Gladson > ABOUT > Our management

Mark Shapiro
President & CEO

Paul Waldron
Executive Vice President, Trade Development

Edward Franczek
Senior Vice President, Database Business Unit Leader

Stephen J. Cole
Chief Marketing Officer

Edward R. Lemar
Senior Vice President of Design

Greg Gates
Vice President of Image Merchandising Solutions

Milan Vacval
Director of Gladson Master Data Solutions

Mark Shapiro
President & CEO

Mark Shapiro joined Gladson in 2007 with more than 25 years’ experience in the consumer packaged goods industry.

Immediately prior to Gladson, Mark was a partner with the New England Consulting Group where he served in the Food, Foodservice and OTC Practice groups. Previously, he spent 18 years with the Quaker Oats Company in positions of increasing responsibility, including senior vice president/corporate strategist; president of the Golden Grain, Quaker Oats Company of Canada Ltd. and Latin American Foods Divisions; vice president of marketing; and brand manager of Gatorade. He started his career with General Mills, Inc., where he served in product management roles.

Mark has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.A. from Union College, Schenectady, NY.

Paul Waldron
Executive Vice President, Trade Development

Paul Waldron joined Gladson in 1995, already a seasoned retail veteran. Prior to joining Gladson Paul held management positions at the store, district and regional level for some of the nation’s leading retailers including Jewel, Phar-Mor, B.J’s Wholesale Club, and immediately prior to joining Gladson, Wal-Mart. His extensive retail experience provides Gladson a deep understanding of our clients operations and business needs allowing him to create business solutions that meet both their strategic and operational requirements.

Paul’s role at Gladson includes managing our strategic alliances, directing our industry-leading staff of category management experts and creating strategic relationships with clients across all of Gladson services.

Edward Franczek
Senior Vice President, Database Business Unit Leader

Ed Franczek joined Gladson in May 2009, bringing the company extensive senior marketing and sales experience from The Nielsen Company, where he was senior vice president of marketing, North American Consumer Group.

Ed heads the strategic development of the Gladson product database and category management services, including mentoring sales and account management and building customer relationships.

A business leader with experience in fostering a company’s brand vision and strategy and developing high-performance teams to achieve profitable growth, Franczek has also held executive marketing and sales positions for Goliath Solutions, W.W. Grainger and Kraft Foods.

Ed earned his MBA and B.S. degrees from Michigan State University.

Stephen J. Cole
Chief Marketing Officer

Steve Cole came to Gladson in February 2009 with a strong background in technology marketing and market research for consumer packaged goods companies. Steve leads the firm’s strategic marketing activities, including developing, positioning and expanding the company’s products and services portfolio and marketing communications.

Previously, Steve worked at SPSS, Inc., a provider of predictive analytical software, as vice president of solutions marketing, and was senior vice president of strategy and marketing at Click Commerce. He also held senior marketing positions at Forrester Research, i2 Technologies and Information Resources.

Steve has a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a bachelor of science degree from Lancaster University in England.

Edward R. Lemar
Senior Vice President of Design

An important member of the Gladson team for nearly 30 years, Edward specializes in creating exciting retail designs that drive profits. He has worked with more than 6,000 stores to help them improve the ambiance and increase profits.

Prior to joining Gladson, he was director of store planning for a large drug chain and director of store planning and modernization for a major pharmaceutical wholesaler.

Greg Gates
Vice President of Image Merchandising Solutions

Greg Gates oversees the operations of the company’s IMS group from sales to production. He joined Gladson in 1997 as an account manager and, after four years working with Gladson’s top Space Management Database and planogram customers, he took on the task to develop this new Gladson business. Under his leadership, the business has experienced consistent growth and has become a leader in innovative shelf-edge merchandising programs.

Prior to joining Gladson, Greg managed the Midwest office for BPA, a non-profit audit firm for magazine fulfillment related to advertising sales. He also held sales positions with SRA Technology Training and InfoCision Management Corporation.

Greg received his B.A. in business from Ohio University.

Milan Vacval
Director of Gladson Master Data Solutions

Milan Vacval came to Gladson in January 2007 with a strong background in product master data management and global data synchronization. Milan leads the Master Data Solutions business unit responsible for data synchronization solutions, master data management and the strategic alignment of Gladson solutions with emerging standards.

Milan has been a longtime active participant in the development of global standards managed by GS1, GSMP (Global Standard Management Process), GDSN, GCI and DSG (Data Synchronization Group of UK).

Before joining Gladson, Milan worked at UDEX where he was responsible for transforming a proprietary UK product catalog into a standards-compliant GDSN data pool solution. He represented JDA on industry and standards organizations and worked with product directors to define the vision for collaborative solutions. Previously, as vice president of product strategy at Vista Technology Group, he directed development of overall product strategy for all Vista’s applications.

Milan holds a master’s degree in computer science from Komensky University, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.