Timothy M Andrews, ASI

Timothy M. Andrews is President and CEO of the Advertising Specialty Institute, the largest marketing and media organization serving the advertising specialty industry. Prior to his position at ASI, he served for three years as Chief Executive Officer of Primedia Business Magazines, and before that he spent 16 years at Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Michele Bell, ASI

Michele Bell is the editor of Supplier Global Resource (SGR) and the senior editor of Counselor. Prior to joining ASI, Michele was an editor at TV Guide and Whittle Communications. She has been an editor at ASI for over 17 years, and has won numerous FOLIO and ASBPE awards for best feature writing. She was awarded the prestigious Jesse H. Neal Award for Best News Coverage for her SGR cover story on Asia’s impact on the U.S. ad specialty industry, and she was named ASI's Employee of the Year for 2013.

David Blaise, Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales

What do the industry's first video podcast, audio podcast, Extreme Makeover and theme song all have in common? Industry entrepreneur, author and business consultant David Blaise. In 1998, he created Top Secrets of Promotional Products Sales, the industry's premier "success system in a box." Since then, he has built the most recognized and successful training brands in the industry, including Top Secrets of Multi-Million Dollar Producers, Sledgehammer Marketing, The Ultimate Makeover System and The Power of Promotional Products. Currently, David's company helps thousands of industry professionals each year to increase sales, improve profit margins and grow their businesses on a guaranteed basis.

Dave Burnett, AOK Marketing

Dave Burnett is the CEO of AOK Marketing, a Toronto-based firm that helps traditional brick-and-mortar businesses get discovered online. Dave has worked with thousands of brands, helping them do everything from distributing millions of promotional products to implementing multinational rewards and incentive programs. Now, he’s busy helping great marketers turn their products and services into sustainable online businesses.

Jay Busselle, Affinity Express

Jay Busselle began his screen printing and graphics career reportedly sometime in the 80s while in Mr. Perry's graphics class during high school. Jay started printing “unofficial replica” T-shirts of his favorite surfing, skiing and skateboarding companies, as well as a few bands which will remain nameless. He landed his first real industry job while in college as a cut-and-paste artist for a Yellow Pages publishing company. It didn't take long before he was working for a screen printer, and soon thereafter his family owned a promotional advertising agency. Over 30 years, hundreds of promotional events and tens of thousands of T-shirts later, Jay is pretending to grow up! He’s been ranked #13 on the Stitches Power 75 list, is a highly rated industry presenter and an accomplished graphics software trainer. Jay is currently marketing and selling digital media and graphic production services at Affinity Express.

Terry Combs, Equipment Zone

Terry Combs works in sales and training with Equipment Zone, based outside NYC in Franklin Lakes, NJ. A 35+ year veteran of the garment printing trenches, Terry has managed production shops large and small across the U.S. He’s written hundreds of management and technical articles for garment-printing publications and has spoken at industry events worldwide. He is currently a trainer and industry consultant living in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is the author ofScreen Printing: A Practical Guide and Direct-to-Garment: A Practical Guide as well as other industry books available on Amazon.

Heather DiPrato, ASI

Heather DiPrato, MASI is senior vice president of distributor services for ASI.  She has dedicated more than 20 years to the ad specialty industry, and is responsible for managing ASI’s Major Account Division which includes Counselor magazine’s prestigious Distributor Top 40 and Multi-Million Dollar Round Table (MMRT) members.  Heather is passionate about technology and product development. Working together with ASI’s technology division, she and her team assist ASI members in generating more sales while streamlining their business processes to increase productivity and profitability.

Danny Friedman, Added Incentives, Inc.

Danny Friedman is the vice president of Added Incentives, Inc. He has over 25 years of sales experience and is a multi-million-dollar producer for clientele that includes some of the top companies in the Fortune 500. He combines his 18 years of promotional products industry experience with his knowledge of other industries, including office products, real estate and sporting goods. Danny has been a sales manager and sales trainer for the last 12 years.

Greg Gaardbo, Shockwave Promotional Apparel

Greg Gaardbo is the founder of Shockwave Promotional Apparel (asi/87144). He started the business over 20 years ago in a basement, after stumbling upon apparel as a “lucrative fix” for his art-school training. “Mixed media has been very popular for us,” he says. “It’s not something everybody can do, and it takes a different creative mind to put the pieces together.” Greg is a relentless experimenter who continues to devise new apparel applications and is not afraid to be different. When he’s not engaged in the craft beer movement, Greg is impressing clients with designs they never thought possible. “We can take a basic shirt,” he says, “and make it $60.”

