Award Celebrates the Success and Accomplishments of South Florida C-Suite Leaders
BOCA RATON, Fla (November 30, 2015) — Eric Lebersfeld, president and chief marketing officer of Capitol Lighting was presented the South Florida Business & Wealth magazine’s coveted 2015 Apogee Award. Lebersfeld accepted the award with hundreds of South Florida C-level business professionals, community leaders, entrepreneurs and young ‘up & comers’ in attendance at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale,
The awards, which were inaugurated in 2014, celebrate the success of leaders in the categories of chairman/chairwoman, CEO, president, chief operating officer, chief marketing officer, chief financial officer, chief information officer, and top HR executive.
“Today, it’s all about teamwork and the Apogee Awards are unique in honoring representatives of the key positions that make up business leadership teams,” said Gary Press, Chairman and CEO of SFBW (SFBWmag.com) and Lifestyle Media Group that publishes 11 magazine titles and reaches 117,000 senior-level business readers throughout the region. “Each of our honorees has outstanding business achievements and they are known for giving back to our community.”
“It’s an honor to be recognized with such dynamic and strong leaders from other great companies,” shared Lebersfeld upon presentation of the award. “Everyday, I get to work with my family and a terrific team of 180 passionate and dedicated people working hard to fulfill our mission of ‘Making Lives Brighter’…something we at Capitol Lighting have been doing since our founding in 1924.”
Lebersfeld continued to share that “marketing and all the ways we do business keeps changing, and changing at an ever-accelerating rate. However, companies that have a clear mission and those whose behavior remains consistent with their core values will ultimately succeed at seizing the opportunities that will present themselves in this highly dynamic and exciting environment.”
Lebersfeld is the fourth generation in a 90+ year family retailing tradition that grew from a small shop, founded by his great grandparents on Prince Street in Newark, N.J. in 1924 (just as gas lighting was being converted to electric) to now more than 85,000 square feet of storefront showroom space in eight cities and globally via 1-800LIGHTING.com that collectively generates more than $40 million in annual revenue. During Lebersfeld’s 23-year tenure at Capitol, he has held numerous positions, including assistant store manager, store manager, assistant buyer, vice president of marketing to now president and chief marketing officer.
A graduate of Emory University (BA in Economics) and Columbia Business School (MBA in Marketing), he combines business best practices, forecasting and trendsetting with his keen sense of marketing from his experience in multiple capacities on the sales floor to successfully tackle the ever-evolving challenges facing independent retailers and e-tailers today. By creating innovative, profitable and strategic brand merchandizing and communications solutions, Lebersfeld has positioned Capitol as an industry leader by making customer service a priority, providing high quality lighting and home furnishings and ‘making lives brighter’ for its employees, customers, industry relationships and the communities in which Capitol serves.
Through his stewardship of tiered in-bound/out-bound brand activation for retail customers and 12,000 PRO designer members who are served by highly trained and passionate lighting professionals, Capitol has been well-positioned in the lighting and design industries, marketplace and the communities in which its showrooms in Florida and New Jersey serve as a respected ‘lighting authority’ that has illuminated more than a million homes and offices and thousands of iconic commercial businesses.
Working alongside brother Ken who serves as Capitol’s CEO, Lebersfeld has been instrumental in building the robust omni-channel retail business that now offers a diverse selection of 300 brands in 40 lighting categories with more than one million products available in-stores and online via 1-800Lighting.com. Expansion is underway in South Florida, with entry into Broward and Miami-Dade counties with new showrooms in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami/Doral in early 2016.
Other C-Suite leaders presented 2015 Apogee Awards included Mike Jackson, AutoNation, Inc.; Tony Argiz, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra LLC; George Lemieux, Gunster law firm; Frank Sacco, Memorial Healthcare; Tere Blanca, Blanca Commercial Real Estate; Michael Kaufman, Kaufman Lynn Construction; David Armstrong, Broward College; Michael D. Katz, Katz Barron Squitero Faust and Rick Hayduk, Boca Raton Resort & Club.
For more on Capitol Lighting and its brands, showroom locations and hours of operation, visit 1-800Lighting.com.
