at the idea of hosting what he calls “beige wall” events that overlook the importance of experience in promo. In fact, Kiewiet has run MiPPA with such ambition, that Shereda says its board holds PPAI to Kiewiet’s standard of serving members. “When we evaluate how PPAI is doing, we evaluate it from that baseline that Paul set here,” Shereda says. MiPPA is now the second-largest regional association in promotional products, behind only the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York, but to say it was once at the bottom doesn’t even begin to describe the shape it was in when Kiewiet took over as executive director in 2012. “To take an association that was on the brink of extinction to what it is now – the top of the top regionals – that’s all due to Paul’s creativity and his ability to think outside the box and execute those ideas,” says Charles Duggan, MAS, vice president of North American sales at Goldstar. PPAI Media tagged along as Kiewiet furiously responded to emails and walked the trade floor of Promotions That ROAR – distributors' and end users' field goal attempts going wide left and right on the field below. While he prepared for what he referred to as the “delicious ambiguity” of his future retirement, many people in the stadium were aware that Kiewiet saved MiPPA a decade earlier. What fewer people knew was the turmoil of Kiewiet’s life before joining MiPPA. How one of promo’s more accomplished distributors came to MiPPA – and how it gave him new purpose – “When we evaluate how PPAI is doing, we evaluate it from that baseline that Paul set here.” –Tony Shereda Must Read | Paul Kiewiet 54 • DECEMBER 2024 • PPAI
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