Meet Our Consultants

Dr. Brian Beakler has been serving the wood products and flooring industries for over 20 years. He is the Owner of Beakler Consulting Services, one of the only technical service consulting companies focused on innovation and product development for wood and hybrid flooring products. Beakler Consulting Services is focused on supporting global manufacturers, trade associations, law firms and other users needing support on technical issues. He and his technical associates support a wide range of needs including technical intelligence, quality systems development, product development and claims resolution.

Dr. Beakler is widely considered one of the wood flooring industries leading technical experts in the construction, performance, testing and analysis of engineered, hybrid rigid and solid wood flooring. For many years, Dr. Beakler has influenced standards development for engineered and solid wood flooring. In his many roles with Armstrong Flooring, he had the responsibility of leading the North American installation training network, managing product development and innovation as well as the testing and analytical teams. In his time with Armstrong, Dr. Beakler’s contributions resulted in over 2 billion dollars in revenue.

Over 20 years as an active participant in the flooring industry, Dr. Beakler has several patents and multiple research and industry-related publications. His academic background is in drying hardwood lumber and is well-known for his baseline research in emissions from hardwood dry kilns. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association (now Decorative Hardwoods Association) and has held multiple board appointments for industry and academic groups.

Mitchell Dancik was founder and President of Dancik International, Ltd., which is now part of Kerridge Commercial Systems. Dancik (and now Kerridge) have continued to be the leading provider of software to the floor covering, ceramic tile, and natural stone industries. Mitch has spent 30 years working with more than 130 leading flooring companies, specializing in systems that work seamlessly for the entire supply chain. Today, more than half of all the hard-surface flooring sold in North America is processed by Dancik software at some point on its journey from the plant to the home.

As a consultant with the Floor Covering Institute, Mitch contributes his expertise in automating operations and connecting customers, distributors, and suppliers through technology. Mitch has considerable experience working with industry organizations, including the Bravo Distributor Group, the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD), the Ceramic Tile Distributors Association (CTDA) and the Floor Covering Business to Business Association (fcB2B). Mitch is semi-retired, spending time producing and recording music at his studio and record label, as well as speaking about flooring software opportunities.

Stuart Hirschhorn is the founder of Catalina Research, Inc. which provides in-depth analysis of construction materials and the building equipment markets including floor covering. Stuart’s experience as a research analyst began in 1969. He has continued in this genre for over 40 years becoming one of the country’s most prominent resources for the flooring and the
greater home construction industries.
The Catalina Report is a core industry resource that incorporates U.S. government and proprietary business statistics and includes analysis and forecasting for shipments, imports, exports, pricing trends, end-use markets, channels and more.
Stuart works closely with leading flooring manufacturers and distributors to analyze sales trends, import/export opportunities, distribution channel strategies and plant cost structure. Stuart has been a speaker at leading trade shows including the annual Surfaces show in Las Vegas, Nevada and was a featured speaker at the 2007 China Wood Flooring Export Import Conference in Hangzhou, China.

For over 48 years Lew Migliore has been associated with the floor covering industry. Challenges, experience, successes and opportunities servicing floor coverings lead to his developing a unique business model in the technical and educational segment of the industry, by determining and solving problems.

Lew Migliore is considered to be the floor covering industries’ most respected and competent independent, objective and unbiased analyst of complaints, problems and performance issues and is a uniquely qualified speaker, author and instructor on the subject. His services are rendered in an honest and impartial manner to determine if and what problems exist, who or what is at fault, and why and determining resolutions. He deals with a multitude of floor covering problems including, but not limited to, those related to manufacturing, specification, installation, performance, use and maintenance.

Lew has written a variety of specifications, manuals, articles and policies to prevent or resolve claims for clients and end users. Lew is the author and publisher of “The Commercial Flooring Report” a monthly newsletter distributed to tens of thousands of readers nationwide. Lew and his team of flooring experts are considered to be the “Go To” guys in the flooring industry.

Chris Ramey is president of The Home Trust International and Affluent Insights.  He partners in consulting for retailers in North America via Retail-Rescue.  His efforts for brands in Europe, South America and Asia is through The American Marketing Group www.theamericanmarketinggroup.com.

Ramey is an often-quoted authority in the luxury segment. He is considered one of America’s foremost authorities on luxury as a business model, as well as marketing and selling to the affluent,.

The Home Trust International is a platform for high net worth families where they find the world’s finest products and services for their homes. Members of The Home Trust know it as an aggressive technology-driven marketing services firm hyper-focused on helping them penetrate the affluent market.

Ramey is a professional speaker and consultant who works closely with companies across all market positions and industries. Ramey keynotes for manufacturers, distributors, retailers and  industry associations where he teaches branding, loyalty, marketing, luxury, affluent consumers, market-changes and selling skills with take-aways their attendees can implement their first day back.

As a consultant, Ramey provides pragmatic insights and guidance to retailers, distributors and manufacturers gained by his expertise across many categories and many dozens of clients.

Ramey has worked for carpet manufacturers and retailers.  He opened his own successful floor covering retail showroom at 28 and sold it at 40.  Ramey was President at two CCA Global Partners’ retail portfolio brands. He sat on the Executive Committee for American Floor Covering Association and World Floor Covering Association.

Ramey’s background includes president of The Luxury Marketing Council Miami and The Luxury Marketing Council Palm Beach, President and Founder of Savvi Formalwear, and President of International Design Guild.

Ramey is a member of National Speakers Association and he has earned the ‘Top 5% appellation from Gerson-Lehrman for his work with private equity firms investing in home and luxury segments. Ramey also sits on the Retail Wire BrainTrust panel

Ramey is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His wife and he reside in Palm Beach County, Florida, they have two grown children.

Christine Whittemore is Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now – a marketing expert with over 25-years’ experience in the floor covering, home furnishings and apparel industries.

Whether working alongside clients to ensure that content supports marketing and sales goals and tracking those goals, refocusing website content to be more SEO-friendly, or implementing lead generation software tools, Whittemore’s mission is to ensure her clients’ content strategy delivers contacts and prospects.

Whittemore writes the Floor Focus Magazine Social Savvy column. She is a past Floor Covering Weekly columnist and frequent contributor to Floor Covering News. Outside the flooring industry, she has written for MarketingProfs.com, the Content Marketing Institute, and her own blogs, the first of which she launched in 2006.

Past industry experiences include Director of In Store Innovation for Wear-Dated carpet fiber and Director of the Wear-Dated Upholstery acrylic fiber business. She is a prolific writer and speaker heard on topics such as marketing to women, improving the retail experience, social media marketing, inbound marketing and more.