ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONIES
AT NEW, RE-MODELED SHOWROOMS
Page 1

Amadi
 From left, brothers Zubair, Murtaza, Assad and Zabi Ahmadi with Chas Sydney, senior vice president of AmericasMart.

Banilivy
From left: Mike Hakimian, customer Ray Albed of Albed Rug, Wayne, PA; Masood Banilivy; customer Cy Tavazo of Rug World by Cy, St. Louis, and Chas Sydney of AmericasMart.


Bostan
Chas Sydney of AmericasMart, left; sales agent Scott Minter; Muddassar Khan and Mubashair Khan of Bostan, and customer Dean Subhani of the Rug Merchant, Tuscon.

Capel
From left: Chas Sydney of AmericasMart; Cameron Capel, Richard Capel, Bruce Hric, Mary Clara Capel and Allan Robertson.

Creative Touch
Chas Sydney of AmericasMart Atlanta, left, with Baki Ildiz of The Creative Touch.

Halvai
From left: Chas Sydney of AmericasMart Atlanta with Bill Ward, Jane Fisher, Jiapie Blair and Andrea Alari of Halvai.

Mehraban
From left: Chas Sydney of AmericasMart; Soheil Mehraban,Sam Mehraban and Hamid Nejad of Mehraban.

Monti
From left: Chas Sydney of AmericasMart with Paul Montano, Tom Napolitano and Aaron Zeese of Monti Rugs.

Paramount
Chas Sydney of AmericasMart Atlanta and Roshan Bhattarai and Celeste Casale of Paramount Rug.

Radici
From left: Chas Sydney of AmericasMart; Emanuela Bosio, Paolo Pesorari and Angela Emory of Radici, and sales agent Herb Cantor.

Renaissance Carpet & Tapestries
Jeffrey Soleimani, left of Renaissance; Chas Sydney of AmericasMart, and Bryon Hamilton of Renaissance.

Rizzy Rugs
Customer Jack Freed of American Furniture, Albuquerque; sales agent Lynn Manning, Mark Ferullo, and Rizwan Ansari of Rizzy Rugs.

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
PARTY TIME!
Page 2

LOOK FOR
RUGNEWS.COM MARKET MOVIES
OF THE MEGERIAN AND LOLOI EVENTS COMING TO YOUR COMPUTER SOOOOON!

Loloi Party on Wednesday
Unveils First Machine-Made
Collections in Hollywood Style
 

Here are the folks from Rug Decor: Scott Hayim, left, president of Rug Decor Stores; Dave Frazier, soft surface buyer for CCA Global; Sue Anne Burke of Rug Decor, Jon Womak of Rug Decor and Rhonda Woodruff of Rug Decor.

Amir Loloi, left, founder and president of Loloi Rugs, with Keith Arlinghaus, senior buyer for area rugs for Macy's
Home Stores. Loloi had a dramatic unveiling of its first
machine made lines at a Wednesday night preview party.
MORE MARKET PIX COMING SOON!

Everyone Loves Megerian

John Megerian, ceo of Megerian, with designer Barry Dixon, who will be designing a new line of licensed hand knotted rugs for Megerian which will debut next year.

Gotta love these folks: From left, Shant Tavitian of Megerian, Shawn Jones and Maribel Martinez of Hadinger Carpets in Naples, FL. Maribel was the grand prize winner of a trip to the Megerian manufacturing facilities in Armenia.

From left: Lucille Laufer, executive director of the Oriental Rug Importers Association; John Megerian, ceo of Megerian; Paul Megerian, director of advertising for Megerian, and Chas Sydney, senior vice president of AmericasMart Atlanta.

LOOK FOR RUGNEWS.COM MARKET MOVIES OF THE MEGERIAN AND LOLOI EVENTS COMING TO YOUR COMPUTER SOOOOON!

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
Page 3

Toasting the New Year: Bijan Farrokhi, left, and Mansour Moayeri of The Rug Palace, San Diego.

Bill Ward, center, president of Halvai, a new hand knot rug specialist, with staff execs Jane Fisher and Andrea Alari. In addition to importing high end rugs, a Halvai retail store is planned for New York's trendy SoHo shopping district.

Ravi Tiwari, exec vp of Chandra Rugs, with Bill Heise, left and John Gieseke, owners of Wilford & Lee in Ft. Myers, FL. Bill and John told us that business is challenging in Florida, but 2008 has started on a positive note.


