Liane has never climbed Mount Everest (and never will). So far, she’s never been in space. She doesn’t even have an Olympic gold medal (although she did win the grade 9 Phys Ed award). But the prize for solving the most difficult team challenges is named after her (no, not really, but someday it probably will be).

For the past 25 years, Liane has researched and advised teams on how to achieve high performance. Known as the “teamwork doctor,” she’s worked with teams from the frontlines to the boardroom, across a variety of industries, and around the globe from Boston to Bangkok. In working with hundreds of teams, including 26 Global Fortune 500 companies (and counting), she has developed a unique perspective on the challenges that teams face – and how to solve them.

Beyond her work in the boardroom, Liane is a New York Times Bestselling author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done and The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track. She is also a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and has been sought by several media outlets, including CNN, NPR, USA Today, The Globe & Mail and Forbes, for her expertise on increasing productivity, enhancing engagement, developing leaders, and as one client put it, “dealing with the damn drama!”

Liane’s clients include Amazon, Walmart, TD Bank, RBC, AMD, Google, Bayer, KPMG, Aviva, Maple Leaf Foods, and SONY Interactive Entertainment. Liane has experience and expertise across a wide range of industries, but with each client, she customizes her keynotes so that your audience feels like she “gets” you and has been working with your organization for years.

Neil Ringel is CEO of Polyconcept, a private equity backed billion dollar value-added supplier of promotional products across North America and Europe. He is a strategic and innovative B2B distribution executive with deep experience in digital transformations as well as building and leading customer centric teams.

Prior to joining Polyconcept, Neil was President of Staples North American delivery business where he was instrumental in the growth of the company's B2B division and until his departure served as a key leader in the company's digital transformation.

Over a 23 year career at Staples, Neil was at the forefront of salesforce leadership, digitization and membership programs that became the catalyst of the company's growth. He led the division through a Public to Private ownership change and held P&L responsibilities for a $10+ billion division with over 8,000 associates including 3,000+ salespeople as well as two public websites including staples.com, the 26th largest e-commerce site in the world.

Resilience doesn’t even come close to describing Derek’s passion for life and this industry. A revolutionary builder of brands and an experienced, self-made business development leader, Derek has also overcome a battle with cancer and open heart surgery – all while leading Touchstone to become one of the industry’s Top 25 Distributors serving a stellar client list such as Pure Romance, Progressive, Barstool Sports, and Kroger. In 2022, Derek was listed on ASI’s Power 50 as one of the “innovators, risk-takers and visionaries who are defining the future of promo," and Touchstone was recognized as a Top Workplace in Cincinnati. Never one to let obstacles slow him down, Block and team recently moved into their Design & Development BrandEQ® studio as well as a new state-of-the-art 400,000-square-foot warehouse.

CJ Schmidt is the President of Hit Promotional Products and has been in the promotional products industry for 18 years. Being in the family business since birth, he spent summers working in the business from the ground up, learning as much as he could about every aspect of the business, advancing his role from VP of Sales to President, to CEO. A graduate from the University of Florida, CJ’s passion for Hit remained unwavering even through the tumultuous times of the pandemic and the impact it had on the global economy. Today, Hit continues to rank as one of the top employers and one of the top 5 suppliers in the industry.

Rachel Kozinski is the CFO of Sky High Marketing. Rachel’s day-to-day responsibilities include determining the financial direction for the company, managing Sky High’s finance team, and heading up Sky High’s HR department. Under Rachel’s leadership Sky High Marketing has successfully walked the challenging financial path of acquisitions, bringing production in-house, and having explosive staffing growth. In the past two years, Sky High has added over 30 staff positions. Rachel was born in Zambia Africa and has lived in 5 countries growing up as the daughter of Missionary parents. These life experiences formed her into becoming a person who enjoys relating to people from all different types of backgrounds. An RN by trade, Rachel serves Sky High daily not only as CFO, but also as Sky High’s nurse, mom, and life coach. Her nurturing and caring nature is something that the entire Sky High team appreciates as she is a huge part of making Sky High’s culture one of family and relationships. In Rachel’s spare time, she is an avid runner and loves tending to her friends and family in whatever ways are needed. Rachel’s greatest joy comes from her and Josh’s three children Kylie, Caleb, and Kara.

Josh Kozinski is the CEO of Sky High Marketing. Josh founded the company at the age of 21 and in 2022 helped Sky High celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Sky High Marketing works with many Fortune 1000 companies and has offices in Las Vegas and Milwaukee. Josh has successfully led Sky High through two brand changes as well as three acquisitions. Josh has provided growth ideas that have driven Sky High Marketing to be a thriving branded merchandise agency with a staff of 55 people and sales of over $15M. In his current role, Josh focuses on company culture and looks at growth opportunities. He also is currently serving as lead designer for his team designing a new 40,000-square-foot headquarters building in Milwaukee. He is a Past President of the American Marketing Association in Las Vegas and has served on many other boards and committees. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling and sports. He also loves watching Rachel and Josh’s son Caleb play basketball for Marquette University.

