Benchmark Brands Executive Leadership Expands To Support Growth Strategy For Its FootSmart Business

ATLANTA, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/-- Benchmark Brands, owner and operator of FootSmart, the country's leading direct-to-consumer retailer of foot health and comfort footwear, announces the appointment of two key executive leadership team members. David Rogalski joins the company as Chief Financial Officer, and Trip Sessions as Chief Information Officer. These C-suite additions will play an integral part in managing the company's accelerated growth in the rapidly expanding e-commerce segment.

According to analyst firm Forrester, online shopping will continue to cannibalize in-store shopping as consumers gravitate to the convenience of online shopping. After a 12.6 percent increase to $176.2 billion in 2010, online retail sales are expected to reach $278.9 billion in 2015. Benchmark Brands has been on a hiring spree, building its various teams, including leadership, since the beginning of the year and recently launched a Talent Asset Management initiative to keep up with its growth.

Key Appointments Add Breadth to Executive Team
As CFO, David Rogalski plays a key role in Benchmark's strategic planning, profitability management, cash management, and business intelligence as well as leads the execution of day-to-day financial operations, policies and procedures. He is tasked with overseeing key financial initiatives and acting as a change agent, capable of implementing new programs and business methods while ensuring goals are met. In addition, he is closely working with the newly appointed CIO to ensure the enterprise systems infrastructure supports current and future operational objectives. Rogalski recently served as Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Harry & David Holdings Inc. where he enhanced financial reporting and analysis and reorganized the financial organization and business process during a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from DePaul University.

Trip Sessions joins Benchmark's leadership team as CIO with the focus of further developing the company's information technology strategy and roadmap, driving innovation and building a platform that allows for additional growth. He is tasked with all application development and technology infrastructure, including e-commerce application development, business intelligence architecture, call center technology, corporate telecommunications, network architecture, and enterprise application development/support. Sessions has extensive experience within the information technology space and comes to Benchmark from Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. where he served as Vice President of Information Technology. Throughout his tenure, Sessions led the transition and integration efforts for the two brands' restaurant technology and was promoted to lead the overall technology efforts as well as the International division. He holds a bachelor's degree and master's degree from the University of Georgia.

"David and Trip's additions reflect the early success of our Talent Asset Management effort to find relevant expertise in a competitive segment of the marketplace," says Alan Beychok, President and CEO of Benchmark Brands. "As an online retail experience, so much of our success is driven by the talent behind our online presence, so I'm particularly pleased with what these additions mean to those functional areas, and also the impact they will have on our ability to scale quickly."

SOURCE Benchmark Brands