Dan Pantano | Must Read Some say you don’t truly know the promotional products industry until you’ve attended The PPAI Expo in Las Vegas for the first time. When alphabroder president and CEO Dan Pantano came into the promo world a decade ago, he took in the event during his first week on the job. Talk about a crash course. “It was a way to truly get connected in the industry and start to build relationships,” says Pantano, who is now halfway through his first year on the PPAI Board of Directors. At the time, Pantano had already built up a prominent career in the healthcare industry, serving as president at companies such as McKesson and ThermoFisher Scientific. While alphabroder is one of the behemoths of our industry, the supplier has grown considerably under Pantano’s leadership. The companies he had worked at previously were massive, on a different scale than even alphabroder. Entering promo was a pivot for Pantano, one that meant leaving a good career. But while a presidential role at a large healthcare company can mean a lot of responsibility, the odd sort of dynamics that make healthcare both complicated and rigid in different ways means that it didn’t always come with what felt like a lot of creative influence. At alphabroder, and in promo, Pantano has seen innovative decisionmaking affect companies and people in big ways. Now, he’s taken that responsibility and impact to PPAI, having been elected to the Board of Directors. Pantano stopped to chat with PPAI Media about the board’s most important responsibilities and where he sees the industry going forward. PPAI Media: You spent multiple decades working in the healthcare industry. What prompted the move to alphabroder and the promotional products world? Pantano: It was time for a change. I had worked for three large Fortune 50 publicly traded companies in the healthcare distribution and health care services arena for 20 years when this opportunity presented itself. I spent a good six months just trying to understand this industry before I took the job. It was a big leap of faith and a big risk for me to make a career change like that. But I’m glad I did it. It’s been everything I thought it’d be and then some. PPAI Media: Did it feel like a steep learning curve? Pantano: Yes, but there were a lot of parallels to my former career. A distribution business is a distribution business. It’s about providing great service, innovative products and solutions to help customers solve problems and grow their business. I was able to apply things that I had learned in the healthcare distribution world to what we do at alphabroder. alphabroder was coming out of the difficult times of 2008 and I spent a good six months just trying to understand this industry before I took the job. It was a big leap of faith and a big risk for me to make a career change like that. But I’m glad I did it. It’s been everything I thought it’d be and then some. PPAI • SEPTEMBER 2023 • 47
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