#8 Jonathan Isaacson & Frank Carpenito

Gemline (asi/56070)

Jonathan Isaacson – Executive Chairman

2025 Rank: #9

Industry Experience: 38 years

Previous Appearances on Counselor Power 50: 20

Frank Carpenito – President & CEO

2025 Rank: #9

Industry Experience: 12 years

Previous Appearances on Counselor Power 50: 3

The duo leading Counselor Top 40 supplier Gemline (asi/56070) rises one spot on this year’s Counselor Power 50 list after a banner 12 months that included 10% sales growth in the first half of 2026. Isaacson and Carpenito oversaw the introduction of more than 350 new products, including the addition of sunglasses and chairs. They also expanded Gemline’s writing instruments category while shortening lead times.

For distributors, Gemline launched new self-service tools, with features such as order tracking and customized catalogs, and forged partnerships with eight retail brands: Hydro Flask, BOSKA, Crocs, Dometic, EarFun, City Bonfires, Ringo and LifeStraw. Gemline also reported significant eco achievements in its latest corporate responsibility report and was named a Counselor Best Place to Work.

However, the gains didn’t come without challenges, including persistent inflation and global cost pressures, which have increased costs for staffing, raw materials, production supplies such as ink, insurance and transportation, says Carpenito. The executives have sought to mitigate that impact through a combination of process adjustments, domestic vendor shopping, automation and margin absorption where needed. Now, Isaacson and Carpenito are looking at ways to leverage AI not just for copywriting and graphic design, but also to better serve distributor customers.

“Next,” says Carpenito, “we’ll leverage AI and automation to increase speed and accuracy and create an improved overall customer experience, continue to outpace the industry in growth as we’ve done since 2019, and increase our positive community and environmental impacts via our betterway platform.”