OpTree

XanGo just announced that they’ve named Robert S. Conlee as the company’s newest Chief Executive Offer. In addition, A. Craig Hale has been promoted from Chief Legal Counsel to President of XanGo.

Prior to joining XanGo, Conlee served in various roles at other major network marketing companies including Nu Skin and Pharmanex, where he held various roles including Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and Chief Operating officer. In total, Conlee has over 18 years of executive experience within the network marketing industry.

Aaron Garrity, Founder and Chairman of the Board of XanGo expressed his feeling on the importance of having Conlee and Hale join the XanGo team, “Six years after our founding, we’re at an historic and critical point in our growth, having just surpassed the milestone of our millionth distributor as we operate in 23 countries.” Today’s announcement will enable XanGo to maintain our position as the most successful company of its kind in the history of our industry. The recruitment of world class executives, such as Robert and Craig, will ensure that the global vision and strategy for our company is fulfilled.”

Hale has been a part of the XanGo team for three years and his responsibilities in the past have included overseeing all legal affairs both in domestic markets as well as international markets where XanGo operates. Hale has served as Chair of XanG’s senior executive team for the past year where he and Garrity worked closely together.

Garrity is pleased at the announcement of his Hale’s promotion, “We are confident that Craig has the experience and knowledge to ensure our legendary service in every market in which we operate,” said Garrity. “His passion for the direct sales industry and XanGo’s brand is exactly what we want in a senior executive who will direct XanGo’s day-to-day operations and execute on our strategies and initiatives.”

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Nu Skin has just announced the date of its annual Investor Day presentation. The event is held each year to allow key members of executive team to not only discuss operational results of the current year, but also introduce plans for the next year.

This years Investor Day presentation will take place Thursday December 4th 2008 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.

Nu Skin will also take part this month in the Wachovia 2008 Consumer Growth Conference. The company’s CFO Ritch Wood, will be on hand in New York City on Tuesday October 14th to discuss the current consumer goods industry and the impact the economy has had on the supplements industry.

The presentation will be broadcast live on the Nu Skin site at 2:30 pm that day. Other companies taking part in the conference include, Dollar General, Sally’s Beauty Corp, and fellow direct sales company, Tupperware. No word yet on the status of the conference since the announcement that Wells Fargo has purchased Wachovia for $15.1 Billion two weeks ago.

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Well, it’s almost that time again, time for companies to begin releasing their 3rd quarter results. In the next few weeks we will hear from several of the major companies about what their business has been like the last few months and practically speaking, we aren’t expecting anything great (maybe overseas).

As we all know, the economy has struggled quite a bit lately, and although history shows that direct sales companies generally thrive in times of financial crisis, the current economic landscape is unlike anything we’ve seen since the 1920’s - especially since this is affecting all global economies.

Reliv (NASDAQ: RLV), NuSkin (NYSE: NUS) and USANA (NASDAQ: USNA) are the first of many companies who have set dates to release the news. USANA will be the first of the group to release the results on October 14, 2008. Executives will hold a conference call to discuss the announcement the following morning at 11 am Eastern time.

NuSkin will release their results prior to the market opening on October 29th. Truman Hunt, NuSkin President and CEO will hold a conference call with investors that same day at 11 am. And finally, on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Reliv will hold a conference call to discuss results of the third quarter which will be hosted by President, CEO and Chairman Robert L. Montgomery and VP and CFO Steven D. Albright.

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Nu Skin announced that they have formed a new management team to focus on growth and marketing efforts in Asia. The new team, comprised of Nu Skin veterans, will primarily focus on Japan and South Korea

NuSkin is focused on rebuilding its business in the Asian region after recent numbers show that the company is struggling in those markets. NuSkin announced that in the second quarter, there was a 13 percent drop in sales in Japan, which is the country’s largest market. NuSkin said that the “tough regulatory environment” is partially to blame for the drop.

International sales account for almost 85% percent of NuSkin’s total sales, with Japan and South Korea making up almost 70% percent alone. Nu Skin says that the regrowth of those regions will be a top priority for the company for the next quarter.

Heading up the team will be Brett Nelson, an 18 year veteran of NuSkin. Nelson will relocate to Japan to oversee the new strategic initiatives that they hope will reinvigorate sales. Nelson has formerly served as the company’s VP of Global Distributor Support and President of the Southeast Asia region.

“We are pleased to have a leader of Brett’s caliber and expertise in developing business and distributor strategies heading up our North Asia region,” said Dan Chard, executive vice president. “Brett has great insight into what drives distributors and makes them successful. He has proven to be an extremely capable and dynamic manager throughout his career and we are confident in his ability to successfully lead the North Asia region.”

Gary Sumihiro will continue in his role as president of Nu Skin Japan. Sumihiro has served as president of the market since April 2007 and has nearly two decades of experience in the direct selling industry.

As most of the top network marketing companies have come to realize, Asia represents some of the greatest growth opportunities for the future. With China have over a billion people and growing, the market is ripe.

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