Born and raised in the western central portion of New Jersey, in the rolling hills of Hunterdon County near the Delaware River, Mr. Hoff attended public schools prior to attending Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he majored in psychology and minored in political science, graduating with a B.A. degree.  While in undergraduate school, Mr. Hoff was active in a variety of extra-curricular activities including fraternity life and intra-mural athletics.  He served as Sports Editor of both the University annual and weekly newspaper, and he founded and directed Challenge, The Wake Forest University International Symposium on World Affairs.  In its initial four day, intercollegiate conference, Challenge focused on “The Emerging World of the American Black,” by hosting delegates, speakers, experts and guests from throughout the nation, encompassing highly regarded notables of all social and political persuasions.

While enrolled as an undergraduate, Mr. Hoff spent his summers working in the employ of the State of New Jersey, in The N/J. Bureau of Children’s Services and the N.J. Division on Civil Rights respectively.  He then returned to Wake Forest University School of Law, where he studied for one year prior to joining the U.S. Navy Reverse as an officer.

During his tenure in the Navy, Mr. Hoff served aboard and aircraft carrier cruising throughout the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Caribbean and South Atlantic and qualified as an Officer of the Deck in port and at sea.  Following that exciting tour of duty, he was home-ported in Japan, where he served as boat group commander of a fleet of mine-sweeping launches and traveled throughout the Far East and South Pacific including Thailand and Viet Nam.

Upon completion of his Pacific tour, Mr. Hoff returned to his native New Jersey, accepting a position with the then New Jersey division of R. H. Macy Corporation in retail management.  A move to New York City, several years later prompted his affiliation with Federated Department Stores for several years, where he served as both an Assistant Store Manager and an Associate Buyer in the home furnishings arena. 

Mr. Hoff subsequently accepted a position as Director of Sales and Marketing with a New York and Seattle, WA based manufacturing company in the home furnishings category, where he spent several years building the firm’s business on the road and in the development of numerous catalogs, trade and consumer magazines and marketing tools until an exciting offer came along to design, furnish, equip, own and operate an historic colonial restaurant and tavern located on the Olde York Road, the primary colonial route between New York and Washington in the late 1700’s.  He assembled a business plan, put together a syndicate of investors and anxiously went to work as an entrepreneurial restaurateur in conjunction with The Trenton Historical Society and the City of Trenton, New Jersey. 

Some six years and many accolades thereafter, he opted to leave the east coast area, relocating to St. Louis, MO in a position as a senior buyer and merchandising developer with a home center chain poised to partner with a successful Michigan lumber retailer in the launch of a new, big-box, warehouse- format home center chain in Northeast Ohio.  Enthusiastically embracing this new challenge, Mr. Hoff quickly became familiar with the business, purchased several merchandising categories and departments for the St. Louis retail parent and began to assemble a complete merchandising plan and strategy for new Ohio joint venture.  Stepping up to the both tasks successfully, Mr. Hoff was soon requested by management to join the staff of the joint venture on location in Ohio a year after its initial launch and as it prepared to open its second retail location.

He moved to Lakewood, Ohio, a nearby suburb of Cleveland, where he assuming the role of Senior Buyer and General Merchandising Manager in June, 1988, with responsibility for 20 of the operation’s 21 merchandise departments, their buyers, assistants and assortments.  In that position, he also continued to purchase six departments personally and supervised the in-store presentation, marketing and advertising efforts of the remaining departments, along with spearheading the design and layout operations of new stores.

As the company continued its rapid growth from small, closely-held private company to multi-unit regional player, Mr. Hoff’s sphere of responsibility and challenge continued to emerge and grow.  He became instrumental in the company’s 1993 Initial Public Offering, as the company moved from private to publicly-traded.  He also assumed other broadened responsibilities, including:

·         Directing corporate efforts to increase profitability through enhanced margin and product turn reduced inventory and increased year-over-year sales by department and store location.

·         Negotiating increasingly favorable annual vendor programs and new store opening deals and discounts (average 30%) and cooperative advertising participation (to 74% of total costs).

·         Increasing the company ski base from 8,000 to 45,000 units.

·         Spearheading the design, sourcing and implementation of a company-wide POS capture and reporting system to achieve sales results and analysis on a real-time basis for both store and home office in all aspects of management functionality including merchandising, advertising, accounting and inventory management.    

