Jonathan Adler, the home decor, furniture and lifestyle company, has named Alison Bergen its new president.
Jonathan Adler has been owned by American Exchange Group and Consortium Brand Partners since December 2024.
Bergen, who reports to Alen Mamrout, founder and chief executive officer of American Exchange Group, succeeds Mary Beth Sheridan, who has left the company.
Bergen was CEO of Aerosoles from 2018 to 2022, and then served as a board member until 2023. She led Aerosoles’ sale to AEG and later advised GF Capital, where she was a fractional operating partner on the Jonathan Adler brand, giving her a strong understanding of Adler’s business model. She has also worked as interim CEO of P448 and has held numerous merchandising roles at such companies as Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and Diane von Furstenberg.
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“Jonathan and the team have built a brand with an unparalleled emotional connection,” said Bergen. “The next step is to preserve that connection while making the aesthetic more accessible in strategic, thoughtful ways.”
Jonathan Adler, founder and chief creative officer of his namesake brand, added, “Alison is smart, experienced and truly understands our brand and the marketplace. I’m so excited to work with her to spread the JA mission: bringing modern American glamour to every home.”
In an interview with Bergen and Adler, they spoke about various opportunities to grow the Jonathan Adler brand.
“It’s a brand that has so much potential and we haven’t even come close to reaching it,” said Bergen. “I think it’s a very pure brand in a lot of ways, and know there’s a lot of love for the brand. I think it’s just really in need of a leader to provide focus. I think when you have a brand that’s so fun and so emotionally driven, both from the design side and the consumer side, it’s a very emotional purchase,” she said.
Jonathan Adler products run the gamut from furniture, lighting and pottery to decor and pillows, bath, games and gifts, in vibrant colors and bold graphics.
Bergen believes she has the right personality for the job and described her “right and left brain kind of experience, both as an operator with a lot of P&L responsibility and track record.” She said she would definitely identify as a “want-to-be creative emergent, who has a long history of working with founders and creative directors to make their vision live, but live in a way that is commercially viable and provides for long-term prosperity,” said Bergen, who holds an MBA from Stanford University. Her main priority will be to focus the assortments, she said.
Jonathan Adler, which has reduced its retail footprint, currently has seven freestanding stores — two in New York City and one each in London, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and Miami.
Going forward, they are thinking about what retail 2.0 will look like, and whether they open localized, potentially different types of models, such as small-gifting focused stores or cash-and-carry units.
In addition to their own freestanding stores, Jonathan Adler also sells Bloomingdale’s, as well as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. “We’re back in a good place with them,” said Bergen, about the latter three.
Asked what Bergen brings to the table, Adler said, “Alison and I are very aligned on continuing to focus on reinforcing the authenticity of the craftsmanship, which is the heritage of the brand and certainly my passion. And continuing to communicate, while doing all the business stuff and operational things that are required.
“With any high-end business the challenge is running the company and staying true to my and our vision. She is uniquely placed to be able to do both those things. She gets it on a taste level and she gets it on a numbers and operations level. I met a zillion people, and she was the one, like Neo in ‘The Matrix,'” he continued.
In discussing what particular areas they’d like to grow, Adler said he’d like to continue growing wholesale, retail, licensing and e-commerce. “It’s just more of each,” he said. While they declined to reveal which categories they’d still like to enter, Bergen said Consortium Brand Partners is working with CAA on the licensing side of the business.
As for bestselling categories, Bergen said, “Our games, decor and accessories are on fire. We can’t keep it in stock. Our biggest challenge has been just getting our inventory levels right and staying in stock in our bestsellers.”
The games category includes mahjong and backgammon boards and cards. “She is hosting, she’s having game night. What is she serving the appetizers on? How is she setting that table? What vase did she select?” Bergen said they have a huge gifting business, which they see developing into specific key items.
The brand also has an expansive showroom in New York. “Our wholesale market ran a bit more on a fluid calendar, and we would leave the store downtown, our flagship store, to engage our wholesale partners. And now we actually have a much larger showroom here [1375 Broadway], and are catching up to a more traditional buying calendar. So we can really bring in buyers earlier and work with them on a longer lead time to more acutely home in on their specific needs and show them the world of Jonathan in a space that is a little bit more expansive,” said Bergen.