Dave Gehrich, Atlas Screen Supply

Dave Gehrich is the vice president of Atlas Screen Supply. He learned to screen print at the age of 10 while working at his uncle’s business, and after high school he spent several years as a graphic UV printer before joining ICC Chemicals as a technical representative for the Midwest. Over the course of his 20-year career with ICC, Dave became the vice president and worked heavily in the areas of product and process development, introducing many screen printing operations to new and innovative methods for screen cleaning and processing. In October 2013, he joined Atlas Screen Supply and continues to focus on bringing new and effective products and techniques to customers. He serves as an executive consultant for ICC Chemicals, and he maintains a daily presence in many printing and decorating companies throughout the U.S.

Lillian Glass, Dr. Lillian Glass

Known as the "First Lady of Communication," Lillian Glass, Ph.D., is one of the world's most well-respected and foremost authorities in the field of communication. As a renowned body language expert she demonstrates her skills in numerous fields. She combines her unique background to educate the public in both an entertaining and compelling manner. As a sought-after author, expert witness and media personality, she shares her perspective concerning news events. Dr. Glass has written more than 14 books, including the best-seller, Toxic People, and the body language book, I Know What You're Thinking. Her clients include celebrities, major corporations, politicians and world leaders.

Carleen Gray, Stahls'

Carleen Gray, VP and chief marketing officer, oversees and directs GroupeSTAHL marketing efforts around the globe and provides members with expertise in all facets of strategic and tactical marketing, sales promotion, brand management, creative product introductions and niche market development. Carleen brings industry experience as a previous director of marketing for Stahls' in St. Clair Shores, combined with 10 years experience working with internationally known marketing companies and corporate clients in the automotive industry.

Joe Haley, ASI

Joe Haley is a 20-year veteran of the advertising specialty industry and is the managing editor of ASI's magazines. Joe has been involved with ASI TV from the beginning, starring in and producing “The Joe Show,” and filming, editing and posting hundreds of editorial-based videos at trade shows and in-house.

Colleen Hartigan, Madeira USA

Colleen Hartigan is a 32-year veteran of the embroidery industry. Recently retired as executive vice president of Madeira USA, she now works as a consultant for Madeira USA and Madeira Garnfabrik, sharing her extensive knowledge of the embroidery industry and the embroidery process. A seasoned speaker with a long history of educational training at trade shows and private seminars, Colleen shares her expertise in all facets of creating and selling embroidery. She focuses on product education and the use of the right products to improve customer satisfaction and sales.

 

Darlene Kirk, THINK LIMITLESS Promotional Products

Darlene Kirk is the founder of THINK Promotional Products (asi/242801). She’s spent over 25 years in the marketing and product-development field, designing marketing campaigns around new product and service launches in the corporate gift industry. She’s worked with leading brands, including Nike, Titleist, Wilson Sports, Norwood Promotional Products and Bic Graphics, and has developed new products around the globe. She’s also developed affiliate relationships that expose her to marketing trends that keep her on the cutting edge of new marketing concepts.

Peter Knappenberger, ASI

Peter Knappenberger is ASI's director of distributor services for the southeast region. Peter's expertise is in technology, sales and marketing, and has been helping ASI distributors to grow their sales since 2006. Before ASI, Peter spent 14 years with an import and export firm, where he was general manager. During his tenure, he grew the company sales from $7 million per year to over $24 million.

Jimmy Lamb, Sawgrass Technologies

Award-winning author and international speaker Jimmy Lamb has over 20 years of apparel decoration business experience. Lamb has extensive knowledge in many facets of digital decorating and embellishing including business startup, applications, techniques, marketing, sales, mobile, digitizing, production and management. He has owned and operated a successful production facility, started a retail franchise operation and has provided production solutions to a variety of Fortune 500 corporations involved in customization, decoration and embellishment. He’s presently ranked as #26 on the list of the most powerful and influential people in the decorated products marketplace by Stitches magazine, published by ASI. Currently, he works with Sawgrass Technologies as the manager of communication and education.

Bobby Lehew, Robyn Promotions

Bobby Lehew is the chief branding officer at Robyn (asi/309656), a branded products company recognized three years in a row by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Bobby has been recognized in various publications and speaks and writes frequently on the subjects of personal and corporate branding. A 20+ year veteran of making-things-happen with branded products, you can read more about Bobby at bobbylehew.com.

Marki Lemons-Ryhal, Marki Lemons Unlimited

Marki Lemons-Rhyal is a fifth-generation entrepreneur with over 20 years of marketing experience. Having established herself as one of the leading, award-winning social media speakers in the country, she teaches social media and technology classes for the National Association of REALTORS®, CHASE, Goldman Sachs 10k Small Businesses, REALOGY, and Chicago City Colleges. She uses her dynamic, professional attitude and vast experience to proactively offer sound industry analysis and professional guidance.

Heather Lutze, Findability University

Heather Lutze, founder of Findability University, is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant who literally wrote the book (two of them, actually) on search engine marketing: Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing and Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing. She has demystified Internet marketing for countless business owners, she’s a member of the National Speaker's Association, a Vistage International Speaker, and has shared the stage with Tony Robbins Business Mastery in Fiji and London. She’s also been on Oprah, and will happily tell you all about it if you ask!

