Tropitone promotes John Mattson to VP, taps Frank Verna as director

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 8/15/2011 3:05:00 PM

IRVINE, Calif. — Tropitone Furniture Company has promoted John Mattson to vice president and named Frank Verna to the position of director of consumer sales and business development.

With these changes Mattson becomes the senior sales and business development executive at Tropitone and Verna assumes the responsibilities for the consumer market segment. The consumer market segment responsibilities were previously held by Mark Gorr who recently left Tropitone to pursue other opportunities. The changes are effective immediately.

"The time had come to reward John for the remarkable progress he has made with our commercial market segment and his general contributions to the company," President and CEO Cap Hendrix said. "Over the past 12 years of my association with Tropitone I have watched John's dramatic personal and leadership growth. He is destined to be a big part of Tropitone's future success."

Hendrix added, "With an opening in the leadership of our consumer market segment, the first person we turned to was Frank. He has been an independent sales representative for Tropitone for several years and has done an outstanding job. Frank is also the chairman of our Sales Representative Council and an active member of the International Casual Furnishings Association. His character, energy, leadership skills, intelligence and knowledge of Tropitone and our industry made him the obvious choice."

Verna began his career with Enterprise Car Rental where he was branch assistant manager. He transitioned to the casual furnishings industry as a sales representative for Brown Jordan International. As president of Verna Sales, headquartered in Atlanta, he has been a sales representative for Tropitone and other brands since 2005. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Verna will be stationed at the Company's Irvine, Calif. headquarters. He and his family will be relocating from Atlanta to Southern California following the handoff of his territory to another independent sales representative. He will wear two hats until the transition is successfully completed.

"We are extremely pleased that Frank has agreed to accept a different position on the Tropitone team," Hendrix said. "He knows the industry, he knows Tropitone, he knows our sales reps and he knows our dealers. This knowledge will allow John and me to accelerate Frank's transition into Tropitone management. If there is such a thing as a smooth organizational transition, this is it."