Howard Brodsky

Early life and Education

Brodsky grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire. He attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and graduated in 1966 with a degree in economics.

Career

After graduation, Brodsky joined the family business, Dean’s Carpet in Manchester, New Hampshire, and became its president. In 1980, he helped to create the American Floor Covering Association, now named the World Floor Covering Association, an international trade advocacy organization representing floor covering retailers, manufacturers and distributors. He was elected president and later served as chairman.

In 1984, Brodsky and his friend Alan Greenberg, who was also in the floor covering business, created the company CCA Global Partners, and launched Carpet One Floor & Home as its first business. Initially, there were thirteen Carpet One Floor & Home stores; in 2017, the chain has more than 1,000 stores. Brodsky and Greenberg founded CCA Global Partners as a cooperative. Soon, they expanded from carpet into other retail sectors.

In 2017, CCA Global Partners is comprised of 14 divisional companies with annual sales of $10.2 billion.

Current divisions of CCA Global Partners include Carpet One Floor & Home, Flooring America, Flooring Canada, The Floor Trader, International Design Guild, Lighting One, ProSource, and The Bike Cooperative, totaling over 3,300 retail locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The newest company divisions are CCA for Social Good, which serves over 6,500 U.S. child care centers and 1,600 nonprofits; BizUnite, which provides business services for over half a million independent businesses; CCA Sports Retail Services, which helps independent fitness and ski stores compete with national chains; and Innovia Community Management Cooperative, which is a cooperative of home owner associations and management companies across North America.

Brodsky is also the chairman of Cooperatives for a Better World, a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization that aims to spread the cooperative message throughout the world. Cooperatives for a Better World focuses on the positive impact the cooperative business model can have on a local, national, and global level.

Brodsky speaks and writes on various topics related to business practice. He has been a keynote speaker at the Harvard Business School, the Better Business Bureau Torch Awards, and the 2015 Global Conference of the International Co-operative Alliance in Antalya, Turkey, which coincided with the G20 Economic Summit. He has also addressed the XIX Regional Conference of Cooperatives of the Americas in Panama City, Panama, and the 2016 International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec City, Canada. Brodsky also keynoted at Rivier College for the President's Leadership Forum, and he has been a featured speaker at TedX, and at E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year summits and competitions in Palm Springs and Boston. He has participated in several New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Chief Executive Magazine CEO Roundtables.

Brodsky has served as a national judge for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Awards, the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, the Cooperative Hall of Fame, and the UNH Social Venture Innovation Challenge.

In 2015, Brodsky, along with co-author Dustin S. Klein, published a book, The Unexpected: Breakthrough Strategies to Supercharge Your Business and Earn Loyal Customers for Life, through Smart Business Network.

Associations

Personal life

Brodsky's wife Joan is a whole health educator. His son Greg is a 1999 Wesleyan graduate and founded CCA Bike and Ski Cooperative groups. His son Jeffrey is an oral historian with an advanced degree from Columbia University. In his free time, Brodsky serves as a justice of the peace. He has performed over 30 wedding ceremonies with no divorces.

Honors and Awards