IHA News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Deborah A.Teschke
Manager, Media Relations & Communications
847-692-0110

IHA BOARD OF DIRECTORS WELCOMES TWO NEW MEMBERS

Jeff Siegel Elected Chairman of the Board

ROSEMONT, ILL. (September 5, 2008)—Two new directors have been elected to the board of directors of the International Housewares Association (IHA), the full-service trade association for the housewares industry.

The new directors are Steven Fraser, chairman & chief executive officer (CEO), Wilton Products, Inc., and James E. Joseph, president & CEO, Oneida Ltd. They were elected to three-year terms that begin on Oct. 1 and expire Sept. 30, 2011.
Newly elected board officers are:

• Chairman - Jeff Siegel, president/CEO, Lifetime Brands Inc..
• Vice Chairman/Chairman Elect - Robert L. Trudeau, chairman, Trudeau Corporation
• Treasurer - Bruce Kaminstein, president, Casabella Holdings LLC

All officers serve one-year terms from Oct. 1, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2009.
Leaving the board are Matthew L. Andis, president, Andis Company, and James L. Glenn, president/CEO, Whitney Design, Inc. Re-elected to a second three-year term were Mark Eichhorn, president/CEO, Anchor Hocking Co.; Barry D. Harper, president/CEO, Harper Brush Works, Inc.; Bruce Kaminstein; and Karl Pfitzenreiter, board member, Zwilling J.A. Henckels USA. Marty Armstrong, vice president of sales at KitchenAid, was named to the board’s Executive Committee.

Fraser has more than 30 years of experience in the housewares industry. He joined Wilton Products in 1998 as group president, Wilton Industries, and was promoted to president/CEO in 2001. He was named chairman and CEO of Wilton Products in August 2007 when the company was acquired by GTCR. The company is a diverse manufacturer of specialty paper crafts, food crafts and housewares products with key brands including Wilton, Copco, Sticko, Jolees and Perler. Prior to joining Wilton, Fraser served as executive vice president at Regal Ware from 1983-98 and before that, was vice president of sales & marketing at Stevens Hepner Co. Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of household brooms and brushes, from 1977-83.

Joseph joined Oneida in 1988. The company is one of the world’s largest designers, marketers and distributors of dinnerware and stainless steel and silver-plated flatware, as well as a leading marketer of crystal and other metalware products. Joseph has held several management positions within the company, including senior vice president and managing director of Oneida International, based in London, England. Following his appointment as president in June 2006, Joseph played a key role in Oneida’s successful emergence from its Chapter 11 recapitalization. Joseph also serves on the Housewares Charity Foundation board of directors.

Siegel joined Lifetime Brands (formerly known as Lifetime Hoan) in 1967 after two years as trainee and then assistant buyer in the A&S Division of Federated Department Stores. The company designs and manufactures a variety of products for the home including kitchen cutlery, kitchen tools and gadgets, bakeware and cookware, bar accessories, barbecue accessories, cutting boards, spice racks, pantryware, dinnerware, glassware and flatware. Its brands include Mikasa®, Pfaltzgraff®, KitchenAid®, Farberware®, Cuisinart®, Sabatier®, Towle®, Gorham®, Wallace® and Hoffritz®. Siegel began his tenure at the company as a regional sales manager and served in various other positions before being named president in 2000 and Chairman and CEO in 2002. He is a director of the Housewares Charity Foundation and has served on the Board since the Foundation’s inception in 1997. Siegel served as IHA Vice Chairman/Chairman Elect from 2007-08 and Treasurer from 2006-07.

Trudeau began his career in the housewares industry in 1967 when he became the third generation to join the company (then called Genin-Trudeau) his grandfather had created in 1904 in smokers supplies. He was named president/CEO in 1971 after purchasing the company from several shareholders. He became chairman of the board in 1996 when Genin-Trudeau simplified its brand portfolio and launched the Trudeau and Home Presence brands, creating two organizations, Home Presence and Trudeau Corporation, successfully reinventing itself. The company is headquartered in Montreal, with divisions in Woodbridge, Ill., U.S.A., Amsterdam and Madrid. Trudeau designs and markets housewares such as kitchen accessories, tableware, wine accessories, thermal products and licensed children’s products.

Kaminstein created Kaminstein Imports in 1989, an importer of household cleaning products. In the mid-1990s, the company established the brand name Casabella® and began designing and manufacturing its line of fashionable and functional cleaning products. Before starting his own company, Kaminstein was president of his family’s retail store, Kaminstein Bros. Hardware, from 1980 to 1990. He is a member of IHA’s Government Affairs Committee and a member of IHA’s executive networking groups, Chief Officers Reaching Excellence (CORE).

Also serving on the IHA Board are Marty Armstrong; Richard L. Boynton, Jr., president, Jura Capresso, Inc.; Peter B. Cameron, IHA’s Immediate Past President; Sheldon Goodman, president, Spectrum Diversified Designs, Inc.; Keith Jaffee, CEO, Focus Products Group LLC; Michael Karyo, CEO, SiliconeZone; Mary Ann Knaus, sr. vice president, strategic development & global marketing, Jarden Consumer Solutions; Gavin Lam, CEO, Lynns Concepts Inc.; Marc J. Navarre, president/CEO, Groupe SEB North America; and William (Bill) P. Reibl, president/CEO, Progressive International Corp.

Along with Armstrong, also serving on the executive committee of the board are Jeff Siegel, Robert Trudeau, Bruce Kaminstein, Peter Cameron and Barry Harper.

Editors: To download digital photos of the IHA Board of Directors, go to http://www.housewares.org/iha/about/board.aspx