Top 40 distributor Corporate Imaging Concepts (CIC, asi/168962) has named David Ashe chief executive officer.

Ashe has decades of experience as an executive leader, having spearheaded private equity-backed companies and worked in the PE market. CIC, like a growing number of large promo companies, has a private equity partner – Berkley Capital. 

David Ashe, Corporate Imaging Concepts

Ashe believes CIC has significant growth potential.

“CIC is uniquely positioned in the competitive promotional products industry, by focusing on taking the pain out of managing branded merchandise at large companies,” said Ashe. “CIC’s technology expertise and superhuman customer service deliver on our promise to make merch easy for any industry.”

Former CEO Bob Herzog, who began in the position in 2017, is no longer with the company. Herzog is also the former CEO of Bullet and past chief operating officer at Top 40 supplier PCNA (asi/66887).

Ashe has been an executive leader in the B2B and B2C channels, and spearheaded businesses internationally.

He was most recently president of private equity-owned Rapid Armored Corporation, which serves the cash transportation and processing needs of businesses and government entities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Before that, he was CEO/president of FFI Holdings, (now Simple Management Group), a private equity-backed company that operated a chain of 52 pawn shops and jewelry stores in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Ashe was also a partner at Advent-Morro Equity Partners, a Puerto Rico-headquartered PE firm. As partner, he was involved in deal sourcing of companies seeking expansion capital. As a portfolio board member, he provided strategic governance across six portfolio companies. 

Meanwhile, another role for Ashe was that of chief executive of Latin American B2B publishing company, B2B Portales, Inc. He later became country manager for the USA/Caribbean region for B2B Portales’ parent company Carvajal, a 1904-founded Latin American multinational corporation.

CIC believes all this experience will help Ashe power success at the Illinois-based firm. He’s already working toward that, with one area of focus being tech-driven solutions and partnerships with major clients.

“Customer-centric, accessible, and inclusive online stores have been at the forefront of CIC’s success, and I’m excited to work with our team’s deep list of Fortune 1000 relationships to continue to accelerate our position as leaders in our space,” said Ashe.

Based on reported 2022 North American promotional product revenue of $111 million, CIC ranked 24th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. In 2018, the firm acquired Georgia-based distributor eCompany Store.