Home décor wholesaler Napa Home & Garden announced that KC Cunningham, its co-founder and president, is now the company’s chairman while Michelle Gee has been promoted to president.
A Seattle native, KC Cunningham helped establish the company in 2000 with her late husband, Jerry, and has been president since its inception.
Looking for new opportunities, the Cunninghams sold their interests in the financial services industry and invested in a number of smaller businesses including a winery in Napa, Calif. Based on KC’s strong design sensibilities, the two would turn one of these businesses into Napa Home & Garden, and subsequently move operations from Napa Valley to Georgia to be near the Atlanta Market. As Napa chairman, Cunningham will have a continuing role in the company’s brand and product.
Gee has been promoted to Napa president and will assume day-to-day management responsibility for the business. Gee joined Napa in 2020 as executive vice president after two years working with such notable industry players as Tag and Foreside. Prior to this, Gee was CEO of Miller Harris, a London-based luxury fragrance house with retail presence in 25 countries, and has led branding and development efforts for luxury and premium brands throughout the world, including Valextra, Pierre Marcolini, and Tom Dixon.
“I am thrilled at the opportunity to build on the success of Napa, and to continue to bring retailers the beautiful and casually elegant items for which Napa is known,” Gee said.
“Michelle will be leading a uniquely strong and talented team,” said KC Cunningham. “Napa is in good hands with Michelle at the helm. We had an amazing response to our new product at January markets and I look forward to more great things to come from Napa in the future.”
