Even though I know that my bio is printed in today’s program, I would like to take a few moments to tell you a little more about my family and myself. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1971. One week after graduation, my wife, Cindy, and I were married and next year, we will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.
We live in Atlanta, Georgia and have three grown children, Jennifer, Stephanie and Chuck. Jennifer is a graduate of Baylor University, is married and lives in Dallas, Texas. She is a Christian recording artist and owns her own company called "Pathways Music."
Our younger daughter, Stephanie, is a graduate of SMU and lives in Hollywood, California and is pursuing an acting career. Our youngest, Chuck, is a junior at the University of Georgia.
My wife is also in college at 50 years old and is completing her degree in Interior Design.
I mentioned Cindy and the kids because in life, we really only play three games - that of a parent, a partner and a professional. If you foul up your responsibility as a parent or make a mistake selecting a partner, you may well spend the rest of your life trying to recover from these choices.
The easiest game to change is one’s profession, and it is for this very reason I am making this point early in my comments this afternoon.
Over the past 30 years, I have had the honor and pleasure to lead five companies, ranging in sales from $75 million to $1.3 billion.
In January of this year, I joined Simmons. If I could take a moment, I would like to tell you a little bit about our fine company.
Simmons was founded in 1871 and is the eighth oldest corporation in the state of Georgia. We are the number one branded bedding manufacturer in the world and the number two manufacturer in the United States. Our sales this year will exceed $700 million. We have 18 plants located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.