98 SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION Pancreatic Cancer Ambassadors DE BRA G E LBART | CONTRI BUTI NG WRITER PHIL M c CARTY Strong Voice Against Pancreatic Cancer

SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION 99 Pancreatic Cancer Ambassadors In the 1970s, he first sold waterbeds, then went to work for a company that manufactured them. McCarty’s career in the waterbed business — and his start in it — are notable. Hitchhiking was actually his introduction to the waterbed industry. “I got picked up hitchhiking to Boston by a waterbed delivery guy,” McCarty said. “I got a job there the next day, was that guy’s boss within a week, and fired him two weeks later for stealing.” Those who work in the mattress industry often know the manufacturers and retail store owners, and it’s not uncommon for them to maintain lifelong friend - ships with each other. In 1998, through his future business partner, Phil Sherman, Phil McCarty met Roger Magowitz, then president of Metropolitan Mattress in Phoenix and Mattress Discounters, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Magowitz and McCarty kept in touch, and after Roger established the Seena Magowitz Foundation in 2002 in memory of his mother who died from pancreatic cancer, McCarty became an early supporter. Today, the Seena Magowitz Foundation receives the bulk of McCarty’s annual charitable donations. SUCCESS BEGETS SUCCESS McCarty transitioned out of the waterbed sector and spent 30 years representing home furnishing and bedding manufacturers. In 2004, along with Phil Sherman, McCarty started designing and selling adjustable beds. In 2010, McCarty partnered with Sherman to establish Customatic Adjustable Bedz, based in Natick, Massachusetts. The company manufactures adjustable products that can be tailored specifically to meet customers’ individual market needs. In January 2017, McCarty, the company’s chief oper - ating officer, and Sherman, the president, recruited Roger Magowitz to be the company’s executive vice president, focusing on strategy. “We were very for - tunate to be able to convince Roger to work with us,” McCarty said. “I’m hoping to help Phil and Phil become number one in the adjustable furniture category,” Magowitz said. “They already make great products, with a lot of well-known retailers and manufactures carrying them. We just need to get in front of more people and build out our capacity.” This year, the company changed its name to Customatic Technologies, to more accurately reflect its broader innovative designs for the home. The new name “emphasizes our more extensive, technology-based product line,” said McCarty. Since the company’s founding, it has moved beyond adjustable bases and mattresses, introducing new smart products for other rooms in the home. SUPPORTING SEENA MAGOWITZ FOUNDATION AND PANCREATIC CANCER RESEARCH The company’s growth and expansion allows “the Phils” to continue supporting the Seena Magowitz Foundation. Neither McCarty nor Sherman has any personal family connection to pancreatic cancer, and yet, the Seena Magowitz Foundation is the focus of the majority of their philanthropic activities. “Phil Sherman and I are very big believers in giving back, and the Seena Magowitz Foundation is our leading charity by choice,” McCarty said. “We both feel blessed and fortunate to be in a position to help this most worthy cause now and in the future.” Phil McCarty has been working at the leading edge of the mattress industry for decades.