Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Furniture Mart gets new CEO

Leaderless for more than five months, World Market Center today announced a new president and CEO.

Drumroll for...Bob Maricich.

According to a press release, Maricich used to run the Hickory, N.C.-based Century Furniture Industries, one of the "world's largest private owned manufacturers of high-end residential furniture."

He'll lead Las Vegas's permanent furniture trade show, which is set to become the largest wholesale marketplace in the country when its third building opens this summer, and the largest in the world when it's fully built out (Developers are planning 12 buildings/12 million square feet/$3 billion investment).

"World Market Center without question is uniquely positioned to present the most efficient platform and represents the future of the home furnishings industry," Maricich said in a statement.

World Market also announced Monday that its general manager, Dave Palmer, will retire. Palmer has been part of the operation since the beginning and has been in the furniture business for 40 years. No word on whether the two announcements are related.

The Center has been without a CEO since August, when entrenched Las Vegan Harvey Dondero stepped down after less than a year. Rumors at the time suggested that the center was having a tough time attracting furniture dealers to sign up for the third building, but the developers denied that.

Apparently the company's board had been content in the past to do without that top position. A marketing director a few months ago told In Business Las Vegas, our sister publication, that the development went three years without a CEO before Dondero came on board.

So five months is nothing.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy