Dennis Conforto (May 15, 1952 – Present) is an American entrepreneur and businessman. Born in San Diego, CA to Idella May Josephine Conforto Blum, Dennis was adopted 33 years later by Joseph Conforto. Dennis’ career spans the retail, technology, e-commerce, media buying, and publishing sectors.

Personal Life

In his early life, Dennis Conforto lived in South Philadelphia. Later, as a teenager, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Seattle, WA where he learned about the value of hard work as a young boy, mowing lawns for his grandfather. Dennis’ grandparents live a humble life in a modest home, so Dennis was surprised to learn after his grandfather’s death that many of the mansions on which Dennis helped maintain the landscaping were actually owned by his grandfather. As a result of this revelation, Dennis learned that one doesn’t need to show wealth to be wealthy.

Life would take some unexpected turns for Dennis, and by 1970 he was homeless on the streets of Seattle, through no fault of his own. He spent the next year alone on the streets worrying about how to survive. Eventually he realized that that if he didn’t start to believe in himself, no one else would either, and he would remain homeless. He risked losing all of his possessions for the opportunity to get a job, and his risk paid off. This decision helped Dennis get back on his feet. Years later, an award-winning short film entitled, “Cursed is the Ground” was produced, depicting Dennis’ experiences while homeless. ^[1]

Dennis married Bonny Jean Nagle in Oakland, CA in 1975. They had seven children -- three daughters and four sons – but tragically, two of their sons passed away in infancy. In addition to raising their own children, Dennis and Bonny cared for over 24 foster children. The couple also reached out to open their home to several unwed teenage mothers, as well as a large number of foreign exchange students. Although Dennis and Bonny divorced in 2006, they both remain committed to their friendship, the children they raised, and the many grandchildren with which they have been blessed.

Dennis went on to marry Marie Carol Ellison in Draper, UT in 2008. Marie served in the Department of Defense at the Pentagon. The couple met in San Diego but now resides at Rancho Conforto in Parma, ID. They share 6 living children and 23 grandchildren.

Business Career

Mr. Conforto began his career with Seattle-based Doces Home Furnishing in 1975, then the 40th largest home furnishings, consumer electronics, an appliance chain in the US. He served as an Executive Vice President, and was responsible for sales, merchandising, advertising, and operations. ^[2]

Working in an industry that lacked technology to manage inventory and customer information in real-time led Mr. Conforto to join S.A. Levitz in 1981, later renamed GERS Retail Systems, ^{[3] [4] [5]} a vendor of retail management information systems. ^[6] GERS went public in 1984 and was sold to GE in 1986. Dennis joined GE at that time as Vice President Retail, where he oversaw the Retail Systems Services group. Five years later, in 1991, Mr. Conforto and partners bought the company back from GE and grew it internationally. By 1997 GERS was the industry’s leading supplier of retail systems solutions. ^{[7] [8]}

Dennis also served on the committees that created the barcode standards both nationally and internationally, as well as the industry standards committees for EDI and video cataloging.

It was during this time that Mr. Conforto realized there was no school or degree in retail specialty, despite its status as one of the largest industries in the world. What he discovered was an unaddressed need for education for retail professionals. So while at GERS, his team created a curriculum that could be used to train tens of thousands of retailers all over the world that would specifically address the retail business model, increase profits, and boost employee retention rates. ^{[9] [10]}

In 1998 Dennis sold his interest in GERS Retail Systems to an investment group based in San Francisco and enjoyed a brief retirement.

Then, in January 1999, he founded ShopA-Z.com, an e-commerce company that controlled over 7,000 “shop dot com” domain names worth over $500 million dollars. His team also launched over 2,000 shopping websites in a 45-day period of time. However the dot bomb crash hit the marketplace, so his team shifted their interests and investments to what would become the A-Z Media Group. ^{[11] [12] [13]} This organization included A-Z Media Buying, A-Z Productions, The Smart Group, ^{[14] [15] [16] [17]} and Scrapbooking.com Magazine, which publishes the world’s largest online scrapbooking publication, www.scrapbooking.com, with over 300,000 active readers in over 120 countries, representing 37 different languages. ^[18] By the end of 2014, Mr. Conforto sold various business units and was ready to retire again, but being the consummate entrepreneur he is, another idea was around the corner.

By March 2016, Mr. Conforto founded a new company, HouseCheck, with many of his long-time executive work associates. The concept behind HouseCheck is to create a national consumer brand for home inspections. HouseCheck’s mission is simple: To revolutionize the home inspection industry to the benefit of home buyers, sellers, and inspectors.

Throughout his career, Mr. Conforto has also served on the Boards of various trade associations. He has also been a columnist for numerous retail industry publications, and has lectured extensively on various topics from retail, marketing, and operations, to sales, technology, and advertising. He has authored two books on consumer trends and is about to release an autobiography entitled, “Life. Done Right.”

Your recent article submission to Articles for Creation has been reviewed! Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. The reason left by SwisterTwister was:

This submission's references do not adequately show the subject's notability. Wikipedia requires significant coverage about the subject in reliable sources that are independent of the subject—see the guidelines on the notability of people and the golden rule. Please improve the submission's referencing (see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners), so that the information is verifiable, and there is clear evidence of why the subject is notable and worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia. If additional reliable sources cannot be found for the subject, then it may not be suitable for Wikipedia at this time.

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There's no automatic inherited notability from anything or anyone else and this is simply a business PR listing since the sources are also only business announcements and mentions.

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SwisterTwister talk 19:07, 13 January 2017 (UTC) reply

Hello, Schl9566. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, " Dennis Conforto".

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Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Cabayi ( talk) 13:14, 31 August 2017 (UTC) reply