David J. Solomon : Principal

David Solomon is a business interiors dealership consultant and practitioner known for bringing business vision, forward-thinking management practices, and technology and process innovation to the distribution challenges of the contract furniture industry.

David is a specialist in business process assessments and consulting services for office furniture dealerships. He has identified and developed a best-practice business model including a model process definition, design standards, inventory and asset management programs, standard service contracts, and standard terms and conditions; benchmarked financial performance, sales compensation plans and employee benefit programs; developed dealer training programs and tools; and facilitated peer groups.

Prior to working as a consultant, David held senior-level positions at several large contract furniture dealerships; served as director of project management services at Coro, a division of Herman Miller; was a corporate facilities planner; and served as executive director of the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA). Since 2000, he has managed The Workplace Alliance, Inc. (WPA), a private international trade association of Haworth Preferred Dealers with a focus on best practices.

David is a frequent guest speaker at industry events. An activist in industry technology initiatives, he serves as the volunteer leader of the Office Furniture Dealer Technology Task Force. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration and is a member of the Project Management Institute.

Barry E. Coyle : Principal

Barry Coyle is a nationally known consultant to contract furniture management and service businesses. His areas of expertise include: dealer economics and management; furniture service standards of performance; furniture service outsourcing; professional services operations; marketing communications; training and career development; account and project management; and proposals and contracts.

Barry co-developed with David Solomon an intensive, four-part assessment of a dealership’s real-world strengths and deficiencies using assessment tools they have developed in the course of consulting engagements with dealers, installation companies and furniture manufacturers throughout North America.

He has produced best-practice dealer development programs and materials for leading manufacturers, and has

created marketing and sales materials for numerous dealerships and installation companies. Prior to working as a consultant, Barry held various management positions in the business interiors industry including VP of operations, manager of facility services, designer and project manager.

Barry is a well-known speaker and event facilitator within the contract furniture industry. He serves as executive director for Facilities Services Network (FSN), a best-practices peer group of independent contract furniture installation firms, and is a member of the OFDA Board of Governors.

In addition, he performs financial benchmarking and compensation analysis for industry peer groups. He is the author of three industry workbooks—Installation Estimating, Installation Economics, and Dealer Best Practices. Barry holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Mark D. Duros : Business Process, Financial Analysis, Technology

Mark Duros is a business and technology consultant with more than 15 years of finance and information systems experience. He specializes in helping clients achieve business process improvements that result in greater organizational effectiveness and higher profitability. In addition to consulting projects, he is currently working with the Office Furniture Dealer Technology Task Force.

Prior to joining Solomon Coyle, Mark was Director of Research and Technology for the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance for six years. He led the OFDA Technology

Committee, an industry-wide data standards initiative; launched the OFDAxml standards program; and was responsible for the OFDA Dealer Financial Comparison
and Benchmarking Guide, the OFDA Compensation Report, and the OFDA Dealer Manufacturer Satisfaction Survey.

Previously, Mark held senior finance, project management and IT positions at several associations and worked with a public accounting firm. He has participated in several office furniture industry events and written several articles for industry publications. Mark holds a B.A. in Accounting.

Cate Sword : Design Best Practices, Design Training

Cate Sword, IIDA, is a professional interior designer with a B.A. in Interior Design and over 20 years of experience in the contract design field. She delivers a positive, results-oriented training experience for furniture dealerships, corporate facility managers, and furniture manufacturers across North America.

Cate provides training in AutoCAD, ProjectTools, ProjectSpec, 20-20 CAP Studio, 20-20 Giza, Configura CET and Canvas. She focuses on reducing both the learning curve and the time it takes to produce first-class results while showing clients how to achieve high returns on their software investments.

Elaine A. Taylor : Business Process, Customer Service, Team-Design

Elaine Taylor brings a combination of business process re-engineering, business software, and customer service expertise to the Solomon Coyle team. She trains all levels of dealer staff and consults with dealer principals and other managers on the implementation of Team-Design software.

Her expertise in Team-Design dates back to her tenure with Team Systems LLC. As a Trainer and Technical Support Consultant, she consulted with new customers on the setup,

configuration and installation of Team-Design, including network issues and hardware, security and accounting functions; facilitated customer follow-up training to help increase the skill level of users; and solved problems resulting from misuse of the software.

Elaine also has 17 years of in-house dealership experience spanning three companies in senior positions in operations, training and customer service. She has a B.A. in Education.

Sheri A. Winter : Peer Group Management, Marketing, Event Management

Sheri Winter has over 15 years of association management, educational program development and marketing experience. She handles member relations, communications and event management for our peer group clients and is involved in developing training materials, reports and presentations for our consulting projects.

Previously, Sheri served for eight years as Director of Marketing and Member Services with the

Office Furniture Dealers Alliance (OFDA), where was responsible for membership programs, sponsorship and overall association marketing. In addition, she managed OFDA’s educational programs and events, including the annual OFDA Dealer Strategies Conference & Expo.

Her earlier experience includes marketing and communications work with other trade associations and a technology firm. Sheri holds a B.A. in Political Science.