supporting new packaging, store merchandising concepts, digital assets, and more reporting to Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Marsh. Wendi has a diverse portfolio of experience with in-house and agency work focusing on packaging including work with Crayola, Red Devil, and more.
    
    
  • Joel Blanton joins the Soft-Tex Digital Marketing team as the Video Production Coordinator filming, editing, and producing all of Soft-Tex’s video content and reports to Director of Digital Marketing & eCommerce, Taylor Jones. Joel
    
    
  • Julie Martinelli, has joined the Soft-Tex marketing group as a Marketing Coordinator in charge of sample coordination, SKU creation, and many other special projects.
    
    
• Sales
  
  
  • Alex Padovani joins Soft-Tex as a Regional Sales Manager reporting to Head of Sales, Keith Bolton. Most recently, Alex was the Omni Assistant Buyer of Utility Bedding at Macy’s and brings valuable years of experience as a retail buyer to Soft-Tex.
    
    
• Finance
  
  
  • Michael LaFreniere has been hired to the post of Controller reporting to Tom Gibbs, Soft-Tex Chief Financial Officer. Michael has served most recently as the Controller of the Girl Scouts of Northeastern, NY before joining Soft-Tex.
    
    
• Promotions & New Responsibilities
  
  
  • Keith Bolton, Senior Vice President of Sales has added responsibilities for managing global sales efforts, overseeing all sales coordinators, managers, and vice presidents across divisions.
    
    
  • Scott Thayer is leading REACTEX business development and commercialization of REACTEX technology to Soft-Tex’s current and expanding customer base. Scott has also been recently promoted to Soft-Tex’s Senior Management Team and reports to Keith Bolton.
    
    
  • Taylor Jones, Director of Digital Marketing & eCommerce has been promoted to Soft-Tex’s Senior Management Team.

About Soft-Tex: Soft-Tex International is an innovation company focused on building the most comfortable products to help the world sleep and live better. With proprietary technologies spanning categories like personal climate control, wellness, antimicrobials, & allergen barriers, coupled with coveted national brands like SensorPEDIC®, SensorGel®, BioPEDIC®, & DreamSmart®, Soft-Tex offers its retail, distributor, and other partners the highest quality, most comfortable products with best-in-class, in-house merchandising, digital marketing, customer service and global supply chain capabilities.