

JANUARY 2015 •
PPB
• 33
PPAI H
ALL OF
F
AME
|
Giving Back Comes Full Circle
seemed to be ahead of the curve, a real trend-setter, and a
big-idea guy.”
Leaning In
Now fully convinced of the effectiveness of promotional
products as an advertising medium, Kiewiet was elected as a
member of PPAI’s board of directors in 2004 and by 2007 he
was named chair, a volunteer position to which he committed
himself wholeheartedly.
“I gave as much time to being chair-
man and the PPAI business as I could,”
Kiewiet says. “My philosophy was to travel
any time and to any place.”
Former PPAI Board Chair Sherri
Lennarson, MAS, says Kiewiet invested a
tremendous amount of time and energy
in the industry. “He probably logged
more hours than any PPAI board chair in
recent history,” she says. “He worked
tirelessly to teach the benefits of tangible
advertising.”
Perhaps Kiewiet’s greatest legacy to the industry is his pio-
neering work on product safety awareness and advocacy.
Although he initially encountered resistance, his persistence
paved the way for the industry’s compliance with federal safety
regulations.
“When I first brought up the issue of product safety in
2007, it was not a popular subject,” Kiewiet says. “But by the
time my year was over, we had created the first
PPAI Product
Safety Guide
. When I see how far we’ve come today, I feel a
sense of gratification. As an industry, we
have moved the ball so far down the
court and have taken a leadership posi-
tion. That makes me proud.”
As Kiewiet’s chairmanship came to an
end, he decided to start his own consulting
company, BrandKiwi. It was during this time
that Kiewiet was challenged to the very
core by a series of painful life experiences
that literally brought him to his knees.
“I decided that whatever I did from
that moment on, I had to act out of kind-
ness,” he says. “I began to understand
that if it was about money or stuff, I needed to let it go.
Relationships were the things I was not going to let go of.”
A devoted father, Kiewiet remains very close to his two
daughters—Elizabeth, 27, who is a network engineer, and
Stephanie, 25, who is a full-time university student pursuing a
CPA degree. He and his wife, April Chernoby, enjoy adventure
sports and adventure travel, having climbed Mount Ararat in
Turkey and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro this past summer.
Brand Ambassador
During his time as PPAI chairman, Kiewiet worked very hard
to improve the industry’s image, raising awareness about the
unique and valuable effectiveness of promotional products as
an advertising solution.
“We have the only advertising medium that touches all five
senses,” Kiewiet says. “Ours is also the only one that people
will say ‘thank you’ for when they receive it. A promotional
product is the high-touch counterpoint to a high-tech society.”
Many of the words and concepts that Kiewiet introduced
back then have become part of the industry’s lexicon today.
Perhaps this is why he is considered “the marketing and adver-
tising guru of the industry,” according to Lennarson.
ABOVE
Kiewiet and his wife, April Chernoby, during a
visit to Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
LEFT
Kiewiet, pictured at age 4, grew up in Kalamazoo,
Michigan.