David McClaskey, S&K Manufacturing

David McClaskey is the president of S&K Manufacturing, a leader in dye sublimation application transfers. He’s been in the printing industry for 15 years and holds multiple U.S. patents.

Craig Mertens, Digital Art Solutions

Craig Mertens is the president and CEO of Digital Art Solutions. He co-founded the company to provide products and services to companies in the apparel decoration, sign making, awards and promotional products industries. Craig’s approach to building a profitable business is based on a concept called ASSET: (A)rtwork + (S)oftware + (S)upport + (E)quipment + (T)raining = Success. With over 30 years of industry experience, Craig has been teaching electronic art production and marketing for the last 16 years. He’s the inventor of the process of creating rhinestone heat transfers and rhinestone decals with a vinyl cutter.

Aaron Montgomery, Coastal Business Supplies Inc.

Aaron Montgomery (www.aaronmontgomery.info) is the director of sales and marketing for Coastal Business Supplies Inc. He has been in the garment/personalization industry since 2000 and in graphic arts since 1997, and he’s dedicated to helping small businesses become successful. You can find Aaron and garment-printing expert Terry Combs discussing all things decoration and personalization during their weekly podcast, “2 Regular Guys.” (www.2regularguys.com)

Steve Oswald, ASI

Steve Oswald is ASI’s marketing art director, and has been creating in Adobe Illustrator for over 20 years. During his 26 years with ASI, Steve has helped to direct and shape the advertising for many of ASI’s first-class brands. He has extensive experience creating vector artwork for decorating promotional products, including screen-printing, embroidery and direct-to-garment printing.

Lisa Peskin, Business Development University

Lisa Peskin is the co-founder and CEO of Business Development University (BDU), a results-driven sales training, coaching and consulting company. She has more than 25 years of  experience in sales performance and management, and has helped thousands of selling and non-selling professionals dramatically improve their business development efforts and results through training, just-in-time support and programs designed to maximize opportunities and drive ROI.

Holly Rox, SanMar

Holly Rox is a trainer for SanMar University, focused on product training for SanMar’s inside and outside sales teams. She also travels around the U.S., meeting with SanMar customers to help them better sell apparel, and understand the varied and unique needs of the advertising specialty industry. Rox has worked at SanMar for eight years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Ford Saeks, Prime Concepts

Ford Saeks is the president and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., an integrated marketing services firm. His efforts have helped companies generate a total of over $1 billion in sales worldwide. With over 25 years’ experience (ranging from retail to wholesale), he has founded over 10 companies, authored five books, secured three U.S. patents and received numerous industry awards. Ford specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, monetize social media and ignite creativity.

Don Sanders, Don Sanders Marketing/SellPromoProducts.com

Don Sanders has been a distributor for 30 years, selling more than $17 million in products at a profit margin of 43%. He has written more than 200 articles for industry publications, given 100-plus seminars, is the author of four books and has produced films for PBS. Ten years ago, in an effort to give something back to the industry, he launched SellPromoProducts.com, a free distributor sales training website. The site is visited annually by more than 58,000 salespeople who are looking to increase their business.

Jamie Tumas, ASI

Jamie Tumas is director of the east coast sales team for distributor services at ASI. In addition to leading a team of account executives, he manages a large base of his own accounts. His extensive experience in e-commerce, customer service and sales management enables him to help distributors utilize ASI's tools and services and find unique solutions for their businesses.

Chris Vanderzyden, Chris Vanderzyden Global

Chris Vanderzyden, author of 7 Steps to Entrepreneurial Victory, is a Fox News contributor, business-development consultant, speaker and entrepreneur. She was previously a CPA for Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), and was president of a national advertising specialty company, where she grew sales into the millions. Her unique experience in the financial and marketing disciplines, coupled with her action-oriented approach, increases margins and creates a business of sustained success.

Rob Watson, ASI

Rob Watson is ASI's senior vice president of marketing and user experience. He has more than a decade of marketing communications experience and was most recently the president of MediaTree – a leading industry digital promotions agency. Before joining MediaTree, Rob worked with a nationally recognized advertising agency and produced branding and advertising campaigns for companies like the Miss America Organization, GEICO and Royal Caribbean International. He has helped numerous small businesses leverage themselves through the integration of advertising, direct mail, multi-media and interactive campaigns, as well as special events.

Ron Williams, Fey Industries

Ron Williams is the marketing director for Fey Promotional Products Group (asi/54040). He’s the author of numerous articles, and his ability to develop, implement, manage and analyze marketing strategies is well known throughout the industry. As a retired healthcare provider, he possesses critical knowledge about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how it will affect large and small businesses – and the opportunities available to distributors.