As President, Steve creates, directs, and leads the company’s strategic and tactical plans to advance the mission of the International Design Guild. He develops and monitors company objectives to maintain brand strength, brand differentiation, and position that promotes member profitability and loyalty while consistently generating increased corporate revenue, profitability, and long-term growth under the cooperative organization format. Steve provides leadership to our members and our corporate staff based on a collaborative, stewardship style of communication and management.
Steve is a 30-year veteran of the flooring industry, most recently as the Vice President of Hard Surfaces – Residential Team at Shaw Industries. His industry knowledge and experience in leadership, business development and growth, as well as strategic planning and execution, merely skim the surface of the depth of expertise he brings to CCA. He received his Bachelor of Science in business, with a focus in marketing, from Miami University in Oxford, OH.
Nancy Trafford began her career at CCA Global in 2004 as a business consultant for the Northeast region. She was later promoted to senior business consultant and then became director of the business consultant group and a member of the executive team in early 2006. In 2012, Nancy was promoted to Vice-President of Member Services.
Trafford’s responsibilities include the management of eight regional business consultants and two member specialists. She describes the role of her department as the frontline to the membership. Her team works with the members in order to help them maximize the use of the many programs, services and products available to them in order to make the most of their membership.
Through the relationships built with our members, the business consultants gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of each business’s operations and help them work towards the goal of increasing retail-store growth and profitability.
Frank comes to CCA Global with over 20 years of successful marketing and brand-building initiatives on both the brand and agency side. He is considered an innovative and creative marketing thought leader specializing in the creation of strategic digital, traditional and brand-building lead generation programs.
Frank partnered with major brands like Zappos, Century 21 and Staples from his agency life; and held several roles of increasing responsibility with The Yankee Candle Company, a vertically integrated American manufacturer and retailer of scented candles and accessories. Additionally, Frank has worked for brands like Ace Hardware, Carpet One Floor & Home and Key Bank, all focused on consumer marketing initiatives.
Frank Chiera has always been passionate about marketing, technology and family businesses. As a boy, he looked forward to going on sales and repair calls with his dad, who owned a watch, clock and antique jewelry repair business. Back then, as people were replacing fine windup timepieces with battery operated movements, it was Frank’s dad who taught him the value of articulating quality, craftsmanship and brand storytelling. His customers relied on him to provide a service that they couldn’t do on their own. Growing up in a family business also meant Frank always fought for the underdog and rooted for local businesses.
In his current role as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising, Frank leads all marketing initiatives and is also responsible for developing a new business initiative within CCA Global Partners called Drive, a marketing automation platform made available to CCA members as well as independent retailers outside of CCA Global Partners.
Frank resides in Southern New Hampshire and is the proud dad to twins Luca and Willamia and can be found tinkering with classic cars on the weekend.
As Vice President of digital marketing, Andrew is a results-driven, innovative leader with demonstrated world class interactive retail marketing and social media skills. He possesses extensive hands-on expertise in search engine marketing, customer acquisition, conversion optimization and social media marketing and offers the unique ability to develop visionary interactive solutions that yield a high rate of return and success.
Andrew’s marketing and advertising experience spans over thirteen years, he has been with CCA Global Partners since 2005. During this time he has maintained a broad skill set and served in several areas of marketing and advertising for the co-operative. Since 2009 he has lead CCA’s Internet marketing efforts to drive leads and sales through online initiatives to member stores. Prior to joining CCA, Andrew managed the co-op advertising program for California Products and was a field marketing manager for Newell Rubbermaid. He has a bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Massachusetts.
In his free time, Andrew enjoys spending time with his wife Barbara and their three children, they reside outside of Boston.
Cathey Gundlach Links started working with ProSource as Director of Hard Surface in May 2006. Over the course of four years, she successfully developed a number of innovative programs and was promoted to Senior Buyer for Hard Surfaces in March 2010. Her responsibilities grew to include sourcing hard surface products to be utilized throughout all of the CCA divisions. In 2012, Gundlach Links was named Vice President of Hard Surface Flooring, where she further developed strong relationships with core suppliers and expanded her knowledge of the entire hard surface category. Most recently, she was promoted to VP of Merchandising for Flooring America/Flooring Canada, The Floor Trader, and International Design Guild.
Gundlach Links’ passion and drive are both infectious and inspiring. Her accomplishments and contributions are eclipsed only by the respect she gives and receives in the relationships she’s built with members, suppliers, and coworkers.
Bill Hosner is a veteran of the floor covering industry. As a former CCA Global Partner’s member with four locations, he understands what it takes to run independent family-owned flooring stores.
After working the family business and before his employment with CCA Global, Bill served as Regional Manager for Mohawk Industries. Bill primarily helps grow your coop by finding new members. Do you know of a retailer that would be a good member? Please reach out to Bill to learn what’s in it for you.
Heather got into floor covering the old fashioned way, she married into it. She worked with her husband and in-laws for 15 years in their Flooring America store. While there, she was a very engaged CCA member and spent time on the Advisory Council and was a neighborhood network Captain.
After making a choice of saving one relationship over the other, Heather then moved on to work with a north east tile distributor as a retail wholesale rep, servicing retail flooring stores in three states. Having missed being a part of the Flooring America family, Heather is now working with CCA Global Partners in our membership department looking for strong independent retailers to join our coop.
