FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 29, 2008

 

 

CONTACT:
Cara Bernosky, President
IMC Licensing
502.589.7655
cbernosky@imclicensing.com

 

 

 

 

IMC Licensing Announces Panelists for     2008 LICENSING Show Seminars
 

LOUISVILLE, KY – IMC Licensing, the nation’s leading full-service licensing agency specializing in consumer product brands, announced the panelists who will participate in upcoming seminars for Licensing University 2008, moderated by IMC Licensing professionals. Licensing University 2008 is the educational conference for industry professionals to be conducted during the Annual LICENSING International Expo June 10 - 12, 2008 in New York, NY at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

IMC Licensing president and co-founder, Cara K. Bernosky, will serve as moderator for "Food for Thought: Opportunities in Food Licensing," a panel scheduled for Wednesday, June 11, 2008 from 10:45am - 12:15pm. The seminar will present a state of the industry discussion and explore the food and beverage segment of the licensing industry. Joining her will be:

• Lincoln S. Davis, Director, Trademark Licensing at General Mills Inc.

Mr. Davis assumed responsibility for Trademark Licensing activities at General Mills in July of 2005 and has been responsible for repositioning the activity as a strategic business solution for General Mills Marketing Divisions. Under his direction, the business planning process now includes licensing as a fourth alternative in the food product development process by presenting licensing as an alternative to manufacturing, acquiring or contracting for new products or existing product lines.

• Franklin C. Everett, Vice President of Marketing at Matterhorn Ice Cream Inc.

Mr. Everett has been involved with food licensing applications from both the perspective of an advertising agency and a food manufacturer. He has experience using major licenses to “make” a food brand, and to “protect” a food brand. In some extreme situations of competition or crisis, attaching a license as a “shield” to a major food brand can navigate that brand through difficult times. Mr. Everett has spent the last seven years building ice cream and frozen novelty brands with the power of licensing.

Bruce D. Bridges, IMC Licensing vice president, licensing, will serve as moderator for a panel discussing “Product Safety: Reducing Recall Risk When Licensing” scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2008 from 10:45am – 12:15pm. The panel will discuss the effects on the licensing industry and how to mitigate recall risk. His panelists will include:

·      David Simonson, Manager, Solutions Business Development at Bureau Veritas Consumer Products, Inc.

Mr. Simonson has an in-depth understanding of the quality assurance process for the retail and consumer products industry through a variety of Bureau Veritas positions during the past 10 years including managing technical requirements for global client programs and supervising related laboratory testing. His current responsibilities include account management and business development in addition to technical and regulatory services associated with risk management, consultation and client training. Most recently, Mr. Simonson has taken a lead role in establishing risk management programs for leading global licensors. He also is a participating member of the International Consumer Product Health & Safety Organization (ICPHSO) and a member of the American Society of Quality (ASQ).

·       Marie Todd, Senior Vice President at Lotta Luv LLC.

Ms. Todd is Senior Vice President, for Lotta Luv LLC a leading children’s health and beauty aids (HBA) company, where she is responsible for licensing, product development and key account sales. Under her product development responsibilities falls product safety. She coordinates the efforts between retailer’s safety requirements, licensors safety expectations and testing facilities such as Bureau Veritas. Lotta Luv is licensed with over 50 brands, many of them large food and beverage corporations with strict consumer guide lines to follow. Licensors include Hershey’s, Nestle, Wrigley’s and Cadbury Schweppes.

Ms. Bernosky is responsible for managing IMC Licensing’s day-to-day operations. Since co-founding the company in 1997, she has developed wide-ranging portfolios of licensed products for multiple clients and has led the process by which IMC Licensing develops its own portfolio of new clients. She works intimately with clients and internal staff on strategy and the plan by which IMC Licensing will develop licensing portfolios. Ms. Bernosky has published articles in The Licensing Journal and brandchannel.com among others, and has been a featured speaker at leading industry events including Licensing University and LINK. She currently serves on the strategic planning committee for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA), the trade organization of the licensing industry. Before joining IMC Licensing, Ms. Bernosky worked for International Sports Marketing, Inc. where she represented professional athletes in licensing and other transactions, for Network International and for the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club. She received a B.A. in Communication from Chatham College.

 

Mr. Bridges is responsible for developing and managing licensing programs for the corporate trademarks and brands that IMC Licensing represents. He is also responsible for developing and managing the company’s licensing professionals in the conduct of this work. Mr. Bridges has been a featured speaker at industry events including the International Consumer Product Health & Safety Organization (ICPHSO) Symposium and the Society for Product Licensors Committed to Excellence (SPLiCE) as an expert on quality standards and best practices among licensors. He has participated at the FMI-SQF (Safe Quality Food) Institute International Conference where the discussion centered on consumer confidence in the food supply and what all stakeholders in the global food market need to do to maintain that confidence. Before joining IMC Licensing, Mr. Bridges was a Business Development Manager for Intel Corporation where he specialized in moving new technology from the labs into the marketplace through internal and external licensing deals. He also has entertainment and consulting industry experience. Mr. Bridges received a B.S. in Management from the University of Texas, a B.S. in Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University and a Marketing M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee.

 

ABOUT IMC LICENSING

IMC Licensing leads the industry with its focused and innovative approach to brand-building through licensing. We turn the world’s best consumer product brands into great new consumer products.

IMC Licensing represents Kraft Foods, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., Lenox and Valvoline among others. For more information, please visit www.imclicensing.com.

ABOUT LICENSING INTERNATIONAL EXPO

LICENSING International Expo is sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA), the worldwide trade association for the licensing industry. LIMA hosts the Licensing University Conference program as well as the LIMA Awards for Excellence in conjunction with LICENSING International Expo. For more information about LICENSING International Expo, please visit www.licensingexpo.com.

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