Surya has appointed Jim Levine to the newly created role of vice president of Surya Outdoor. Levine is a veteran of the casual-furniture industry, where he has spent the past 32 years overseeing business operations, sales/marketing, supply-chain management, and product design for a variety of outdoor-product lines.

In his new role, Levine will be responsible for expanding Surya’s outdoor- product offerings while also building and overseeing a sales force focused specifically on retailers in the outdoor-products category. Surya’s outdoor lines currently include rugs, pillows, and poufs, with ceramics, hurricane lamps, tabletop products, outdoor mirrors, and outdoor lighting set to debut at the 2014 Chicago International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market™in September.

Levine was previously owner and CEO of Porch & Patio, a casual-furniture store that he grew from a single retail location into a seven-store chain, and he also served as vice president at Robb & Stucky Patio, where he managed retail operations. He most recently headed importing and manufacturing for a startup outdoor-furnishings company. Levine has received and/or been nominated for the Apollo Award, the highest award given to a casual-furniture retailer, five times.

Satya Tiwari, president of Surya, says, “Under Jim’s leadership, we look forward to growing our range of fashion- forward outdoor offerings significantly to support our goal of becoming the premier provider of coordinating accessories for the outdoor-living segment. Jim’s wealth of experience in the outdoor industry—combined with our ability to bring to market, quickly, products for a variety of lifestyles and budgets and our strong focus on service—will be instrumental in expanding our presence in this valuable segment, moving forward. We are excited to welcome Jim to the Surya team.” Levine will be based in Florida and will report to Seth King, vice president of sales.