For more than two decades, Billie Jo Mathusek has honed her marketing expertise, at one point managing a $75 million business unit start-up team that sought to accelerate customer acquisition and spend through multi-channel marketing techniques.

Now, Mathusek will bring her experience to bear for Top 40 distributor AIA Corporation (asi/109480), which just named the Wisconsin resident its new director of marketing.

Billie Jo Mathusek, AIA

“Billie Jo is undoubtedly the perfect person to fill this role,” said Kimberly Fulford, senior vice president of owner success at Neenah, WI-based AIA. “Her understanding of entrepreneurship, extensive expertise in retail marketing, ability to build dynamic cross-functional teams, and forward-thinking leadership style makes her extremely well-suited to take our marketing capabilities to the next level.”

According to AIA, Mathusek will lead all aspects of the distributorship’s marketing efforts. Responsibilities will include strategic leadership, content strategy and execution, public relations, email marketing strategy, and trade show and event management. Furthermore, Mathusek will develop the company’s marketing department to ensure that top talent is hired to support AIA’s growth and help the firm’s community of owners to build their businesses, the distributorship said.

“I have always been surrounded by a family of entrepreneurs and as a significant part of my career, chose that path for myself,” said Mathusek. “I know the grit and determination it takes to succeed as a business owner, the obstacles that can stand in the way and how to create opportunities for success. I look forward to working closely with our owner community to understand their unique marketing needs and to implement innovative solutions that drive growth.”

For 22 years (1997 to 2009), Mathusek worked in marketing for J.J. Keller & Associates, a company that specializes in workplace regulation compliance products and services. Mathusek rose through the ranks to a senior marketing manager position where she guided a team of 26 that executed marketing initiatives for the $75 million business unit.

Mathusek is also an entrepreneur, running a consulting firm that has advised small businesses up to multi-million dollar companies about how to use customer insights as a tool for campaign management, corporate rebranding and growth initiatives.

For the last several years, Mathusek has been senior marketing manager at Pacon Corporation, which offers a range of paper-based school products and school art materials. Focusing on retail and consumer insights at Pacon, Mathusek spearheaded the development and execution of a long-term marketing and growth strategy. She was also a catalyst for the build-out of Pacon’s online presence, which helped drive sales growth, AIA said.

Beyond bringing Mathusek aboard, AIA recently hired Sarah Refait as marketing manager for AIA’s new business development team. Reporting directly to Mathusek, Refait will be responsible for creating and managing large marketing campaigns for lead generation, as well as utilizing project and traffic management skills to meet AIA’s business development initiatives. Refait’s experience includes time as a marketing coordinator and assistant manager of email services at ASI.

Additionally, Jared Birkholz recently joined AIA as the new digital marketing specialist. Birkholz’s responsibilities will include leveraging inbound marketing efforts such as SEO/SEM, social media and content to help owners and AIA to direct marketing outreach to specific audiences.

With reported 2017 North American promotional product revenue of $175.4 million AIA Corporation ranked 11^th on Counselor’s latest list of the largest distributors in the industry. In January, AIA announced that 2018 annual revenue increased 11% year-over-year to $194.9 million.