Chairman of the Board of Directors and Interim CEO
Mark Genender is the Chairman of our Board of Directors and Interim CEO at Serta Simmons Bedding. Mark is also a Managing Partner at Bristol Growth Capital, LLC, a growth and early-stage investor in the consumer/retail and media and technology sectors. Genender previously served in senior investment roles at Eldridge Industries and in the same role at the predecessor entity, Guggenheim Partners.
Prior to joining Guggenheim, Genender was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Red Mountain Capital, co-founded Star Avenue Capital, a consumer growth equity vehicle, and served as a Managing Director/Partner at Fenway Partners. While at Fenway Partners, Genender served as a Director on the Simmons Bedding Board, working very closely with management.
Genender received his A.B. from Princeton University and received his M.B.A. from INSEAD.
Chief Sales Officer
Dominick (Dom) Azevedo is the Chief Sales Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB). In this role, Dom oversees SSB’s commercial operations across North America.
Dom joined SSB in June 2023, bringing more than 30 years of bedding marketing, merchandising, and sales experience to the company. He most recently served as VP of Merchandising and New Business Development at City Mattress, a regional mattress retailer with a presence in Florida and New York. Prior to that, he held several additional senior leadership roles in the industry including EVP of Sales and Marketing at E.S. Kluft & Company and CEO and President of Advanced Sleep Concepts.
Dom’s appointment to Chief Sales Officer of SSB marks his return to the company. Earlier in his career, he spent more than a decade at Simmons Bedding Company in various sales leadership positions ultimately serving as EVP of Sales, overseeing the division.
Dom attended Jersey City State College and completed the Executive Retail Management Training Program at High Point University.
Chief Operations Officer
Robert (Rob) Burch is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Serta Simmons Bedding. In this role, Rob is responsible for leading all aspects of the operations team, including the company’s manufacturing network.
Rob brings decades of operations leadership experience to SSB. He previously served as Executive Vice President of Operations for Simmons Bedding Company responsible for manufacturing, logistics and sourcing, and new product development. In this role, he architected the Simmons Production System – with a focus on lean manufacturing – which drove significant improvements in lead times, quality, and cost performance.
Rob came to SSB from Kindel Grand Rapids Furniture Company, a luxury residential furniture brand, where he served as President and CEO and led a turnaround strategy to reenergize its brands. He began his career at Steelcase Inc., a leading global producer of office furniture, where he spent more than 25 years in positions of increasing responsibility across product development and North American manufacturing. Throughout his career, Rob has also held senior leadership roles at several management consulting companies.
Rob holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. He is also certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM).
Chief Legal Officer & Secretary
Kristen McGuffey is the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB). In her role, Kristen oversees all legal responsibilities for SSB’s operations, as well as corporate governance, compliance, intellectual property, litigation and privacy. Kristen become Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of SSB in 2010 following the merger of Serta and Simmons. Previously, she held the same role at Simmons, which she first joined in 2001 as Vice President, General Counsel and Assistant Secretary.
Prior to joining Simmons, Kristen was Executive Vice President, General Counsel at Viewlocity, a global supply chain management software company. Before that role, she served as a Partner at Morris, Manning & Martin in its Technology Law Practice. Earlier in her career, Kristen was an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker, where she worked on corporate legal and litigation matters.
Kristen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Kettering Institute (formerly GMI Engineering Management Institute), a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.
Chief Human Resources Officer
Esther Ni is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB). In this role, Esther is responsible for all human resources functions including compensation and benefits, diversity, equity and inclusion, employee culture and engagement, leadership development, organizational design and talent management. She joined SSB in 2019 and has held a variety of leadership roles most recently serving as Senior Vice President of HR for the company’s operations division.
Esther came to SSB from Acuity Brands, an industrial technology company that provides lighting solutions, where she served as Vice President of HR among other HR leadership roles. Esther began her career in HR working at Target and General Mills.
Esther earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Chief Marketing Officer
Tim Oakhill is the Chief Marketing Officer of Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB). In this role, Tim is responsible for leading the SSB portfolio of brands, along with brand marketing strategy and activation, insights, creative and media. He also oversees the company’s licensing business.
Tim rejoined SSB in July 2023, having previously served in several marketing leadership roles at Simmons Bedding from 1998 – 2011, culminating in his role as Chief Marketing Officer. While in this role, Tim drove significant growth of the product and brand platforms including the development of the non-flip product design that ultimately changed the entire industry, and the introduction of Beautyrest Black collection.
Tim is a seasoned marketer with extensive experience building brands and driving product development in the bedding industry. Tim founded one of the industry’s first direct-to-consumer brands, Yogabed. He also served as EVP, Brand Management at Mattress Firm.
Outside the bedding industry, Tim has held several additional senior marketing leadership roles including as Chief Marketing Officer at Cenergistic, an environmental services company that partners with organizations ranging from educational institutions to healthcare companies to facilitate utility saving, and as Worldwide Chief Marketing Strategist at IBM Watson Marketing.
Tim earned his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of South Carolina and his M.B.A from the University of Virginia.
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