Message #8 From:
NewsBot Date: December 5, 2005 10:45:00 AM
DOLL News The Middleton Doll Company Names New CEO and CFO; Adds New Director
PEWAUKEE, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2005--The Middleton Doll Company (OTCBB:DOLL) today announced that Salvatore L. Bando, 61, has been elected president and chief executive officer of the company and Craig R. Bald, 32, has been elected vice president of finance, chief financial officer, secretary and treasurer. In addition, Kenneth A. Werner, Jr., 59, has been elected a director of the company. All of the appointments are effective January 1, 2006.
Bando was one of the original founders of The Middleton Doll Company's predecessor company, Bando McGlocklin Capital Corp. He has been a director of the company for 23 years, from its inception in 1980 to 1997, and again from 1999 to the present. Bando served as president of Bando McGlocklin Capital Corp. from 1980 until 1991. He served the Milwaukee Brewers organization as senior vice president of baseball operations from 1991 to 1999 and as special assistant to the president from 1999 to 2001. He also served as a director of InvestorsBancorp, a bank holding company that was spun-off from Bando McGlocklin Capital Corp., from 1997 to 1999.
Bald, who is a Certified Public Accountant, joined The Middleton Doll Company in 1999 as controller for the company's License Products, Inc., subsidiary, which operates under the name FirsTime Manufactory. He was promoted to chief financial officer of The Middleton Doll Company's consumer products segment in 2004. Prior to joining The Middleton Doll Company, Bald was a senior accountant for BDO Seidman, LLP, where his responsibilities included serving as the auditor for Bando McGlocklin Capital Corp. from 1996 through 1998. He began his accounting career as a cost accountant for Ray-O-Vac Corporation in Madison, Wis.
Werner has served as president of License Products since 1998 and was appointed president of The Middleton Doll Company's consumer products segment, which also includes the company's Lee Middleton Original Dolls subsidiary, in June 2005. He has 30 years of retail experience in department, chain and specialty store formats. He served as vice president of Successories, Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of motivational corporate wall decor; divisional merchandise manager and operating board member of Gimbels Midwest, Inc., a division of British American Tobacco Co.; and has held several merchandising positions at Boston Store, a division of Federated Department Stores. He also owned and operated his own specialty retail apparel business for six years.
As previously announced, on December 31, 2005, George R. Schonath, the company's current president and chief executive officer, and Susan J. Hauke, the company's current vice president of finance and chief financial officer, will resign from all offices with the company and its subsidiaries as part of the termination of a management agreement with InvestorsBank. Under a new agreement with InvestorsBank effective January 1, 2006, InvestorsBank will continue to provide loan management, real estate management and specified accounting services to The Middleton Doll Company.
The Middleton Doll Company operates in two segments, consumer products and financial services. The company's consumer products segment is comprised of Lee Middleton Original Dolls, Inc., a designer and marketer of lifelike collectible and play dolls, and License Products, Inc., a designer and marketer of clocks and home decor products that are sold to major national retailers. The company's financial services subsidiary is a real estate investment trust (REIT).
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business of the Company. Forward-looking statements, which may be based upon beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the Company's management and on information currently available to management, are generally identifiable by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," or other similar expressions. Additionally, all statements in this document, including forward-looking statements, speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any statement in light of new information or future events. A number of factors, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in its forward-looking statements. Significant risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, (i) the continuing effect of adverse economic conditions, (ii) the effect of increasing competition in the collectible doll market and (iii) the effect of not reaching the Company's goal to expand to 100 boutiques over a three-year period. Additional information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that could materially affect the Company's financial results, is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
