Laura Brown, vice president of ViewPoint since 2002, has been promoted to chief executive officer of the sales and marketing agency. Jim DeMattei, who founded the firm in 1997, remains president and will continue to oversee its expansion.

During the last year, the New York City-based firm has launched a new watch division, Watch ViewPoint, and a new emerging-designer division, ViewPoint Studio. 

Known for discovering and launching designer jewelry and watch collections that have turned into multi-million dollar brands, DeMattei planned the growth of ViewPoint from its inception in 1997. A 5,000 square-foot showroom became the headquarters for DeMattei’s global vision, which is building a platform to promote and develop new talent.

With the sale of its distribution rights of John Hardy worldwide in 2002, ViewPoint embraced its new Point of View: Designer development and brand building. The company expanded to house two divisions, one for designer fine jewelry, and one for watches. Brown will oversee both divisions. The company named Jamin Whitaker as vice president of ViewPoint Studio and Mark Piccione as vice president of Watch ViewPoint.

The duo brought two new designers, Sevan and Armenta, on board to accompany Vendorafa in 2005 to form the mold for ViewPoint Studio. The jewelry division has a strong rising-star presence where ViewPoint’s staff merchandises, cultivates and sells their collections to targeted retailers across the country.

At the same time ViewPoint expanded Watch ViewPoint with the Toy Watch and Philip Stein Teslar brands. DeMattei and Brown were able to bring Philip Stein Teslar from a basic collection housing quantum-based technology, in Fall of 2003, to a world-wide brand that grossed more than $65million dollars at retail in 2006. Toy Watch became a member of Watch ViewPoint in 2006, launching at Couture, being marketed by as the ‘toy’ for the luxury watch consumer.

JCK