PPB March 2021

Truly Dedicated To Service Ma r k Abe l s , MAS Mark Abels, MAS, owner and CEO of Tulsa, Oklahoma, supplier Selco, and recipient of the 2021 PPAI Distinguished Service Award, talks about his lifelong relationship with the industry and commitment to volunteerism. By Danielle Renda F or Mark Abels, MAS, entering the promotional products industry wasn’t something that happened unexpectedly, but rather, it was something he’d been working toward all his life. Abels is the owner and CEO of Selco, formerly Seligson Company, a family-owned supplier in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a role that he was appointed to when he was just 30 years old. But growing up around the family business—Selco was founded by Abels’s grandfather, Jack Seligson, and later taken over by his father, Larry Abels—he not only knew what was needed to carry on the business, but to carry it forward as well. “I always knew,” Abels says of joining Selco. “It had been my plan pretty much forever, as long as I can remember. By the time I’d graduated [college], we really needed to restructure and figure out who we were going to be moving forward, and not change leadership but build towards that transition.” After working for a market research company for several months after earning a degree in management information systems from the University of Texas at Austin, Abels joined Selco full time in 1993 and started running the company as chief operating officer in 1998; he succeeded his father as president in 2000. Seeing as both the company and his father were going through a transitional period—Larry started a new boating business in Florida and was investing his focus there—the younger Abels led Selco through a renewed focus on watches, which is (above) Mark Abels, front row, second from right, and Selco employees share in the company's recognition as Member of the Week by the Tulsa Regional Chamber. The banner currently hangs in Selco's facility. (left) Mark Abels and his wife Tami dressed for the occasion at Selco's 80th anniversary, which had an '80s theme. 60 | MARCH 2021 | THINK