Stephen Musgrave is the Executive Vice President at Genumark, the largest Canadian owned distributor and one of the largest in North America. Genumark has been recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, is a 13 time Prix Image Award recipient, and was honored as one of Counselor Magazine’s Best Places to Work. With its 42,000 square foot sales and distribution facility and over 100 full-time employees, Genumark serves over 2500 active accounts including many broad based blue chip clients. Prior to merging with Genumark, Stephen was the Executive Vice President of Sales at Rightsleeve and under his leadership, received numerous industry awards including PPAI Web Award, Counselor’s Best Places to Work, and PPPC Awards. As a musician and artist, Stephen brings a unique perspective to the business, developing a wide array of improvisational, creative solutions for his customers while building a bold, imaginative team in one of the most respected distributor companies in the industry.

Jenna Quaranta "JQ" (VP of Sales & Business Innovation) and Elson Yeung (President and Designer) of KNOSS Apparel are a duo with over 25+ years’ experience in our industry. From JQ's indisputable reputation as an industry thought leader, to Elson's creation and revitalization of leading brands; they are currently disrupting the traditional relationship between Supplier and Distributor with their new approach. While KNOSS has built a collection filled with modern designs complete with everyday function, JQ and Elson emphasizes the importance with their customers on knowing why they're selling, beyond what they're selling. By taking this fresh approach, JQ and Elson are creating a unique perspective on selling value that is supported by products, not the other way around.

Jenna Quaranta "JQ" (VP of Sales & Business Innovation) and Elson Yeung (President and Designer) of KNOSS Apparel are a duo with over 25+ years’ experience in our industry. From JQ's indisputable reputation as an industry thought leader, to Elson's creation and revitalization of leading brands; they are currently disrupting the traditional relationship between Supplier and Distributor with their new approach. While KNOSS has built a collection filled with modern designs complete with everyday function, JQ and Elson emphasizes the importance with their customers on knowing why they're selling, beyond what they're selling. By taking this fresh approach, JQ and Elson are creating a unique perspective on selling value that is supported by products, not the other way around.

As Managing Director and a co-founder of Advoc8, Ben leads the vision and growth of our new brand merchandise division, +Drop, (pronounced "and drop"). In addition to his management responsibilities, Ben leads the strategic development of Advoc8’s work with partners such as YouTube, the National Association of Manufacturers, Meta, TikTok, and Niantic. Prior to his role as Head of +Drop, Ben lead Advoc8's engagement and client services team.

Before joining Advoc8, Ben served on the founding team of Campaign Promotions (CP), a Washington, D.C.-based brand merchandising organization. He also served on the advance team for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. He worked at Barclays Capital as an interest rate trading analyst, and he was the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' West Virginia Advocacy Director.

Ben enjoys traveling, and through personal and professional endeavors he has explored the 48 contiguous states, visited over 30 national parks, spent time in countries across the globe, and lived in South Africa and the Balkans for a short time. Ben resides in Washington, D.C. He is a proud and active alumnus of Northeastern University, where he graduated with a dual degree in Political Science and Communication Studies.

Dave is a numbers guy who keeps his eyes on the future, his finger on the pulse, and is grounded in the lessons learned over the decades. Operationally, Dave keeps all the cars on the trains moving and shoulders the details so the creatives can revel in their creativity. With entrepreneurship running through his veins, Dave grew up in his family’s print shop as a 4th generation leader. His expertise in managing production and running a business has been essential to Archer & Hound’s success and continued growth.

A focused, strategic entrepreneur, Dave is committed to helping each team member thrive and fuel smart growth. In building the success of each independent department of the agency, as well as the business overall, Dave has emphasized a culture of collaboration. Nothing makes him happier than when a team of carefully selected individuals comes together to accomplish something that they couldn’t have done independently. Where a weaker soul might be scared of the inevitable unknowns of the future, Dave digs in—he continues to be excited about the challenges and adventures tomorrow may bring and Archer & Hound’s bright future.

As the lead strategist and director of account services, overseeing all agency clients, Jess has been hands-on and knee-deep in internal team-building and client projects within the fast- growing agency. Void of an “off button” or a “dimmer switch,” Jess gives her all—all of the time. It is this internal drive and passion that has wowed clients and colleagues for over 25 years. With expertise in media planning, strategy development, and organizational branding, Jess leads by example. What’s most fulfilling for this go-getter? Working alongside a talented team and building a creative culture that multiplies the awesomeness. It’s a tall order, but Jess has never backed away from a challenge.

