Creative Realities announces important new hires

July 12, 2017

Major additions to strategic account management, operations, and sales and marketing teams

LOUISVILLE, KY – July 12, 2017 – Creative Realities, Inc. (“Creative Realities”, “CRI”, or the “Company”) (OTCQX: CREX), a leading digital asset management and shopper marketing solutions provider, announced today the Company has made a number of important additional hires in its strategic account management, operations, and sales and marketing teams in the past month. 

Adrian Weidmann joins CRI as Director of Strategic Account Management. As a digital media workflow transformation consultant, Adrian bridges the ‘business objective’ gap between the Chief Marketing Officer and Retail IT. Spanning more than 30 years of introducing various emerging digital media technologies, Adrian now assists brands, retailers and agencies designing and creating digital media strategies and activating intelligent, pragmatic shopper marketing and merchandising experiences that connect brands and shoppers whether at home, in life or in-store.

Adrian has spent the past 20 years pioneering all aspects of digital media communication and in-store shopper experience from content creation, curation, configuration, publishing and delivery to digitally empowered shoppers by way of media channels of their choice.

He co-authored and published the first book for in-store digital media, Lighting Up The Aisle, Principles & Practices For In-Store Digital Media that remains the only existing resources on why and how brands can harness emerging technologies to transform their in-store experiences. He has merged his unique perspective and insight to the art and science of digital media with analytical business fundamentals to assist brands, retailers and their agencies alike to realize the full potential of integrated multi-channel and interactive digital media solutions to enable integrated marketing conversion with measurable results.

His brand and digital media experience includes Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, Dairy Queen, 7-Eleven, Esteé Lauder, Citibank, Lowe’s, The World Bank, Condé Nast, Best Buy, Cisco, PRN/Walmart, Nike, and UnitedHealth Group.

Bill Lawrence joins the Company as VP of Services, and brings over 16 years of establishing new services and capabilities, transforming business operations, building customer relationships, and delivering sustainable, profitable performance. Bill is tasked with leading CRI’s entire services team including installation, Network Operations Center, customer services representatives, as well as our Project Management department. 

Prior to joining our team, Bill served as VP of Cloud Strategy and Commercial Operations at CompuCom Systems, where he was promoted through eight progressive leadership roles. Bill has almost 20 years of management experience in the Telecom and IT Services Industry. During his tenure at CompuCom Systems he built a new global cloud services capability from that eventually delivered $150 million in annuity revenues, consolidated two acquired business’ and returned them to growth, and modernized the monitoring and management suite to a state of the art AI enabled cloud platform streamlining services and delivering best in class outcomes to customers. 

The new members of the sales and marketing team are:

Brandon Harp, Sales Account Executive, is a digital signage industry veteran with a successful track record of developing enterprise communications solutions. His experiences while working for a few of the digital signage industries leading CMS providers, has built his reputation for being a true thought leader amongst his peers and customers. He has been involved in many complex implementations for leading enterprise customers in Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Higher Education, Transit, Hospitality and Health Care. His strengths revolve around designing and developing unique employee communications experiences. What most interests him are Digital Workplace Technologies, Briefing/Innovation Centers and Smart Cities.

Lorie Callahan, Sales Account Executive, is results-proven with a broad portfolio of “wins” in Fortune 100s. She is a thought leader who will engage confidently with a broadcast of technology customers, consultants, and peers at all levels. Prior to her most recent role as VP of Sales at InfoFusion, Lorie spent five years with Four Winds Interactive. Her success extends globally as she managed key accounts in the UK, Asia, Australia, South America, etc. with Miranda Technologies/Omnibus Systems. Lorie’s portfolio of clients includes Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon, Time Warner, Pepsico, Kraft, Comcast and Discovery.

Chris Stuart, Sales Account Executive, is a high impact sales professional who consistently exceeds aggressive gales goals, retains and grows revenue, identifies new profitable channels for expansion and cultivates relationships to secure valuable market share. He joins us with his most recent experience from Tensator Group where he developed the business managing the digital call-forwarding solutions. As VP at Promotion Technology Group, Chris delivered audio-visual/digital signage solutions to retailers. Chris managed accounts including Kroger, Jimmy Johns, CVS, and Big Lots. 

“We are excited to further expand the CRI sales and marketing team” said Rick Mills, Chief Executive Officer. “We expect these new members of the CRI team to make an immediate contribution to our capabilities and institutional knowledge, and longer term will allow CRI to improve sales opportunities with new customers and additional industry verticals”.

About Creative Realities, Inc.
Creative Realities helps retailers and brands use the latest technologies to inspire shopper engagement in and around the Store. Founded 16 years ago, the firm's evolving client base has led to recognized leadership in deploying technology aligned with strategic and consumer behavior goals at Retail. The firm has delivered consumer/shopper experiences, and is actively providing recurring services today, across diverse categories: Automotive, Apparel & Accessories, Banking, Baby/Children, Beauty, CPG, Department Stores, Electronics, Fashion, Fitness, Foodservice/QSR, Financial Services, Gaming, Luxury, Mass Merchants, Mobile Operators, and Pharmacy Retail. The Company's ConeXus subsidiary designs, installs and services high-end audio-visual networks for global retailers, luxury brands, digital out-of-home (DOOH) companies, advertising networks, and outdoor clients. The Company has five offices across North America and active installations in 40 countries.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements that would be deemed "forward-looking statements" under Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and includes, among other things, discussions of our business strategies, future operations and capital resources.  Words such as “may,” “likely,” “anticipate,” “expect” and “believe” indicate forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements may reflect management’s present expectations and estimates regarding future expenses, revenue and profitability, trends affecting our financial condition and results of operations, operating efficiencies, revenue opportunities, potential new markets, and the ability of the Company to effectively compete in a highly competitive market. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that management’s expectations and estimates are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable and data management believes to be reliable, the Company’s actual results, performance, or achievements are subject to future risks and uncertainties, any of which could materially affect the Company’s actual performance.  Risks and uncertainties that could affect such performance include, but are not limited to:  the adequacy of funds for future operations; future expenses, revenue and profitability; trends affecting financial condition and results of operations; ability to convert proposals into customer orders; the ability of customers to pay for products and services; the impact of changing customer requirements upon revenue recognition; customer cancellations; the availability and terms of additional capital; ability to develop new products; dependence on key suppliers, manufacturers and strategic partners; industry trends and the competitive environment; the impact of the Company’s financial condition upon customer and prospective customer relationships; and the impact of losing one or more senior executives or failing to attract additional key personnel.  These and other risk factors are discussed in Company reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Given these uncertainties, and the fact that forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates and assumption as of the date of this press release, you should not attribute undue certainty to these forwardlooking statements.  We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Investor Relations Contact:
Andrew J. Barwicki
Barwicki Investor Relations Inc.
Tel: (516) 662-9461 
andrew@barwicki.com

Company Contact:
John Walpuck
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer Creative Realities, Inc. Tel: (949) 228-7777 
john@cri.com