Howard Brodsky is an American entrepreneur and world leader of Cooperatives. In 1984 he co-founded CCA Global Partners, and has been its Chairman and Chief Executive for the past 33 years. During that time, he built the organization into the largest retail floor covering company in the world, and later diversified the company to create brands in multiple other industries.
Video Howard Brodsky
Early life and education
Brodsky grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire. He attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and graduated in 1966 with a degree in economics. Brodsky paid for his Wesleyan education by selling rugs to fellow students.
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Career
After graduation, Brodsky joined the family business, Dean's Carpet in Manchester, New Hampshire, and became its president. In 1980, he helped to create the American Floor Covering Association, now named the World Floor Covering Association, an international trade advocacy organization representing floor covering retailers, manufacturers and distributors. He was elected president and later served as chairman.
In 1984, Brodsky and his friend Alan D. Greenberg, who was also in the floor covering business, created the company CCA Global Partners, establishing it as a cooperative and launching Carpet One Floor & Home as its first business. Initially, there were thirteen Carpet One Floor & Home stores. Brodsky and Greenberg later expanded into other segments of the floor covering industry. They founded the wholesale division ProSource in 1991, followed by Carpet One Canada and International Design Guild in 1995. CCA Global purchased Flooring America and Flooring Canada in 2000, and then FloorExpo that same year. Soon, the company expanded from carpet into other retail sectors.
In 2017, CCA Global Partners comprises 14 divisional companies with annual sales of $10.8 billion.
Current divisions of CCA Global Partners include Carpet One Floor & Home, Flooring America, Flooring Canada, The Floor Trader, International Design Guild, Lighting One, ProSource, and The Bike Cooperative, totaling over 3,300 retail locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Carpet One, its flagship division, has over 1,000 stores in 50 states and 9 Canadian provinces. The newest company divisions are CCA for Social Good, which serves over 6,500 U.S. child care centers and 1,600 nonprofits; BizUnite, which provides business services for over half a million independent businesses; CCA Sports Retail Services, which helps independent fitness and ski stores compete with national chains; and Innovia Community Management Cooperative, which is a cooperative of home owner associations and management companies across North America.
Brodsky is also the chairman of Cooperatives for a Better World, a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization that aims to increase the number of cooperatives around the globe by 25 percent. Cooperatives for a Better World focuses on the economic and social impact the cooperative business model can have on a local, national, and global level.
Public Appearances
Brodsky speaks and writes on various topics related to business practice. He has been a keynote speaker at the Harvard Business School, the Better Business Bureau Torch Awards, and the 2015 Global Conference of the International Co-operative Alliance in Antalya, Turkey, which coincided with the 2015 G20 Antalya summit. Brodsky traveled to the United Kingdom in March, 2017, to give the keynote address to European business leaders at one of the major retailing events in Europe. Brodsky was the only speaker from the United States to address the Cooperative Retail Conference.
Brodsky has also addressed the XIX Regional Conference of Cooperatives of the Americas in Panama City, Panama, and the 2016 International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec City, Canada. He also keynoted the Rivier College President's Leadership Forum, and Brodsky has been a featured speaker at TedX, and at E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year symposiums and summits in New York City, Boston, and Palm Springs. He has participated in several Chief Executive Magazine CEO Roundtables at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In May 2017, Brodsky was the keynote speaker to America's top cooperative executives at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Brodsky has served as a judge for multiple prestigious business competitions. He has been a national judge for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the United States, and was appointed Chairman of the National Judging Committee for the Ernst & Young Retail and Consumer Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. He has also judged the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Awards, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, the Cooperative Hall of Fame, and the UNH Social Venture Innovation Challenge.
In 2015, Brodsky, along with co-author Dustin S. Klein, published a book, The Unexpected: Breakthrough Strategies to Supercharge Your Business and Earn Loyal Customers for Life, through Smart Business Network.
In 2012, Brodsky was invited to attend the first White House Leader Briefing on Cooperatives. He met with White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other senior Obama administration staff and top federal agency officials to discuss cooperatives in the United States economy.
In March 2012, Brodsky met with Charles, Prince of Wales at Highgrove House, the prince's private residence outside of London. Brodsky was one of a handful of U.S. and U.K. executives to hold private meetings with Prince Charles for his Campaign for Wool, one of the prince's main charities.
In June 2017, Brodsky was interviewed live on Canadian national television at CBC headquarters in Toronto. He appeared on CBC News network's On The Money program with journalist Peter Armstrong to promote the cooperative business model.
Associations
- Founder of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of New Hampshire and chairman for over 18 years
- Founder of the Social Entrepreneurship Student Leadership Program of New Hampshire
- Founder and chairman of the American Floor Covering Association (now known as the World Floor Covering Association)
- Chairman of the Floor Covering Industry Foundation (FCIF)
- Created NonProfit Next, a web-based platform in conjunction with the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits
- Vice Chair of the Governor's Commission on Innovation, Efficiency, and Transparency
- Vice Chairman of the American Cancer Society New England Chapter of CEOs Against Cancer
- Judge and chairman of the National Judging Committee for the North American Entrepreneur of the Year Program
- National Cooperative Business Association Board of Trustees
- Southern New Hampshire University Board of Trustees
- Palace Theatre Board of Trustees. Named one of only four Trustee Emeriti for his lifetime dedication
- Elliot Hospital Board of Trustees
- New Hampshire Institute of Art Board of Trustees
- Incorporator of the Manchester division of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Personal life
Brodsky's wife Joan is a whole health educator. His son Greg is a 1999 Wesleyan graduate and founded CCA Bike and Ski Cooperative groups. His son Jeffrey is an oral historian with an advanced degree from Columbia University. In his free time, Brodsky serves as a justice of the peace. He has performed over 30 wedding ceremonies with no divorces.
Honors and awards
- Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame
- Induction into Cooperative Hall of Fame (2009)
- World Floor Covering Industry Hall of Fame (1992)
- New Hampshire Business Leader of the Year (2012)
- Granite State Legacy Award (2015)
- New Hampshire Business Review Hall of Fame (2011)
- Retail Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and NASDAQ Stock Exchange (1997)
- Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (1998)
- Best Company to Work for by Business New Hampshire Magazine
- New Hampshire Jobs for America's Graduates (NH JAG) Leadership Award (2016)
- Named to HFN's "Power 100" (2004)
- National Retailer of the Year by National Congress Floor Covering Associations (1994)
- USA Weekend Make a Difference Day Awards
- Best New Idea to Change the World
- 2017 "Follow the Footsteps" Award from Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation's Building for America's Bravest
References
External links
- Howard Brodsky Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg Business
- Howard Brodsky Cooperative Hall of Fame Induction
- Howard Brodsky Ireland Entrepreneur of the Year Interview
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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