Bill Emery, Jerry Sellers Retire After More Than Half-century In Sales And Marketing At S&S

The Southern California homebuilding industry lost two veteran sales and marketing executives this month with the retirement of Bill Emery and Jerry Sellers after a total of 51 years of service with Shapell Industries Inc.’s S&S Construction Co. Emery was vice president and general sales manager for the Beverly Hills-based developer. He joined S&S in 1973 as a project salesman and was promoted to sales manager in 1975 and vice president in 1976. Sellers was vice president of marketing. He joined S&S in 1987 as marketing director after serving 10 years in a similar position with the Presley Companies, now part of the William Lyon Co., and Mission Viejo Co. He was named an S&S vice president in 1990.

Emery is being replaced by his second-in-command, Elaine Mason, who joined S&S in 1978 and for the past seven years has served as general sales manager for the company’s Los Angeles-Ventura area. The 27-year veteran was named vice president in 2005.

No replacement has been named for Sellers. Instead, S&S has engaged Gunn/Jerkens Advertising & Marketing of Long Beach to create and produce sales and marketing materials for the company. Both Emery and Sellers are long-time Orange County residents. Prior to entering the real estate industry, Emery, a Koreanera Navy veteran, owned and managed automobile dealerships throughout the Southland. Sellers, a Marine combat correspondent in Korea, served as editor of the old Newport Beach News-Press and Daily Pilot, and as a marketing executive at McDonnell Douglas Corporation before joining S&S.

S&S Construction Co., a division of Beverly Hillsbased Shapell Industries Inc., has more than a dozen master-planned communities under way, from the Santa Clarita Valley to Laguna Niguel. It has built more than 64,000 homes since its founding in 1955.