Over nearly two decades of building Archer & Hound Advertising, Jessica’s unique approach, experience, and ability to cultivate the best assets of the team allow each of Archer & Hound’s clients to get the full “A-Team” experience. While Jess attributes many of her lightbulb moments to staring at walls or running the hairdryer (sometimes a girl just needs a little whitespace and white noise), it works—her practical tactics and drive to produce results for clients have brought to life many successful campaigns, one-of-a-kind concepts, and profit- earning sub-brands. When it comes to creating a strategy, Jess doesn’t fit into a box—and neither do her ideas.

Tom Rector serves as the CEO and founder of ScreenBroidery, LLC, a creative merchandise agency that has perfected an on-demand production process. The process fuels their e-commerce and fulfillment operations as well as generates opportunities for creative business models and strategies. Rector also manages a successful real estate investment company, a medical education company, and invests in several local startups. He graduated from Ball State University with a B.S. in Business and a Master of Public Administration. In 2002, after a series of prestigious accomplishments and volunteer work, the City of Muncie awarded him with the “Key to the City.”

Like many innovative startups, Rector founded ScreenBroidery in his living room in 2008. It has since grown it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with multiple locations and fortune 500 customers from coast to coast. In 2012 the company was named Counselor Magazines’ fastest-growing company and in 2018 one of the industry’s best places to work. ScreenBroidery is now headquartered in a 15,000-square-foot building designed to build teams through culture, collaboration, and creative thinking.

Before starting ScreenBroidery, Rector worked in Government Affairs for the Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR), and spent some time in Washington DC, in Government Affairs with Eli Lilly and the National President’s Office of the American Red Cross.

Due to his success, Rector was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Indiana Apartment Association, the Board of Directors of the Columbia Club (an Indianapolis-based City Club), and several civic boards and commissions. Tom and his wife, Nicole, and their dog Gertrude currently reside in Downtown Indianapolis.

Tom Rauen is an ultra runner, someone who runs 50, 100-mile races for the challenge of it. Tom is the founder and CEO of 1-800-TSHIRTS and Envision Custom Screen Printing and Embroidery, an Inc. 5000 company. Tom also co-founded Dimensional Brewing Company, a micro-brewery in Dubuque, Iowa. He has served on many notable boards and non-profits including a foundation Tom and his wife Amanda started, the Rauen Family Foundation, with a mission to giving back to the community.

Andy Crouch fell in love with improv in 2001 because it was cool, scary and seemed like it might change his life forever. More than two decades later, he makes his living as the Education Director and Lead Facilitator at The Hideout Theatre, teaching and performing improv comedy by night and spending his days training friendly people at organizations like Dell, Google, Whole Foods, Amazon, Facebook, EA, Rooster Teeth, Gartner, BCG and more. The scariest, coolest improv he’s doing these days is trying to Yes And his way through parenting his 8-year-old daughter.

Ruth jumped into our industry right after college, working for a distributor in a sales support role and then climbing up to managing the day to day operations of the business. 15 years ago she co-founded Paperclip Promotions, and although she wears many hats, her favorite part of the business is watching the employees learn and grow. She is an educational speaker, has served on the board for her regional association, and has been an active member on many PPAI committees.

Her favorite holidays are Halloween and Superbowl Sunday, and last year she was very close to checking off a bucket list item of seeing great whites from shark cage, but sadly none showed up.☹ Ruth loves animals, fast cars, helping senior citizens, and she believes we should all find a way to learn, love and laugh every day.

Alicia Rhodes, a South Carolina native, graduated from Clemson University and was quickly recruited by Action Plus Ideas (API). With a degree in Psychology and Marketing, she managed major accounts, developed long-term client relationships, and facilitated innovative marketing solutions. As API grew, Alicia led customer-focused teams, creating a customer-centric environment that prioritized partnership over sales. Her contributions led to her promotion as Vice President in 2014 and President in 2020. With over two decades of experience in the promotional products industry, Alicia's leadership has helped API stay ahead of technological trends, including implementing a new database-driven client portal. Since 2019, Action Plus Ideas has grown over 52% and expanded to 25 employees.

Sara Webb is the CEO at Intandem Promotions. Sara began her career in the industry as a college student working for Nevins Group. Fast forward, and in 2013, Sarah opened InTandem Promotions, a creative and vibrant promotional products distributorship located in the Atlanta, GA area. At InTandem their motto is ‘Brand with Purpose’. They believe in diving deeper into promotional branding to ensure every touch, every connection, and every interaction is intentional, direct, and mind-blowing.

