For the Week of March 24th

Management Changes:

W.A.C. Lighting (Garden City, N.Y., lighting designer and manufacturer) has named Chas Bernstein vp, sales and marketing. Bernstein will oversee the firm's national sales force and marketing programs, as well as work on product development.

Arlon (Santa Ana, Calif., film and substrate manufacturer) has added Lisa Marshall as regional sales manager for the West. Marshall will be responsible for developing and coordinating sales activities, technical support and market assistance to Arlon distributors and sign shops.

Drytac Corp. (Richmond, Va., mounting, laminating and finishing materials manufacturer and distributor) has named Michael Chavez regional sales manager for its West Coast region. Chavez will be responsible for sales and technical support in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Display Technologies (College Point, N.Y., p-o-p designer and manufacturer) has appointed Leslie Tannenbaum executive vp, operations and finance, and Marshall Goldberg executive vp, sales and marketing. Tannenbaum, who most recently served as cfo, will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the production, creative, project management, logistics, quality control, financial, administrative and information technology departments. Goldberg, who was executive vp, general manager of bulk merchandising systems, will oversee national sales and marketing efforts for Display Technologies'Total Merchandising Group.

DuPont Textiles & Interiors (DTI, Wilmington, Del., integrated fiber business) has reorganized its marketing team with the following appointments: Georgina Sikorski to marketing manager for DuPont Commercial Flooring; Deborah Carlson, brand and communications manager for DuPont(TM) Antron(R); and Amy Huliska to marketing/communications specialist.

Mergers/Acquisitions:

Gammapar (Forest, Va., hardwood flooring manufacturer) has announced it will acquire PermaGrain Products (Newtown Square, Pa., impregnated wood flooring manufacturer), which filed for bankruptcy in December. Through the acquisition, the companies will continue to operate separately and Gammapar intends to retain the PermaGrain sales and production team.

Business Briefs:

PAVE (St. Louis Planning and Visual Education Partnership) has opened its Exhibition Graphics Lab in the Display & Exhibit Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The state-of-the-art facility was designed to encourage students to study in the field of retail design and planning and visual merchandising. A federal grant funded the purchase of computers, an iBook, licensing for software, a cinemawide-format display monitor, a vinyl-cut signage maker, scanners and other printing and photographic equipment. In addition, PAVE donated materials provided by Innovant LLC, Richardson & Associates, Trim Corp. of America, Nautica Retail USA, Robert M. Weiss & Co., GMG Design Inc., B Free Designs and True Visual Inc.

Disrud & Associates (Healdsburg, Calif., interior design/architecture firm) is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The firm, which was established by Carol Disrud, former vp and project director at Gensler and Associates, has a staff of seven, including five interior designers and an architect.

Chief Manufacturing Inc. (Savage, Minn., presentation systems designer and manufacturer) has entered into a distribution partnership with CineLight Corp. (Poulsbo, Wa., wholesale distributor of advanced home theater technologies) to provide mounting solutions for flat panel displays for the home theater market.

Hunt Design Associates (Pasadena, Calif., graphic design firm) recently celebrated its 25th year in business. Among the firm's clients are Disney, MCA/Universal, Samsung and the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.