Jul 25, 2023

ANDMORE hires, promotes several employees

ANDMORE, formerly International Market Centers, executed a series of promotions and new hires.

The personnel changes were designed to create full organizational alignment with reimagined roles in operations, marketing and digital innovations, according to ANDMORE.

“Our new ANDMORE corporate vision is coming to life through strategic organizational updates that will allow us to further optimize the buying and selling experience for our customers,” said Bob Maricich, CEO of ANDMORE. “We are elevating ANDMORE experts and welcoming new talent to lead the innovations that will enhance and extend of the value of our physical markets for both buyers and sellers.”

Operations

ANDMORE aims to streamline its operations team with a new reporting structure. Each of the ANDMORE campuses in Atlanta, High Point and Las Vegas will have a single operations lead overseeing both building operations (property management and tenant relations, security and facilities) and market operations (logistics, trade show, event sales and event operations) to provide a single point of contact for customers.

Jennifer Muna has been promoted to senior vice president of operations for Las Vegas and Shoppe Object. Muna has worked with ANDMORE for nearly six years. During her tenure she has had management responsibilities for tradeshow, food and beverage and amenity operations during the High Point and Las Vegas Markets. Additionally, she served as a liaison to city officials, hotel partners and convention and visitor bureaus in both cities and was an integral member of the team that oversaw the construction and opening of the Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas. She was named a “Person of Influence” by In Business Las Vegas and one of Trade Show Executive’s “Women to Watch” for 2022.

Mike Magnotta has been promoted to senior vice president of operations for Atlanta. Magnotta has worked on the AmericasMart campus for 14 years transitioning from managing director of sales and operations for AmericasMart to vice president of logistics and trade show operations and later vice president of market operations for ANDMORE. During his tenure, Magnotta launched AmericasMart Logistics — a freight-forwarding service geared to provide storage and shipping solutions for customers. In his expanded role, he will work closely with industry veteran, Bob Schuler, senior vice president of event sales and event and trade show operations, in the management of ANDMORE and third-party events at the Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart.

Jeff Gravitt has been promoted to senior vice president of development and construction. Gravitt will continue to lead capital and tenant improvement projects across the Atlanta, High Point and Las Vegas campuses in a centralized role that will also encompass an expanded emphasis on environmental goals. He has worked with the organization for nine years with his AmericasMart responsibilities expanded to World Market Center and ANDMORE’s 17 High Point Market properties after the organizations merged in 2018. During his tenure, Gravitt has managed several transformational projects including the Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas, the AmericasMart Building 1 Lobby Repositioning, and the new multi-floor Casual Furniture Center in Atlanta.

Muna, Magnotta and Gravitt report to Greg Avitabile, executive vice president and COO of ANDMORE.

“At ANDMORE, our belief in putting the customer first is the guideline for strategic updates to our approach to operations,” said Avitabile. “Restructuring the operations activities under leaders Jennifer and Mike means we can create a seamless customer experience that helps them to easier connect, grow and prosper whether they are a showroom tenant, a temporary exhibitor or another event organizer using our spaces. Jeff’s leadership across the campuses will encourage innovation as we keep our facilities relevant and effective for buyers and sellers.”

Marketing

ANDMORE is reorganizing its marketing organization as a next step in optimizing the team structure to fully support the company’s omnichannel business strategy. The new structure creates tighter alignment with the product and leasing teams, while placing increased emphasis on customer insights and a more personalized integrated marketing approach.

Renee Loper-Boyd has been promoted to senior vice president of product marketing. In an expansion of her responsibilities, she assumes strategic direction of ANDMORE’s apparel category as well as digital product offerings in addition to her current responsibilities for the gift, home décor and furniture product and market categories. Loper-Boyd has worked with ANDMORE for more than eight years as vice president of marketing with her responsibilities for Las Vegas Market, the Las Vegas Design Center and ANDMORE’s High Point Market properties expanded to Atlanta Market and the AmericasMart year-round offerings in 2020. In her new role, Loper-Boyd and her teams are responsible for developing data-driven, omni-channel marketing strategies that align with individual product and broader corporate goals. Loper-Boyd is chairman of  WithIt (Women’s Leadership Development Network), having served as president in 2022.

Renae Brown has been promoted to senior vice president of customer insights. In her new role, Brown and her teams are charged with working cross-departmentally to create a 360-degree view of the customer, create and manage customer feedback loops, and understand marketing channel impact and optimization. She will continue to manage the market registration process while also taking on the added role of overseeing the buyer services team charged with managing buying group and association relationships and one-to-one outreach to buyers, as well the inbound Customer Relations team. She has worked with ANDMORE for nearly 11 years, with her role expanding from strategy manager to director of advertising & strategy to vice president of marketing analytics.

Sarah Mount has been promoted to senior vice president of integrated marketing. She leads a consolidated team that aligns all marketing channels to create a consistent tone, voice and personality for our products and brands. They work with the product marketing team to develop global marketing strategies, translating those into channel-specific execution plans with appropriate KPIs and tracking mechanisms. They also leverage data and analytics from the Customer Insights team to drive marketing channel optimization. While working at World Market Center Las Vegas in various communications roles, she became a member of the IMC staff as director of content & interactive media after its 2011 formation. She transitioned to AmericasMart as Executive Director of Marketing and later vice president of marketing for its home, gift & rug portfolio and continued that role for International Market Centers upon the acquisition of AmericasMart in 2018. She then transitioned to the vice president of marketing role for Juniper before moving into a broader role as vice president of digital marketing & content. Mount was named as one of Gift Shop’s 40 under 40, Class of 2019 and she serves on the board of the industry’s sole charity, Gift for Life.

Loper-Boyd, Brown, and Mount report to Karen Olson, ANDMORE’s newly appointed executive vice president and CMO.

“To be the industry’s only omni-channel wholesale marketmaker, it is imperative that we align our marketing organization to best support our mission, vision and core values,” said Olson. “With the unique skillsets and leadership of Sarah, Renee and Renae, we are positioned to create a customer centric, data-driven approach to our strategic marketing plans and services that deliver optimal value for buyers and sellers.”

Digital

ANDMORE continues the strategic transformation of its digital team following the hire of new chief digital officer Mark Crowther earlier this year with two new team members in roles designed to ensure the company stays at the forefront of the industry and innovates with customers to grow their businesses using data-driven insights.

Sven Koppany joins ANDMORE as senior vice president of digital innovations. In this new role, Koppany will work across the digital innovations team and ANDMORE to operationalize its omni-channel mission. He will lead the design and adoption of mechanisms that create compelling experiences for buyers and sellers using new and innovative technology. An engineer by training, he joins ANDMORE from six years at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he led digital innovation. He has a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Southern Polytechnic State University and a Master of Science in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Tanner Pratt joins as SVP, Insights Cloud and Engineering. Pratt will be responsible for developing ANDMORE’s data capabilities to deliver compelling insights to buyers and sellers to help them grow their businesses in new and innovative ways. He joins ANDMORE from AWS, where he was global head of data streaming. Pratt has a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

“As we scale the ANDMORE business driven by our customer-first omni-channel mission, the future holds new challenges and opportunities. Unstructured data, artificial intelligence and machine learning are fast becoming business requirements. In this rapidly-evolving landscape, we must adapt, embrace and align on these opportunities to stay at the forefront of our industry,” said Crowther. “Sven and Tanner bring the expertise and know-how in digital innovation and data engineering that we need at this tipping point in our industry.”