May 18, 2009

Hakes Appointed AMC, Inc. Chief Marketing Officer in Senior Leadership Team Expansion

Atlanta, GA – William Hakes, Ph.D., has been appointed to the newly established position of chief marketing officer at AMC, Inc., leading all marketing initiatives, according to Jeffrey L. Portman, Sr., president and chief operating officer.

“This is another critical step in the expansion of our senior leadership team, and it fits well with our global growth strategy,” notes Portman.

Hakes joins AMC from the presidency of the Aspen Analytics division of Aspen Marketing Services, an international marketing services firm. “Will brings an innovative vision and a depth of experience in developing and implementing data-driven strategies. This can give us a real competitive edge going forward,” adds Portman. Hakes will be responsible for the full integration of all electronic and conventional marketing programming across all AMC business lines, primarily within the company’s AmericasMart flagship brand encompassing wholesale home, gift, area rug and apparel operations housed in its seven million square-foot downtown Atlanta trade mart complex.

Creation of the chief marketing officer position and Hakes’ appointment to that office signals an emerging AMC business strategy designed to accelerate its momentum in the international trade mart/trade show arena, and to pioneer new communications channels and technologies reaching wholesale product manufacturers and retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond.

Hakes holds the B.S. in International Affairs from Georgia Tech and an MBA, MS and Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from Georgia State University.

AmericasMart Atlanta is the largest wholesale marketplace of its kind in the world, and is a leading international market source for a wide variety of consumer goods. It hosts 15 wholesale markets and six Market Wednesdays that annually attract more than 548,000 attendees from every U.S. state and 80 countries.

Retailers attending its markets identify AmericasMart as the gift/home furnishings/area rug wholesale marketplace most important to their business—as compared to all competing U.S. wholesale markets—in independent research conducted by Moore & Symons, Inc.