Heather McLeod is the Vice President of Sales at Elite Promotional Marketing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A 3rd generation family business, Heather started at Elite literally from the ground up: cleaning bathrooms, working in the production department and building trophies, eventually spending her summers every Saturday selling in their showroom. After graduating from college, Heather joined Elite full time working her way from a sales role to Sales Manager and eventually becoming VP of Sales in 2021. In 2020, she was honoured as one of PPB Magazine’s Best Bosses, and her sales team consists of over 17 team members selling over $16 million annually. Passionate about our industry’s creative potential, in addition to leading a sales team, Heather still works with core clients day-to-day while being a mom to two busy boys and managing her sons’ hockey teams!

Dan Pantano is the President and CEO of alphabroder - Prime Line, one of the foremost leaders in the multi-billion branded merch industry. With more than 90,000 customers, alphabroder ships over 50,000 boxes and more than a million units of product a day. Their mission, to "empower our customers to brand the world through market-leading service, products & solutions" is powered by over 2,800 employees in 10 facilities across the US and Canada. Passionate about leadership and culture, Dan leads a global brand team that strives to exemplify integrity, customer care, accountability, respect, and excellence.

Catherine Graham is the Co-Founder and CEO of commonsku, a cloud-based CRM, order management and social collaboration platform that empowers entrepreneurial excellence. Designed for the promotional products industry by promotional products experts, commonsku makes it fun and easy to collaborate and connect with promotional products professionals. Distributors and suppliers use commonsku to share best practices, find great products, build closer relationships, and learn from industry experts and peers.

Catherine has over 15 years of experience in banking, management consulting, and growing businesses through her time at TD Bank, eBay, and A.T. Kearney. Catherine was also an owner and Managing Director at RIGHTSLEEVE, a leader in the online category of the promotional products industry, who sold to Genumark in 2019.

In her work with RIGHTSLEEVE, Catherine has been recognized as a PPB’s Best Boss and as an ASI Power 50 list honoree and she led RIGHTSLEEVE to multiple awards including ASI Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year, PPAI Web Award, and Counselor’s Best Places to Work. Under her leadership, commonsku has received two PPAI pyramid awards and twice been recognized as a PPB Best Places to Work.

Mark is the co-founder of commonsku, a business software application designed specifically for the promotional products industry. Mark is one of the founding chefs of PromoKitchen and is the host of the popular PromoKitchen podcast where he interviews industry thought leaders as well as business luminaries such as Seth Godin and Dan Pink. Recognized with multiple honors in the industry, including ASI's Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year, ASI’s Hot List, and PPAI’s Rising Stars, Mark has been featured in several major media publications (PPB, Counselor Magazine, Stitches, and Advantages). An innovative leader, Mark frequently mentors promotional entrepreneurs through writing, speaking, and training, and shares his technology expertise with promotional professionals across North America (PPAI Expo, ASI Chicago, ASI San Diego, PPPC, MAPPA, SPPA, Promo East, Partnering Group, NALC, ASI Power Summit).

Erin Burley is a Senior Customer Success Specialist with commonsku, a cloud-based CRM and order management platform designed for the promotional products industry. As a member of the Customer Success team, she specializes in onboarding new distributorships, building and maintaining educational resources for the platform, and offering ongoing support to commonsku’s many users. Erin takes pride in the close relationships she has cultivated within the commonsku community and prioritizes finding new ways to help users streamline and elevate their business.

Recognized by PPAI’s PPB Magazine in 2016 as one of the industry’s most Powerful Partners and by PPB Magazine as a 2018 Rising Star, Aaron Kucherawy’s grace under pressure is legendary. Aaron began with commonsku in the early days and with the platform’s rise and success, he grew from Manager to VP of customer success, leading a team that’s always there when you need him. Aaron remains one of the most admired team members by customers. An expert in platform proficiency and systems integration, Aaron thrives on guiding new users and advising the pros on how to scale and grow their business using the commonsku platform.

Bobby Lehew is the Chief Content Officer at commonsku, a cloud-based CRM, order management platform designed for the promotional products industry by promotional product experts. Bobby was the CEO for 15 years at Robyn, a branded products fulfillment company that specialized in private-label, e-commerce company stores. A multiple PPAI Gold Pyramid Award winner, a PPAI Silver Technology recipient, an Addy Award recipient, and recognized (in his work with Robyn) three years in a row by Inc. Magazine as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., Bobby is co-host of the popular podcast, skucast, and a national speaker on topics related to B2B marketing, B2B selling, and storyselling. Bobby is an ardent bibliophile who loves to explore creative insights from entrepreneurs who bridge the world between art + commerce.