NEW YORK–Roger Gilmartin, president and chief executive officer of Covington Fabric & Design, has retired.
He has been succeeded as president and CEO by Mark Kahan, the company’s chairman, and will serve as a consultant to the business for the foreseeable future.
Gilmartin first became acquainted with Covington in 1990, when he was in charge of Opps and Micolas Mills, a greige-goods weaver for which Covington was a customer. He joined the firm in 1996 as president of the Covington Fabrics unit, and in 2000 became chief operating officer of the parent company, then called Covington Industries.
In 2005, Gilmartin, along with SouthPointe Ventures of Atlanta and investor Harriett Weiss-Terbell, acquired Covington from the founding Gilmore family. He became president and CEO of the renamed Covington Holdings in 2006. In March 2008, when the Kahan family purchased the Covington assets, Gilmartin remained as president and CEO.
In the Covington statement, Mark Kahan called Gilmartin “a legendary force” in the fabric industry, and credited him with “building, maintaining and then restoring the Covington brand to preeminence.”
Gilmartin said, “The company and our industry have experienced unprecedented change in the last decade, and I am proud that with the help of many talented associates, we transitioned through this very difficult time with a new business model that has and will continue to allow the company to prosper in the highly competitive business segment in which we operate.”