Leon Capel, a principal of Capel, Inc. with newly-elected Capel president, Bruce Hric. Capel spends a lot of time traveling now, while Hric runs the show. But Capel can't seem to stay away from Atlanta Market.


This beautiful group of smiling  faces are part of the reason that Jaipur is one of the hottest companies in the import business. The Chaudhary sibling are, from left to right, Yogesh, Archana, Asha and Kavita. Yogesh and Kavita are based in India, while Archana and Asha headquarter in Atlanta.


At Sphinx: Brenda Moerschall, head of the rug division of Floors, Inc., Dallas, with Steve Trueman of Oriental Weavers Sphinx. Trueman recently received the Sphinx
 "Rookie of the Year" Award.

Rizzy opened its new showroom with a lot of fanfare and plenty of customers. Jack Freed, center, of American Furniture  in Albuquerque, NM, joins Rizwan Ansari, left, and Mark Ferullo of Rizzy Rugs.

At Surya: Satya Tiwari, president; Jeff Gonzalez, vice president of sales, and Surya Tiwari, chairman. Surya is sporting his lucky Rugnews.com baseball cap, of course.

Roshan Bhattarai, left, president of Paramount Rugs, with Jim Bennight, Flooring America, Tallahassee, FL.

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
Page 4
Party Time!

Foodies Meet Ruggies at Kaleen

Superstars of food and rug worlds: Cooking Queen Paula Deen with Rug Royalty Elaine Minter and Mary John Lewis of FurnitureLand South, High Point, NC.

Blake Dennard, vice president of sales for Kaleen, with Jeff Keeler, Carl's Furniture, Boca Raton, FL.


Teresa Buckalew and Donna Leher took over ownership at Great Rugs in Blue Ridge, GA a couple years ago, and they say biz is great in that beautiful north Georgia mountain resort.

COMING SOON!
GET THE FULL
PAULA DEEN FLAVOR
WITH RUGNEWS.COM MARKET MOVIE

Fun With Feizy and Sandra Lee


A beautiful partnership: John Feizy, founder and president of Feizy, with Semi-Homemade inventor, Sandra Lee.  In a few days, we'll stop laughing long enough to show you the movie of Sandy interviewing John!

John Feizy, founder and president of Feizy with rug industry celebs John and Lucy Murse of Rugs as Art, Sarasota, FL

Allan Anderson and Doug Cahill of the Anderson stores in Hattiesburg, MS.

COMING SOON!
SANDRA LEE INTERVIEWS JOHN FEIZY
IN RUGNEWS.COM MARKET MOVIE

Kalaty Welcomes Paul Burrell
Former Royal Butler and Lifestyle Expert

Paul Burrell, third from left with the Kalaty family. From left: Farshad, Ramin, Dad Mirza, Ariel and Mike.

Greg Poteete, left, of Kalaty with Brian Bates of Rug Decor, Port Charlotte, FL


From left: J. Asher Bremen of J Asher Handmade Carpets, Washington, DC; Patrick Aaron of Aaron Floor Design, San Francisco, and Dean Buchanan of J Asher.

Former Royal Butler Paul Burrell greets Fran Horton
and Katherine Elkes of Rug Decor in Myrtle Beach, SC at Kalaty Party.

Surya Hosts Wing-Ding At
Capitol City Club to Celebrate
Rug-Home Accents Coordinates

Keith Caskey and Nichole Hansen of Kermans, Indianapolis.

From left: David Okada and Sam Presnell of The Rug
 Gallery, Cincinnatti, and Terry Lewis, The Rug Merchant, Evansville, IN.

Steve Roan, recently named chief operating officer of Surya, left, controller Martha LaBar, and sales vice president Jeff Gonzalez. Martha is an old friend from Rug-Hold, where she was chief financial officer for many years.

MORE FUN TO COME FROM SURYA PARTY!
WATCH FOR THE
RUGNEWS.COM MARKET MOVIE

Amici Means "Friends"
A Great Reason for a Party

Eva Diadamo of Amici greets fellow Canadian Michael Pourvakil of the Weavers Art stores in Toronto.

Jeff DeSantis, center, president of Amici, with Ray Albed of Albed Rug, Wayne, PA, left, and Brad Andonian of Pande Cameron in Seattle.

Rugs America Introduces
Jane Seymour Home Collection

Aaron Hakimian, left, exec vp of Rugs America, with Howard Winkler, president of The Somerset Group, which manages Jane Seymour licensing. Maybe we will see Jane Seymour in person later this year!

WE LOVE LUCY!

