Royal Stone® Officers and Principals

MILTON B. LEMBERG - President/CEO/CFO
"Although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make solid surface materials, I am one" is often said by Lemberg when introducing himself and Royal Stone® to his audiences. Graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in Engineering in the early 60's, Lemberg began his professional career working on the Saturn 5 rocket engines for the Apollo space program. The frustrations and politics of "big" corporations altered the course of his career. After enrolling in a postgraduate degree program at UCLA's School of Engineering, he left the program to further his education in business development and management.

Leaving the corporate world, he returned to his roots running a small family manufacturing company that he had worked for, while in school. Eventually he acquired the business, changed its name and direction, and built it from a local company with twelve employees into a national company with over sixty-five employees. Along the way he incorporated his engineering knowledge with his creative talents and became a pioneer in the development of the 'membrane' (flat panel touch) switch. These switching devices have gained wide acceptance as control panel switching units and are used in a myriad of commercial products today. In the early 80's, Lemberg sold his corporation to a publicly traded international corporation who wanted the membrane technology he had developed. For a brief period after the sale, he remained with the company as a consultant and technical advisor.

Between the sale of his corporation and the creation of Royal Stone®, Lemberg extended and expanded his expertise in the areas of new product development, sales, marketing, real estate, securities, and finance. The sum total of his professional experiences laid the foundation for the conception, marketing, facilities and equipment design, product design and development, and implementation of all the elements that comprise today's Royal Stone® Industries, Inc.

IRA B. LEMBERG - Vice President, Director of Manufacturing & New Product Development
Graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the latter part of the 80's, Lemberg (Milton's Son) acquired a retail business. From its very modest beginning the business was relocated to a major strip shopping center and grown to a dominant force in the college market, it catered to. After selling his business in the late 90's, Lemberg returned to postgraduate work in the field of medicine. Lacking many of the physical sciences from his undergraduate studies, he focused on chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Concurrently, he worked in a hospital's emergency room, eventually assisting the doctors in emergency room surgery.

Life's path takes many strange turns, which sometimes offer unexpected opportunities. Frustrated by medical school admission, Lemberg began seeking a new career direction. These series of events coincided with the creation of Royal Stone® and the position to head manufacturing. Lemberg's strong chemistry background and his innate ability for attention to details, made him the ideal candidate to fill the position he now holds.

Since joining Royal Stone®, Lemberg has developed a keen eye for color. Coupled with his expertise in chemistry, his eye for color has enabled him to analyze and design solid surface formulas for custom colors and color matches to other solid surface colors. In addition, it has given him the ability and insight to develop and create new solid surface looks that have enhanced Royal Stone's standard color pallet and the creation of patterns still in R & D that show tremendous and exciting promise.

HOWARD J. LEMBERG - Vice President, Marketing & New Product Development
Graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the early 90's, Lemberg (Milton's Son) majored in Business Operations Production Management (OPM). Lemberg demonstrated his entrepreneurial talents long before college graduation. He developed several businesses that he operated successfully until graduation. Following graduation, work in the relatively new and narrow field of OPM was scarce. After several short term positions, Lemberg found work directing the manufacturing and installation of custom commercial stainless steel kitchens. During his tenure, Lemberg met his future partner Russell Hooks (see below). Through their working relationship in the stainless fabrication business they broke away and formed a business partnership that grew into Rembrandt Countertops.

Lemberg runs the day-to-day sales and marketing, and oversees Rembrandt's operation. Concurrently, he is an integral part of the marketing and development of new Royal Stone® products.

RUSSELL W. HOOKS - Vice President, Director of Facilities Operations
After high school graduation, Hooks attended Glendale Community College. Finding that college didn't offer the education he needed, Hooks left college before graduation. While working for others, he realized that he had more skills and knowledge than his employers. With a partner, Hooks opened his own construction business. All phases of construction are areas of expertise that he had acquired, beginning in his youth by learning from his electrician father. Partnership conflicts caused his business to end. Through his acquaintance with Howard Lemberg, he took a position at the stainless steel fabrication company where Lemberg worked.

Hooks possesses an innate ability to understand the workings of anything mechanical and electrical. He is able to apply his intuitive senses and mechanical abilities to conceptualize, create, solve, modify, and/or repair most physical structures and machinery.

BARBARA E. LEMBERG - Vice President, Credit Manager, Secretary, Treasurer
Lemberg attended Arizona State University until her marriage to Milton. Returning to the workforce, after her children were in school, she managed the payables and receivables in her and Milton's business until it was sold in the early 80's. Volunteering her time to a local chapter of a national service organization, Lemberg rose to its presidency. Under her presidential guidance, she took her chapter from about 600 members to over 900 members, raised and surpassed her chapter's financial goals, and won chapter of the year over several hundred chapters nationally.

With the creation of Royal Stone®, Lemberg left her volunteer work to work with her family in the newly created business. Lemberg brings to the company her organizational and people skills.

EDWIN CRUZ - Technical Fabrication Advisor
After high school and a tour of duty in the United States Army, Cruz worked in various trades until moving from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona in the late 70's. Not finding work in his field of expertise he was forced to take a job in a cabinet shop. Solid surface was in its infancy and manufacturers were promoting sales to cabinetmakers. At that time there was very little interest in solid surface. As the low man on the totem poll, Cruz was designated the shop's solid surface man. He learned quickly and was fabricating Corian® and a new product Avonite®. Even prior to formal fabricator certification was required, Cruz trained hundreds of people to fabricate solid surface, including two of the people Avonite employed to teach their original certification classes. Cruz's extensive hands-on experiences, working with all of the national brands of solid surface, make him invaluable in the development, training, and testing of Royal Stone®.