About Floor Focus

Kemp Harr, Publisher
Kemp is the publisher and owner of Floor Focus Magazine and Floordaily.net. Prior to publishing, Kemp spent over 20 years in marketing—initially with two consumer products companies (Lego toys and Shakespeare Fishing Tackle) and then he moved over to B2B marketing as Vice President of Marketing for SI Corporation—an Industrial textile company whose largest product line was carpet backing. After Shaw Industries bought SI, Kemp decided to leave the corporate world and pursue his entrepreneurial itch. At age 45, he decided to listen to Theodore Roosevelt and avoid becoming one of “those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Kemp holds a BS in Communications from the University of Tennessee and has completed several advanced marketing courses at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Kemp, his wife Anne, and their two teenagers live on Signal Mountain, just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Darius Helm, Senior Editor
Darius Helm has been an editor with Floor Focus for nine years. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Tracey Robinson, a painter and printmaker, along with a handful of assorted animals. Prior to Floor Focus, Darius was first a contributing editor, then editor-in-chief, for Travel World News—where he worked with Floor Focus production manager, Karen Rochette. He received his BA from Yale University in 1988, attended high school in northern England, and grew up in Iran and Portugal. He speaks five languages, all terribly, as well as English, which is improving.

Brian Hamilton, Managing Editor
Brian Hamilton, who now serves as the Managing Editor, has been a newspaper reporter, editor and publisher for most of his 30-year career. Most recently he was an award-winning writer in Michigan for Ann Arbor Business Review, where he covered technology, biotechnology and venture capital. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Georgia State University “way too long ago.”

Karen Rochette, Production Manager
Karen’s journey began with books and manuals in the Army using hot wax and camera ready mechanicals. The real world catapulted her into modern times when she moved on to work in service bureaus where it was necessary to learn any and all software and computer platform in order to meet customer requirements. It was an easy shift to Production Manager from there and Karen worked at two different travel magazines prior to settling in at Floor Focus in March of 1999. The journey didn’t stop there though. Karen hung up her snow shovel and headed for warmer climates to join the new Chattanooga headquarters of Floor Focus in March of 2007. Floor Focus—it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.

Anne Harr, Art Director
After growing up in the big city of Russellville, KY, Anne attended Hollins University where she graduated with a degree in Art and Art History. Yearning for true big city life she moved to NY City and worked for numerous fashion designers. She was probably the best dressed bag lady on the entire island of Manhattan. After eight years of city life, Anne returned to her southern roots where she met her husband, the future publisher of Floor Focus Magazine. As they say, the rest is history.

Santo Torcivia, Research Partner
Santo is the magazine’s primary resource for statistical data that helps make Floor Focus the leading authority for maket based intellegence. Santo is the author of the annual US FLOOReport, a detail forecast and analysis of the US flooring industry by product, channel, and major player. His firm, Market Insights also produces the County Penetration Report, a county based historical and forecast of flooring sales by product type to consumers, builders, and commercial accounts by county, metro area, and state, including an estimate of the number of retail and contract outlets selling flooring by type in each designated geography. Prior to starting Market Insights in 1997, Santo was employed for 16 years by Mannington Mills as Vice-President for Business Analysis & Planning.

A graduate of Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he majored in economics, Santo makes his home in Reading, PA and is the proud father of three daughters.