Formaspace is expecting explosive growth in 2018 and is making some significant changes as we continue to expand our brand into the Office market. We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of our newest members to welcome them to our team. We can’t wait to see how each of their unique talents will benefit Formaspace!
Let’s begin with our newest team members in the sales department.
David Howerton – Business Development Executive
David represents Formaspace Office on the West Coast in Northern California. He comes from a rich background in commercial furniture and IT sales. He is beloved in the industry and rightfully so. He’s the life of the party whether he is presenting, sitting through training, or entertaining clients. He’s also a fantastic resource to work with on your commercial furniture project in the office sector. His knowledge of products, people, and processes in the furniture industry makes him an amazing asset to our outside sales organization.
After office hours, you’ll find David in a beach town. He received his BBA from Punahou University in Hawaii, lived in Australia while selling furniture solutions, and has recently returned to the Bay Area. He enjoys hiking, weight training, reading, architecture, and traveling. He once took a year to travel the globe! His infectious, adventurous spirit brings a great deal of joy to the daily grind. If you hear an enthusiastic, optimistic voice making quick-witted jokes in the halls of an Architecture or Interior Design firm on the West Coast, we’ll bet that it’s David Howerton.
Valencia Dussault – Design Support Specialist
Valencia started as a Design Support Specialist a few months ago, and will be the point of contact responsible for supporting our inside sales team with transactional sales and operational sales support.
Valencia comes to Formaspace with a background in working for small businesses who specialize in manufacturing and logistics. She received her bachelor’s degree in Physical Anthropology in Sacramento, California. She comes to Formaspace with high attention to detail and thoughtful customer service.
In her downtime, you can find her consuming Moon Pies and Apricot flavored La Croix’s while crocheting blankets, sweaters, or hats for her friends and family. She enjoys crafting and reading in her spare time. We have even heard rumors about an obsession with Taco Bell. How far does this obsession go? She may or may not have chosen a location to move based on the proximity to a Taco Bell. (Can we say Taco Bell’s #1 Fan?) Welcome to the team Valencia, we are excited to have you here!
Jillian Ball – Design Support Specialist
Formaspace is pleased to announce another Design Support Specialist, Jillian Ball. She will also be a point of contact responsible for supporting our inside sales team with transactional sales and operational sales support.
Jillian comes to us with a strong background in customer service over the past 10 years. She has also been in sales for the past 7 years. In this role, she hopes to provide people with smiles and topnotch customer service.
On the side, Jillian owns her own home staging business for real estate agents and volunteers at her church in the children’s ministry. She has 3 beautiful kids that she loves to spend time with. In her downtime, she enjoys figure skating and shopping. Welcome to the team, Jillian!
Noveaka Holmes – Sales Support Specialist – Formaspace Office
Noveaka is our third and newest edition to the sales team. She is a Sales Support Specialist for Formaspace Office and will be the point of contact responsible for supporting our independent manufacturer’s reps and commercial office furniture dealers.
Noveaka comes to Formaspace with many years in customer service working for financial services, educational facilities, and in the federal and local government. She received an Associate’s degree from Austin Community College and is currently working on her Bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University-Central Texas. While working at Formaspace, she hopes to bring her many years of customer service, impeccable work ethic, and enthusiasm. Noveaka is excited to assist with the growth and innovation of the Formaspace Office channel.
Noveaka is originally from Tennessee and has made Texas home. She has three beautiful daughters and three dogs that she loves spending time with.
She loves spending time serving others, whether, at church, mentoring in the school districts or under the bridge in downtown Austin.
Her family has dreams of having a veterinary practice for large and small animals. Welcome Noveaka, we are so happy you joined the team!
That wraps up the Sales team on the frontlines! Now let’s meet the new members who make it all happen behind the scenes in our Design and Production Teams!
Benjamin Tovar – Industrial Design Engineer
The Formaspace team is excited to have Benjamin Tovar as a member of the Design team as an Industrial Design Engineer. With this role, he will help develop and design new and exciting solutions for our unique customer set.
He has a self-taught background. He started his own 3D design company where he builds custom and unique items. For the past 3 years, he has taught 3D printing at TechShop in Austin and developed curriculums for the classes.
In his spare time, you can find him flying his drone, gushing over his cats, or shopping for bath bombs at Lush.
We believe his creativity will serve as a great asset to the Formaspace team and it will continue to grow his career in the design field.
Matt Latour – Industrial Design Engineer
The Formaspace Team is excited to have another industrial designer join us, Matt Latour. He comes to us with a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Electro-mechanical Assembly Design. He has 3 years’ experience in contract manufacturing, Design for Manufacturing consultation, and tool-die design. He has 10+ years’ experience in design & construction of homes, cabinets, and furniture. Featured below is a photo of a recent dining table project. (So cool Matt!)
He also conducted a unique school engineering project that combined his love for music and electro-mechanical design. This guy has some serious talent! You can check it out here.
Matt will work with the customer to design unique workspace solutions to solve any challenge. In his spare time, you can find him at a venue around town showcasing his skills as a multi-instrumental musician playing in two bands. He loves his sweetheart of a pit bull terrier named Harold.
He also wants people to know that he may like watching antique roadshow, BUT his favorite show is How It’s Made.
Philip Mayes – Woodshop Supervisor
Phillip comes to us having spent his entire professional career working in either wood or metal fabrication including custom kitchen cabinetry, sheet metal fabrication, ornamental iron fabrication and design, and furniture grade lumber production. Throughout those fields, he has held positions as a machine operator, team lead, designer, estimator, and manager.
He is in school studying Business Administration and will be graduating this Spring (congrats)! At Formaspace, he will optimize and streamline the wood fabrication process. His knowledge of CNC programming best practices and process optimization will help to ensure success for the wood fabrication team and the company as a whole.
In his spare time, he is an avid outdoors-man and car enthusiast.
Welcome to the team Phillip, we can’t wait to see what you accomplish!
And last but not least, the newest addition to the Dream Team aka the Marketing Team, Mithuna!
Mithuna Krishna – Junior Full Stack PHP Developer
Mithuna Krishna comes to Formaspace as an experienced Web designer in developing web pages using Laravel, Joomla, PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. She has a Master’s degree in Information Technology and Management from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. Her expertise is in web design and other areas of software design and will prove to be a great an asset to the Marketing team at Formaspace.
In her spare time, she enjoys dancing and organizing. Another fun fact, both her and her husband work as Software Developers. (Maybe it will run in the family?) Welcome to the team Mithuna, we are so excited to have you!
That concludes all of our new hires over the past 6 months. We are excited to have each of you as a part of the team and are looking forward to further expansion of Formaspace as a market leader in commercial furniture manufacturing.
A HUGE thank you goes out to our team members for their hard work and dedication, and to our clients for their support that helped make 2017 a great year. We wish you all a happy holiday season. Cheers to a great 2017 and to an even better 2018!
