The International Housewares Association has elected three new members to its board of directors and appointed three sitting directors as officers. The votes took place at IHA’s fall board meeting on Sept. 16 and take effect Oct. 1, the start of the association’s 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The new directors, each serving a three-year term, are Will Augenbraun, chief strategy officer at Scrub Daddy; Eric Endres, president of Select Brands; and Linda Levine, president of The Godinger Group.
Tom McMahon, president of JURA Inc., becomes chairman. Sal Gabbay, CEO of Gibson Homewares, is vice chairman and chairman-elect, and Bill McHenry, founder and CEO of Widgeteer, is treasurer. Officer terms run one year.
New directors
Augenbraun has been with Scrub Daddy for 13 years. He oversees international expansion, acquisitions and social media marketing, and has managed U.S. sales operations and the purchase of subsidiaries in Hungary and the Netherlands. He also worked on the design and construction of the company’s headquarters in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
Endres joined Lenexa, Kansas-based Select Brands when his father founded it in 1998 and has held roles throughout the company. Its portfolio includes Toastmaster, TRU and Babycakes, plus licensed lines with Disney and Warner Brothers.
Levine has more than 30 years in housewares. She runs sales, product development and daily operations at Godinger, a tabletop, gift and home decor company in business for more than 50 years. She previously worked at Mikasa and Lifetime Brands, where she was SVP of sales, and was a tabletop and housewares buyer at Macy’s. She is vice president and creator of the Tabletop Association, which manages the New York Tabletop Show.
Officers
McMahon has been president of JURA, the Swiss-owned maker of automatic coffee machines, since 2020. He joined the company in 2011 as Midwest director of sales and became vice president of sales in 2013. Before that he was regional sales manager at De’Longhi America. He started in housewares in 1994 at Syratech Corp., handling the Towle, Wallace and International Silver brands, and was named SVP of tabletop after Lifetime Brands bought Syratech in 2006.
Gabbay owns fourth-generation Gibson Homewares, which makes cookware, cutlery, dinnerware and glassware under licensed brands including Martha Stewart, Sur La Table, Calphalon, Crockpot, Mr. Coffee and Oster, along with its own Gibson Home, Gibson Elite and Laurie Gates lines. He served a prior board term from 2022 to 2025 and was re-elected last year.
McHenry founded Widgeteer, a kitchen and tabletop company, in 2007. He has more than 40 years in sales, marketing and business development, including stints at Carnation, 3M and Philips North America.
Executive committee
The 2026-2027 executive committee also was confirmed. Along with the three officers, it includes Mike Otterman, president and CEO of Lodge Cast Iron and immediate past chairman; Mark Adkison, president of the consumer group at John Boos & Co.; Pamela Stafford, president and CEO of Hestan Culinary; and Cze-Chao Tam, CEO of TRINITY International Industries.
Rosemont, Illinois-based IHA runs The Inspired Home Show each March in Chicago. The association says U.S. attendees alone represent more than 100,000 retail locations and nearly $75 billion in buying power.