Executive Leadership

 

 Karen Powell    , CEO

Few understand the significance of the phrase "If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t get done!” better than Karen Powell    , CEO of the nation’s second largest interior decorating franchise, Decor&You. Karen views Decor&You as the ideal opportunity for businesspeople with extraordinary spirit who want to be their own boss and find the courage to be master of their own success.  Read more about Karen Powell    

 Brian Miller, COO and President of Decor&You

Brian Miller has over 20 years experience in the Human Resources, Recruitment and Training and Development Fields. In addition, Brian has extensive sales background in Business to Business and Major Account Sales. Brian has designed numerous, creative Human Capital programs to solve the staffing needs of very diverse companies. He has extensive training experience using state of the art technology such as Virtual Classrooms and e-learning. Brian has been a guest speaker on both television and
                         radio.

 

 Paul Pieschel, Vice President for Franchise Development 

Paul Pieschel brings 30 years of experience in the franchise industry to Decor&You. He joined the company in 2001 to develop the franchise sales operation and guide its growth. He became vice president of the sales division in 2004. Paul previously spent three years with TES Franchising, LLC in Southbury, Conn., and was formerly senior vice president for franchise development with Moto Photo Inc. in Dayton, Ohio.

 

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Corporate Advisors

 

 Mary Gilliatt, International Design Advisor

The influence of Mary Gilliatt and her treasury of design industry resource books, nearing 40 volumes, permeates Decor&You with the authenticity of great design and a global point of view. Mary first became associated with the franchise in its earliest days, when she joined as Design Director. The Decorating Book, published in 1981, helped secure Mary’s position of international fame and has since been translated into eight languages and sold three million copies worldwide. In 2004 she published Mary Gilliatt’s Dictionary of Architecture & Interior Design, an essential desk reference for anyone who works in or writes about the engaging world of design.

Mary Gilliatt currently sits on the advisory board of the leading design school in America, the New York School of Interior Design.  Decor&You is fortunate to have Mary Gilliatt on its training faculty, where each year she teaches several classes of trainees. Mary also consults year-round with Decor&You franchisees on individual client decorating plans, to enhance capabilities and maximize beautiful results.

 

Mary’s accomplishments in the world of design are truly exceptional. Consult our authoritative, three-page biography that details the evolution of her career, her high profile clientele, and the full compendium of her published books (1965 to present).  Read more about Mary Gilliatt 

   


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National Training Center Faculty 

 

Linda T. Gottlieb, National Training Manager

 

Linda Gottlieb is national manager of Decor&You training programs and a trend-setter in corporate training and motivation who has developed dozens of training curricula and led hundreds of workshops during her career. Linda joined Decor&You in 2006, to continue the effort to modernize and restructure training programs in line with the needs of a fast-growing franchise with more than 100 owners.

 

Linda holds a BS in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Instructional Design. She is a member of the American Institute of Fitness Educators and holds multiple industry certifications from IDEA, ACE and AFAA. She is the first corporate trainer in Connecticut to become nationally certified through the Cooper Institute for the Active Living Every Day behavior change program.

 

   

Jo Ann Brezette
Jo Ann Brezette is a leading national authority, trainer, and author in the window fashions industry.  She lectures throughout North America and has published numerous articles on sales and marketing in the nation’s window fashion magazines. She is author of Selling to the Limit, a practical guide to in-home sales of window fashions, used by educational institutions throughout the U.S.

 

Decor&You named a national award in Jo Ann’s honor at its 2006 annual conference, to emphasize the value she has contributed to the company, as well as the profession.

 

As a trainer, Jo Ann impresses with her relaxed style and powerful anecdotes. Jo Ann currently serves as lead instructor at the Exciting Windows! Window Coverings University.  For Decor&You, Jo Ann appears at the national conference each year to lead sell-out audiences in successful techniques for selling, marketing and designing for clients in the in-home business setting.

  

 

Ed Schultek

Ed Schultek is president of Sandler Sales Institute for Western Connecticut, founded in 2004. Ed has decades of experience in sales for multinational corporations leading the business world, such as Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo International. At Pepsi for more than 20 years, he built and led the company’s first international sales organization.

 

Ed is the ultimate sales trainer for people who aren’t comfortable selling. His approach hinges on looking at sales as the "art of matching what your customer needs with something of value that you have to offer.” Ed’s expertise lies in sales reorganization and professional sales training and improve their close ratios – by becoming better "customer listeners.”

Ed’s training for Decor&You embraces role-playing, coupled with techniques to change both attitude and behavior, with emphasis on sales as a customer-driven experience.

  

 

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Our Founder

 

Karen Powell    , along with business partners who she met while managing a top-ten ranking sales team for Transdesigns (a national home decorating company) launched their own independent interior decorating business called Décor & More, in 1995. It was concluded that this business concept would best be implemented by a network of franchisees, who would function as full-time entrepreneurs, committed to growing and developing individual decorating businesses to their fullest potential. Franchising also offered a proven path for the partners to expand nationally and internationally while protecting and building the brand and securing the integrity of the system. The partners set to work perfecting systems and training programs, developing a replicable system for decorators or managers to open, operate, and build successful interior decorating businesses.

On that basis, in January 1998, that perfected interior decorating business system was franchised with the establishment of the Decor&You®, Inc. Franchise Program. The structure of Decor&You responded robustly to economic trends in the 90’s and the nature of the changing workforce in the decorating industry.

In less than a decade the company grew to merit inclusion among the top 500 franchise opportunities in the U.S., for four years in a row, as ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine. Today, Decor&You stands as the second largest interior decorating products and services franchise in the U.S., with more than 100 decorators in 30 states.