·         Designing and implementing a transition in advertising procedure and process from a small, Mom-and-Pop advertising production service using spot color line art imagery to a full-service advertising agency and production using four-color photography and MAC-based communications, layout and design for real-time placement and production.

·         Conceptualization, design and creation of several new departments, offering the company total differentiation from national, big-box competitors in allied businesses.                      

·         Maintaining membership on the DIY Home Warehouse, Inc. Board of Directors.

For several years, the Company continued its rapid growth and development throughout the northeastern Ohio marketplace.  Inevitably, however, major national competitors began to arrive:  Lowe’s in the outlying areas, then Home Depot in the metropolitan markets.  Driving business with sharply designed pricing, these bigger-box entities began to make their mark in the marketplace.  As has been the case throughout the nation, the deep pockets and predatory pricing of these monoliths gained critical mass and less well capitalized companies, DIY Home Warehouse among them, began to succumb.  With reduced volumes and margins, the Board of Directors determined that DIY should begin to contract its operations and, ultimately, to suspend them altogether.  Finding himself in the crossfire of such downsizing, Mr. Hoff began to prepare the Company for his imminent withdraw, and, for a full year, he positioned employees to assume his core responsibilities and negotiated far-reaching vendor agreements.  The future of the Company in some doubt, Mr. Hoff left the organization and it’s Board in December, 2000.  Within a single year thereafter, the Company closed 11 additional stores, with the balance shuttered with 18 months. 

Shortly after his year-end departure, Mr. Hoff and a partner opted to launch an effort into the world of retail ready-to-wear, focusing on the then underserved market of casual, upscale menswear on Cleveland’s West Side and suburbs, appealing to the young, relatively affluent professional with such brand names as Diesel and Kenneth Cole.  The partners coined the name, Soft Thunder, Inc. for their operation and opened the first store, named “Vertigo for Men,” in the Lakewood suburb of Cleveland.  The “Vertigo” design and layout were both trendy and appealing and marketing efforts through fashion shows in area nightclubs and in print, through weekly entertainment magazines in the metroplex, resounded with the target audience.  Less than a full year later, Soft Thunder prepared to open its second unit in an outlying area of Cleveland’s West Side.  The second store, named “Racer for Men” bested “Vertigo” sales records and both units continued to develop throughout the following year.  The partners collaborated in buying for the stores and Mr. Hoff conducted daily operations, accounts payable, training and inventory control efforts, while his partner handled all payroll, taxes, advertising and promotional development.  The partners were offered an opportunity to sell the concept slightly over a year after opening “Racer,” and, after much thought, they reluctantly elected to accept.  Both partners enjoyed other priorities, and the timing was right to turn over the businesses.

Soon after turning over the reins of physical plant and processes at Soft Thunder, Mr. Hoff was offered an opportunity to join Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Inc. in its Senior Products Division marketing Reverse Mortgage products to seniors and their business contacts and advisors throughout northeastern Ohio.   Drawn to the need for this kind of a product and its potential enormous benefit to countless senior citizens, Mr. Hoff established sales records for the territory in his first year in the position.  That said, however, housing values in the area fell uniquely under the national median and commissions, as an inevitable result, were lacking.  Following lengthy discussions with the Market Development Manager for the Eastern Region, Mr. Hoff agreed to change his focus to that required by a vacant position as Administrator for the Region on a short-term basis in order to allow the Market Development Manager, a personal friend, a greater opportunity to travel throughout the Region and build the business accordingly.  Weeks became months, and months became years, but eventually, a seasoned banking and financial services administrative professional was located and Mr. Hoff was free to move forward to pursue  other areas of his personal interests.

He quickly affiliated with a program resource offering an opportunity to market personal development products using the 24/7 power of the Internet, while coaching and mentoring individuals who likewise became interested in the program for their personal growth and development.  Close to his areas of interest and expertise, Mr. Hoff thrived in the business, but soon determine that financial return on his investment was not adequate to sustain his efforts and, in April, 2009, decided to take a leave of absence from the business, available for his return at any time, to pursue a return to the world of corporate purchasing, procurement, product marketing and advertising in retail, manufacturing or distribution.   He continues to meet with individuals who may offer a position and company which may enjoy an opportunity where he might make a meaningful contribution.  He very much enjoys his home in Lakewood, OH on Lake Erie, but notes that he is free and open to relocation should an opportunity present itself, depending upon package and total program offerings.  He is enthusiastic and energetic and looks forward to offering his knowledge, skills, abilities and energies toward building the ongoing success of an exciting new company and workplace environment.