Sherry Lay
SAN ANTONIO— Visionworks of America Inc. has named vision industry veteran Sherry Lay as the company’s chief merchandising officer. She joins Visionworks head offices here after serving as executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for sister company, Viva International Group since 2009. Visionworks, Viva and Davis Vision are part of HVHC Inc., Highmark’s vision holding company. Lay started her new position on June 1.

In the short term, the company said Lay will focus on national rebranding efforts for HVHC’s 550 optical retail stores to the Visionworks name, an initiative the company started last fall. In addition, in her new role, she will also be responsible for merchandising, marketing and inventory.

At Viva, Lay was responsible for merchandising, brand management, marketing, business development and inventory planning. She has consistently grown sales, brand market share and profit margins in her previous positions at Pearle Vision, where she was vice president of merchandising and marketing, and at Sunglass Hut as the general merchandise manager and vice president of merchandising. She has also held similar positions at Ann Taylor, The Longaberger Company and The Body Shop.