Lucy Arnaz, aka Melody Knighton, center, shares a laugh with Rose Campbell of LL Bean, Freeport, ME and Bruce Hric, president of Capel. Capel had a grand opening black tie party in honor of its newly-redesigned showroom.
 

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
Page 5

Charlie Romano, right, of Couristan,  greets Dave Frazier, soft surface buyer for CCA Global, St. Louis,  and Rhonda Woodruff of Rug Decor, the franchize rug store arm of CCA Global

The Rug Direct gang is all here at Harounian Rugs International. From left: Christy Arnoult, HRI; Randy Kremer and David Craig of Rugs Direct, Winchester, VA; Lee Harounian of HRI; Adrienne Kenney Wooddell (she found time to get married!), and Bill Martin of Rugs Direct, and Richard Siminou of HRI.


At Shalom Brothers: Nader Shalom, left, and Rafi Amirian of Shalom, welcome Wesley Anderson, Abu Khan and Umar Khan of Abu Rug & Home, Jamestown, NC.

Miriam and Mike Thompson of The Rug Rack, Chattanooga, with Kim Barta, brand manager for Shaw Living.

Neil Conley, flooring sales manager of Carpets of Dalton, Dalton, GA, with Randy Watts, regional sales manager for Trans Ocean Imports.

Chandra Tiwari, president of Chandra Rugs, with Ryan Fitzpatrick of CSN Stores, Boston.

At Sphinx by Oriental Weavers:  Aanchal and Dolly Agarwal,seated, of Rug & Home Decor, Gaffney, SC. Standing,  it's Michelle Hiznay of OW Sphinx and Rakesh Agarwal of Rug & Home.

At Rizzy: Scott Burnham, center, of Kent's Carpetland, Accord, MA, with Mark Ferullo, vice president of sales, left and Roger Stringer, northwest sales agent for Rizzy.

The elegant Dorothy and Dave (Dutch) Mink of The Mink Companies, which operates the rug departments in many Macy stores. Dutch tells us that the rug department at Macy's Herald Square is currently undergoing a major remodeling.

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX
Page 6

Sales agent Herb Cantor loves the ladies. Here he is with
Iris Mendez, left, and Wendy Fried of G.Fried of Long Island.


Greg Proudian of Proudian Rug in New Rochelle, NY with Richard Siminou, marketing manager for Harounian Rugs International.

Jill Gundlach, center, of Netshops in Omaha, with Eric Moser and Stephen Hoberman of Kane Carpet.

Jose Guidera takes it easy in Shaw's comfy seating, while Susan Hicks, standing left, talks about the Shaw Living line with Bonnie Guidera. The Guideras are from The Flooring Connection in Conway, SC.


Maurice Harounian, center, a principal of Ebisons
 Harounian, greets Tina Gregoire and Chris Gregoire
 of Tina's Home Design, Burlingtton, VT.

Reza Momeni, left, and Jim Swann, right, of Momeni with Edmond Hagopian of Hagopian World Rugs, Novi, MI.

At Safavieh: From left, Yervant Varjabedian of Safavieh; David Martinous of Martinous Oriental Rug Co., Little Rock, AR, and Ken Shahi of Safavieh.

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ATLANTA MARKET PEOPLE PIX

Page 7

Nebraska Furniture Mart of Omaha visits Momeni. From left, it's David Snedecker,NFM buyer; Angela Chu and Ray Ehsani of Momeni, and Patti Wojtkiewcz of NFM. Happy birthday to Ray and Patti, who shared a birthday on Sunday, Jan. 20.

Coleen O'Brien, center, The Rug Place, Jackson, MS, with 828's Ken Johnson, left, and John Shepherd, chairman of 828.
 

At Dynamic Rugs: from left, Matthew Rouhanian, president; Jill McDowell of Dynamic's accounting department; Jon Morrison, vp of marketing, and Tim Schantz, vp of sales.

Charles and Elizabeth Reason of Reason Floors, Austell GA, visiting with Jerry Brennan of Kas Oriental Rugs.

Javad and Yalda Adinehzadeh of Khazai in Miamisburg, OH, with Michael Harounian of Ebisons Harounian.

Mo Chaudhry, left,  of Issis & Co., Pelham, AL with Charlie Johnson of Safavieh.

We're going to Vegas, baby! Samir Abuhadba, general manager of United Weavers, joins Lissa Wyman, editor and publisher of Rugnews.com to say See ya Next Week in Las Vegas. United Weavers is showing at both the World Market Center show and Surfaces, and we'll be in both places, too!

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