Derse, a complete face-to-face marketing company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Preston to president effective Jan. 1. The appointment comes on the back of another strong year of organizational and revenue growth for Derse.
Preston, formerly Derse’s senior vice president, has been with the company for 11 years and is a 33-year veteran of the face-to-face industry. He has been instrumental in formalizing and advancing Derse’s corporate sales and marketing functions.
Preston will succeed Brett Haney as company president. Haney previously held the role of Derse president and CEO. Haney will maintain his position as Derse CEO moving forward.
“We have previously kept the CEO and president positions combined under one role,” says Haney. “With ambitions for future company growth, we separated the roles, with one person occupying the CEO position focused on establishing long-term growth strategies and another person occupying the president position dedicated to managing and transforming the day-to-day responsibilities supporting those strategies. This decision was a substantial shift for the company meant to ensure that Derse is successful well into the future.
“Our executive team led a thorough eight-month vetting process of internal and external candidates,” Haney continues. “After rounds of interviews and careful consideration, we selected Eric based on his leadership in driving company profitability, dedication to the well-being of Derse employees, and his extensive industry experience. I am thrilled to partner with Eric and I am confident he will contribute to our business operations in a way that brings our company vision to life.”
Preston’s focus in 2020 will be on implementing new technologies and processes to optimize the alignment of sales, creative and operations functions, as well as establishing ways to take advantage of larger growth opportunities in Derse’s events, international and marketing environments markets.
“Derse is in a fortunate position of having a diverse client base, exceptional talent, strong brand recognition, and outstanding support from a committed ownership team,” says Preston. “I’m eager to leverage my breadth of experience to take our position of strength and continue to evolve the organization in a way that best serves our clients and our employees.”
Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisc., Derse is a complete face-to-face marketing agency and exhibit builder with more than 475 employees and six full-service divisions. For more than 70 years, Derse has created award-winning exhibits, events and environments for client programs in more than 50 countries, and is consistently recognized as one of Deloitte’s Wisconsin 75 largest and most successful privately held companies in the state. Experiences Matter at Derse. For more info, visit derse.com.
