Dear Friends, Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Accessories Council’s ACE Awards! ACE stands for “Accessories Council Excellence” and was established to celebrate our industry’s remarkable talent and leadership. We have had an impressive group of <strong>winners</strong> over the past 20 years and are delighted to be honoring tonight’s exceptional roster. Please join me in congratulating each of tonight’s <strong>winners</strong>! The ACE Awards would not be possible without our generous sponsors! We recently met our Platinum Sponsor, Sunrise Brands led by Gerard Guez and were so impressed with their dynamic business model. We greatly appreciate their support. We thank Marchon Eyewear for sponsoring and underwriting the ACE journal. For many years, Marchon has been a major supporter of the Council. We couldn’t do all we do without your ideas, help and encouragement. The team from Swarovski has again elegantly added their crystal to the room! We hope you got to visit the photo booth and that you enjoy the beautiful bracelets they provided at each place-setting. We are thrilled to be working with the team from Bulgari again. We thank our board member Livia Marotta, who is a great friend and champion of the Council. Judith Leiber Couture has created our beautiful Swarovski covered ACE awards for the 11th year in a row. This year’s special anniversary limited edition is stunning! LIM College has been a constant supporter of ACE and the Council. We are so impressed with your programs and the high quality students you produce. Thank you for training our next generation of executives. The team from Luxottica has some fun in store for us all tonight too. I won’t tell you now, but you will want to also thank them later! We welcome them back as a sponsor. And to our newest sponsor SIGNAL BRANDS, we thank you wholeheartedly for your support. We look forward to working with you and your team in the coming year. While the ACE Awards are certainly our most glamorous event, we hosted over 30 events in the last year to support our members and the industry. We attend 12 trade shows a year, host vendor/retailer meetings, educational breakfasts and networking events, to name a few. In the coming months, we will host an array of other exciting events, from a private session with The Wharton School, to our annual Summit, to information sessions with experts as The NPD Group and The Doneger Group. We are committed to assuring that our industry is informed, empowered and energized. A full schedule of events can be found on our website or follow us online for updates and we hope to see you at one of our events in the near future! I thank the amazing Accessories Council Board of Directors. Our board is an active, vibrant and dedicated team that has helped to shape the Council and drive our success. Our Chairman, Frank Zambrelli is an amazing leader and dedicated to our industry. Our Treasurer, Gabriel Alvarez-Jacobo who is a wonderful business partner and puts in many hours. I have had the pleasure of working with Robert Schienberg, the Vice-Chairman of the Council for many years and thank him for always pushing me to do better. Finally, a VERY special thank you to our amazing AC event team, our Senior Events Manager, Abigail Cook, our Events Coordinator, Jessica Chang-Russell and interns, Courtney Lanham and Kelsey Jain who have worked tirelessly this year to assure that tonight and all of our events run smoothly. We couldn’t do all we do without this dynamic group! Warmest Regards, Karen Giberson DiPietro President