Stran & Company (asi/337725), a Top 40 distributor, says it has hired an accomplished IT executive who will help the firm compete even better in the intensifying technology arms race that’s the modern promo marketplace.

The Quincy, MA-based company has brought aboard David Leuci as chief information officer. He will play a key role in enhancing Stran’s overall technology strategy and execution, the distributorship said.

David Leuci, Stran & Company

“Given his extensive experience in the implementation of technology differentiators, both internal and customer-facing, we believe David will add significant value to our team,” said Stran CEO Andy Shape, a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people and Counselor’s 2023 Person of the Year.

Leuci brings over 25 years of IT leadership experience within the software, e-commerce, consumer goods, asset management, fitness and healthcare industries. He was most recently chief digital information officer at the Energy Federation Inc., which provides energy efficiency solutions.

There, he helped the company grow from $20 million to over $400 million in annual revenue by implementing NetSuite and other innovative technologies. That background will come in handy at Stran, said Shape.

“Stran is actively working to fully implement NetSuite into our operations along with other e-commerce initiatives using Adobe’s e-commerce platform, Magento Open Source,” Shape stated. “David brings the first-hand experience and a deep skillset utilizing both of these platforms that will allow us to maximize our technology investments and improve the overall efficiency of our business.”

Before the Energy Federation, Leuci was senior vice president and chief information/chief technology officer at Unidine Corporation, a food and dining management services company. There he spearheaded global business system strategies, introduced process frameworks, consolidated transactional systems, supported innovation, drove digitalization and allocated resources to meet evolving business challenges, according to Stran.

Leuci has also held management and director-level positions at IBM, Millennium Partners Sports Club Management LLC, and MRO Software Inc. “By integrating technology investments and resources into their operations, Mr. Leuci engineered productivity and profit-maximizing initiatives for industry-leading companies,” Stran said in a statement. Leuci holds a bachelor’s degree from Salem State University.

In a marketplace in which end-buyers increasingly expect speed, accuracy, streamlined ordering/fulfillment, and web-based merch services like online stores, promo firms on the distributor and supplier side of the business have been stepping up client-facing and backend technology solutions, as doing so is seen as critical to compete, particularly at scale.

Based on reported 2022 North American promotional product revenue $64.3 million, Stran & Company ranked 34^th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. Stran has been a publicly traded company since late 2021. The firm trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SWAG.”