Summer Infant names new CEO

MARK MESSNER has been named the new president and CEO of Summer Infant Inc., effective July 13.
MARK MESSNER has been named the new president and CEO of Summer Infant Inc., effective July 13.

WOONSOCKET – Summer Infant Inc. has named a new president and CEO, Mark Messner, who will replace current President and CEO Robert Stebenne effective July 13.
The infant and juvenile product maker said Stebenne will remain a member of the company’s board of directors.
Messner, 50, most recently served as CEO of Artsana USA Inc., a manufacturer of baby care products under the Chicco brand, overseeing finance, operations, marketing, e-commerce, product development and sales for the United States and Canada. Messner joined Artsana USA in 2003 as vice president of marketing and product development and also served as its chief operating officer for three years before taking over as CEO four years ago. He began his career with Graco Children’s Products in 1991.
“Mark is a passionate and customer-focused leader whose experience in building brands and creating innovative products will help drive Summer Infant’s next stage of growth,” Dan Almagor, chairman of Summer Infant’s board of directors, said in a statement. “Over his 13-year career at Artsana USA, Mark built a strong team and culture of creativity and product development. I am delighted that Mark will be at the helm of Summer Infant as we build on the great progress recently achieved. We also want to express our sincere appreciation to Bob Stebenne for guiding the company through a challenging period this past year. Through his efforts, Bob created significant positive momentum for Summer Infant, which Mark can leverage to expand the company’s market presence and capitalizes on new growth opportunities.”
Stebenne said Messner is “clearly the ideal choice” to lead the company. Messner said he is excited to join the company.
“Summer Infant has a strong portfolio of core brands, a successful track record of new product development, and global growth potential,” Messner said.

As part of his employment offer, Messner was granted an option to purchase 100,000 shares of the company’s common stock, with an exercise price equal to the closing price of the company’s common stock on the date of grant, 50,000 shares of restricted stock and a performance-based restricted stock unit award of up to 100,000 restricted stock units.
Subject to Messner’s continued service with the company, his stock option and restricted stock awards will each vest in equal annual installments over a four-year period beginning on the first anniversary of the date of grant.
The performance-based restricted stock unit award will vest upon the achievement of a specified adjusted EBITDA margin in each of fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018, with 50,000 units vesting if the specified margin is achieved in fiscal year 2017 and 50,000 units vesting if the specified margin is achieved in fiscal year 2018, Summer Infant said.
Summer Infant has been embroiled in a lawsuit since last spring when it sued former CEO Carol Bramson, as well as two other former company executives and company consultants in federal court, alleging theft and misappropriation of trade secrets. Summer Infant said they were trying to create a competing company.
Summer Infant has since reached a confidential settlement with two defendants who were former company consultants.
In its first-quarter earnings report, the company saw its loss increase 37.6 percent to $333,000, or 2 cents per diluted share, from a loss of $242,000, or 1 cent per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2015.

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