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Natural Health Trends Corp. has appointed Linda Lucas Padilla to the newly created post of Senior Vice President of Marketing. Ms. Padilla will be the health company’s principal executive in charge of strategic global marketing support as well as branding, product marketing and development as well as play an active role in event planning.

The addition of this position further solidifies NHT’s position in the world of nutraceuticals and will allow the company to build a stronger global presence.

Chris Sharng, president of the company is excited about the new hire and the opportunity Ms. Padilla brings to expand the NHT Global brand. “With the addition of Linda to our executive team, we have made a concerted effort to move Natural Health Trends’ global focus toward a stronger product platform. She brings proven product expertise and strong global industry knowledge which further supports NHT’s plans to offer expanded and improved product offerings for our members worldwide.”

Prior to joining NHT, Ms. Padilla served as Vice President of Marketing for another direct sales giant, Mannatech. Within the direct sales industry, Ms. Padilla has held executive positions with Aerus Electrolux, Beauticontrol and Priceless Legacy. Her experience within the direct sales world spans over two decades. Ms. Padilla is an active member of the DSA with years of marketing, communications and creative product positions experience.

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Natural Health Trends, NHT Global, has appointed Joe Wood as the Company’s new Chief Operating officer. The company made the announcement Monday afternoon. Mr. Wood will be responsible for product development, marketing, business support and supply chain management.

Mr. Wood has been with the company since 2003 and previously served as the company’s President of NHT Global North Asia where he lead the Korean and Japanese markets. Wood started up operation in Korean and built the company’s business from the ground up. In lieu of the promotion, Ted Kwon has been appointed as the new President of the Korean subsidiary.

Mr. Kwon was previously the Chief Financial Officier of the Korean subsidiary and has previously worked for several other health and nutritional product companies.

Chris Sharng, President of Natural Health Trends says that the company is excited about both new appointments. “I believe that Joe’s experience with and passion about products match perfectly with our strategic emphasis on providing superior products to our members to realize their well-being or aspiration. We are working hard to put our legacy issues behind us, and appointing Joe as our Chief Operating Officer is, with his background, evidence of our commitment to offering superior consumer products to our members.”

Sharng added, “The Korean market is one of our core markets and Ted will be invaluable in our efforts to further build this market with a growth in distributors and in our product line.”

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Natural Health Trends announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally completed an investigation into the company involvement with two former executives charged with fraud.

As we told you last week, the two execs, Mark Woodburn and Terry LaCore did face civil charges related to this investigation and were each ordered to pay fines as well as agree not to hold executive positions for the next few years. Neither however had to either admit to or deny any wrongdoing in the case.

The investigation was launched almost two years ago, in October of 2006. The SEC was not only investigating the two former employees, but also the company’s actions regarding the fraudulent activity and subsequent firing of the two individuals.

After an investigation that NHT fully cooperated with, they received a letter this week from the SEC stating that they do not intent to recommend any enforcement action against the company.

NHT is thrilled to finally put this legal issue behind them. “Current management of the Company worked diligently to fully cooperate with the SEC in its investigation,” said the Company’s President, Chris Sharng. “We are pleased that no enforcement action has been recommended against the Company, and we look forward to continuing to focus on our business with this investigation behind us,” added Mr. Sharng.

With this investigation behind them, NHT can now fully tend problems regarding the trading, or non-trading of their stock, which has failed to meet the criteria needed for it to continue trading on the NASDAQ Capital Markets.

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Natural Health Trends (NASDAQ: BHIP) announced that it has received a deficiency letter from the NASDAQ Stock Market. The letter, received by the company on September 2nd, indicated that NHT is not in compliance with requirements to be listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market because for the last 30 business days, the bid price of its common stock has closed below $1.00. NHT Global trades under the symbol BHIP and the letter has no immediate effect on the trading of the stock.

According to the NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(4) NASDAQ must issue a deficiency letter when a company fails to meet minimum bid requirements-trading at or above $1.00- for 30 consecutive days. NHT will now have 180 days to meet requirements or face being delisted.

Natural Health Trends will have until March 9th, 2009 to meet criteria that would allow it to continue trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market. NHT must have their common stock close at or above $1.00 for a minimum of ten consecutive business days during this 180 day probationary period in order to remain on the Capital Market. If the company cannot meet those requirements, they face having their securities delisted.

While it seems that Natural Health Trends stock is not doing as well as the company would hope, their last quarterly statements show that the company continues to grow and increase sales significantly each quarter. NHT released a statement regarding the NASDAQ letter, sayting that it intends to “actively monitor the bid price for its common stock between now and March 9, 2009, and consider implementation of various options available to the company if its common stock does not trade at a level that is likely to regain compliance.”

Popularity: 2% [?]