PPB January 2016

90 •

PPB

• JANUARY 2016

CONNECT

the operations team, which not only manages

the show floor, but also handles registration,

housing, room assignments, special event pro-

duction, food and beverage, and the set up

and tear down for each show. Khris Harris,

Expo manager, has been active with the Texas

Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and for

several years has helped organize staff to make

whimsical cast covers and paracord bracelets

for the kids. Diane Shearer, who is responsible

for the shows’ registration, is a passionate ani-

mal lover. Each year, she organizes events to

support a local animal shelter. As you will

read later, several staff members have fallen

under the influence of pleading “puppy eyes”

encountered while working at the shelter.

Information technology is the lifeblood of

every successful enterprise. Luckily for PPAI,

it is entrusted to the capable management of

fellow guitarist and all-around good guy Paul

Elfstrom. Paul leads a team that includes IT

professionals Doug Andreasen, Doug Sterns

and Vicki Sypien. Their responsibility

includes all the technology in the building—

management of all the websites, the network,

the accounting system and the phone sys-

tem—and keeping it operational 24/7. Their

expertise is critically valuable to the

Association, like the time earlier this year

when malware activated on the network and

secretly encrypted thousands of files. Working

around the clock for several days, literally, the

team solved the problem and recovered the

files. A special thank you goes to Doug A. for

his efforts. Aside from their uber-geek skills,

and not to be outdone by their colleagues, this

is a pretty charitable group. Doug S. adopts

dogs from shelters to save them from being

put down, Vicki has been PTA president for

three years and runs fundraisers for the

school. And Paul put his musical connections

to work getting his bandmates to help him

organize a five-band music festival to benefit

prostate cancer research.

Our newest director is AJ Hunter who

joined PPAI in April 2014 as director of

finance and administration. AJ is known for

his gregarious personality, his endless enthusi-

asm and beloved TCU Horned Frogs. At

PPAI, he manages a team of seven finance

professionals including Dennis Cormany, who

celebrated his 36th year of employment with

PPAI this year. Congratulations Dennis! AJ’s

team made a great contribution to PPAI

management this year by

implementing a new budgeting

and forecasting system. It was a

huge help in driving results and

reducing the time to develop

our annual business plans. This

year, after volunteering for

PPAI at a nearby animal shel-

ter, AJ decided to follow Doug

S.’s lead by adopting his own

rescue puppy just one hour

before the pup was to be euth-

anized. Good save, AJ.

Finally, our business devel-

opment team of Natalie Clark,

manager of membership

services, and Ellen Tucker,

manager of business develop-

ment, have been great addi-

tions to the PPAI team since

their arrival in 2013. Natalie

has extensive experience man-

aging an international call cen-

ter, which has served her well

as manager of the “fishbowl,”

as the PPAI call center is

affectionately called. Natalie

also manages PPAI’s affinity

programs. Ellen has an adver-

tising sales background which

has enabled her to have a

strong impact on publication

revenues in her two years at

PPAI. Outside of work, Ellen

is an avid soccer fan and plays

in several indoor and outdoor

leagues in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Dara

Cormany, a business development analyst and

daughter of PPAI Controller Dennis

Cormany, is a former SMU athletic trainer

for their football team. She attended several

bowl games (including one in Hawaii) and

has the rings to prove it. Connie Brazil, busi-

ness development account manager, heads up

the Association’s wellness committee. Her

attempts to whip the staff into shape include

organizing an after-hours yoga class in the

office, bringing in a trainer to conduct a

health and wellness education series, organiz-

ing blood drives and coordinating several

other health and wellness challenges through

the Association’s beBetter Wellness program.

These are just a few examples of the

exemplary PPAI staff members—if space had

permitted I could have easily praised every

staff member by name.

So now you know a little more of what

I know, and what all of our board members

know: that this Association is the gold stan-

dard in the promotional products world

because of our people. I told you about

some of them. I wish space afforded me the

opportunity to tell you about all of them.

But more importantly than telling you, I

had the opportunity to tell them—in per-

son. In November, it was my honor to

attend the PPAI Annual Awards Luncheon

on behalf of the board and the Executive

Committee and tell all 80 staffers what I

just told you. They are the best and we are

all the very lucky beneficiaries of their

extraordinary work.

TOP

The PPAI staff’s generosity has provided thousands of

pounds of food every year to those less fortunate in the

local community through an annual food drive for Irving

Cares.

BOTTOM

The PPAI staff also made and donated

more than 300 bracelets, keychains and other paracord

items for children at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital as well as

decorated and donated almost 170 socks to the hospital for

use as cast covers for toddlers recovering from surgeries.