Renee, Eric — Couple in motion

Renee Cottrell-Brown, who began her illustrious career at Pro-Line Corporation in the 1980s, is a businesswoman whose dedication to hard work has led to her success.  Cottrell-Brown, a dynamic woman, moved up from the ground floor at the company, founded in 1970 by her father Comer J Cottrell Jr, where she held the title of In-Store Merchandiser.

Her outstanding performance helped her get a quick promotion to sales Representative and she eventually moved on to become district manager, director of marketing and senior vice president of marketing and sales.  Cottrell-Brown is the executive vice president of PRO-LINE INTERNATIONAL, an independent business unit of Alberto Culver.  Today PRO-LINE is a force in the global ethnic health and beauty care business and is the second largest company in the category. During her tenure as a senior vice president, Cottrell-Brown gained the necessary knowledge to help make PRO-LINE the largest African-American owned hair care company before its acquisition by Alberto Culver.  She was also instrumental in the implementation and creation of “Just For Me,” one of PRO-LINE’s popular and profitable lines.

Cottrell-Brown is a cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California. Cottrell-Brown is married to PRO-LINE’s president, Eric V Brown. Together they have two beautiful daughters. Of course, with faith, all things are possible. Eric not only feels truly blessed to have his faith in God and love from his family and friends, but also the strength and determination to strive for excellence. For he truly believes that excellence cannot be given, it can only be achieved. Eric Brown possesses a dynamic style and intuition that has made him an innovator in the inventory and manufacturing systems industry. Now, as president of PRO-LINE International, he is leading a company known for its innovations and successes in the hair care industry. Eric entered the University of Southern California in 1974, with the intention of becoming an electrical engineer. However, after exploring market conditions at that time, he opted for a career in finance. He received his BS Degree in Finance in 1978 and was employed by Positive Systems as programme analyst. What makes this story so remarkable is that Eric has never taken a college course in computers. Almost completely self-taught, he read computer manuals and books while riding the public transportation of Los Angeles to and from school, work and home.

Named to then PRO-LINE Corporation’s board of directors in 1985, he came on board with the company as vice president of finance just one year later. Eric accepted the challenge of working for a successful black-owned business because he could utilise his talents and impact the growth of the company. After being named  vice president of Systems and Planning, he made sure PRO-LINE stayed ahead of its competition by making PRO-LINE the first hair care manufacturing company to take advantage of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and connecting PRO-LINE’s system directly with the system of the customers and vendors. He also introduced PRO-LINE’s competitors who were even using desktop computers. Now PRO-LINE’s sales team uses “PRO-SELL,” a register trademark software programme innovation, designed and developed by Eric. This software not only gives PRO-LINE a competitive sales advantage, but also has spurred a lot of interest to be mass marketed itself. After taking on the position of chief operating officer for two years in 1995, Eric was named president. As president, Eric’s goal is to continue to move the company into the 21st century by using the knowledge he has gained from its founding father, Comer Cottrell, the support of his working partner and wife, Renee, and the dedication of the PRO-LINE family, and employees. The couple’s PRO-LINE innovation has been the key to PRO-LINE’s success and has added to their reputation as the “innovator” in the ethnic hair care industry.