Alan founded Benchmark Brands after an extensive career in brand marketing and product development. Alan was the New Products Marketing Director for the Dr. Scholl's and OTC Drug Divisions of Schering-Plough and was the Sr. Director of New Business Development for the Shulton Division of American Cyanamid. As Vice-President Marketing, New Products for Holiday Inn Worldwide, he led the development team for Holiday Inn Express, one of the most successful hotel introductions in the 1990's.

In 2006, Alan was honored as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Retail Division for the Southeast. His entrepreneurial spirit has helped grow Benchmark Brands to a company with forecasted revenues of $155MM in 2012.

Alan holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA, also from the University of Texas at Austin.

Prior to joining Benchmark Brands, Anne spent 15 years with the Macy's organization in various merchandising roles. In her last role with Macy's Corporate, Anne led strategic initiatives to develop new allocation systems. Previously, Anne had a variety of roles including VP/Divisional Director of Planning for Ready to Wear and Children's,VP/DMM of Accessories, and DMM of Intimate Apparel for Macy's Central.

Anne has a BS in Education from the University of Virginia.

Trish has over 20 years of Direct Response and Internet Marketing experience and was most recently VP of Internet Marketing for North American Membership Group. In prior roles, Trish was the Chief Marketing Officer of the non-profit Women for Women International, VP of Marketing for Experian's LowerMyBills.com and VP of Marketing for AOL. At AOL, she was part of the marketing team that grew AOL subscribers from 5 million to 32 million members with responsibilities in print advertising, alternative media and online marketing acquisition channels, as well as leadership of the marketing product management function.

Trish holds a BA from The College of William and Mary and an MBA from Yale School of Management.

Janine joins Benchmark Brands from Macy's Central with over 25 years of experience in that organization, where most recently she was the VP, DMM Women's Footwear. During her career at Macy's, Janine had various buying roles, moving from Assistant Buyer to DMM Women's Dresses, Coats and Suits. Earlier in her career, Janine held various roles at Woodward and Lothrop in Washington, D.C.

Janine has a BS in Business Administration from Florida State University.

Pete comes to Benchmark Brands with over 25 years of Direct Marketing experience and has deep knowledge of both the Catalog and Internet channels. Pete was most recently VP of Marketing for Hanover Direct. Previous roles include VP of Marketing for JCrew and VP of Marketing with Crosstown Traders. Pete began his career at Fingerhut Corporation, where he spent 15 years in various direct marketing roles.

Pete holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls.

John joined Benchmark Brands from Allconnect Inc. where he worked for 5 years and was VP/GM of Call Center Operations. Benchmark Brands customer contact center services more than 1,000,000 calls per year and is a full-service customer care operation that handles sales and customer service for the company's FootSmart catalog, as well as calls generated from the FootSmart.com website.

John holds both a Bachelor of Science Degree in Combined Sciences and a Masters of Science from Youngstown State University in Ohio.

As VP, Catalog and Online Merchandising, Jessica's team has buying responsibility for Health, Hosiery, Socks and Intimates, along with merchandise planning and promotional calendar management across catalog, print and internet site and channel marketing programs. Jessica joined Benchmark Brands from Macy's, where she spent the last 10 years in various merchandising roles. Most recently, she led the Contemporary Sportswear initiative at Macy's Central, strategically increasing the departmental volume from $5MM in 2006 to $50MM by 2008.

Jessica holds a BA in Advertising from The Pennsylvania State University.

Bob brings over 30 years of creative excellence to Benchmark Brands with extensive leadership experience at companies such as Horchow, Sears, Garden Ridge, Michaels and, most recently, Schawk, Inc. Having worked in fast-paced ad agencies and in-house departments for large corporations, Bob excels in providing great creative strategy paired with sales-driven creative solutions. As VP, Creative, Bob and his team are responsible for creative direction and execution across all media channels including print and digital.

Bob has a BA in English from Louisiana Tech University.

Thana brings over 20 years experience helping Fortune 500, mid-size and start-up companies align talent strategies with business growth. Thana was most recently the SVP, General Manager for Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH), a professional services firm specializing in talent management solutions. Prior to joining LHH, Thana spent five years with Accenture delivering organizational design solutions and several years with Northgate Arinso where she built and led the company's HR Consulting Practice in North America. Prior to entering the consulting field, Thana spent eight years in corporate and field HR roles at Time Warner and Reed Elsevier in New York. Thana leads the Talent Asset Management team for Benchmark Brands which will play a crucial role in creating and driving people strategies for our dynamic, fast moving organization. She has responsibility for all aspects of HR and Talent Management.