ASI's Counselor Magazine Names Industry's Most Powerful People

HALO CEO Marc Simon captures No. 1 spot; 11 newcomers hit list

TREVOSE, PA - September 17, 2013 - The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI) today released the names of the most influential business leaders in the promotional products industry with the release of the 2013 Counselor^® Power 50 list.

Marc Simon, CEO of Top 40 distributor HALO Branded Solutions, jumped from the No. 6 slot last year to No. 1 on the 2013 list. Simon led an impressive 17% growth at HALO and received very high influence scores from his fellow Power 50 members.

ASI recognized the high-ranking executives Monday night at the seventh annual ASI Power Summit, held this year in Park City, Utah and attended by entrepreneurs, multi-national CEOs and small business owners throughout the $19.4 billion promotional products industry, which has posted 14 straight quarters of earnings growth and is on track to hit record-breaking sales of $20 billion by the end of the year.

“To our industry, the Counselor Power 50 list is as significant as the Time 100,” Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI said at a celebratory dinner. “But the Power 50 list is not a dusty old inventory of past accomplishments. It’s a living, breathing document of the here and now – as well as a blueprint of our future. This year, twice as many new people made the list as the year before. The one constant is that everyone is, in some significant way, a leader. If your peers look to you for advice, for straight talk, for inspiration and innovation, in good times and bad, chances are, you’re a leader. And you’re either on the Power 50 list or on your way.”

Published 13 times a year by ASI, the Jesse H. Neal award-winning Counselor magazine has served as the voice of the promotional products industry for nearly 60 years. The magazine has recognized the industry’s Power 50 every year since 2006.

The rankings of the most influential executives in today’s ad specialty market is determined by a panel of experts from throughout the industry and from Counselor magazine, along with results of a survey of the industry and the Power 50 themselves that rates whether each person on last year’s list has gained or lost influence over the past 12 months.

The top-ranked executives on the 2013 Counselor Power 50 list are:

Marc Simon, HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000)
Marty Lott & Jeremy Lott, SanMar (asi/84863)
Michael Bernstein & David Nicholson, Polyconcept
Kevin Lyons-Tarr, 4imprint (asi/197045)
Greg Muzzillo & Vera Muzzillo, Proforma (asi/300094)
Eric Bensussen & Jay Deutsch, BDA (asi/137616)
Gene Geiger & Jo-an Lantz, Geiger (asi/202900)
Rich Witaszak, Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601)
Jonathan Isaacson, Gemline (asi/56070)
David Woods, AIA Corporation (asi/109480)

The Power 50 list includes 11 newcomers:

Jeremy Lott, SanMar (asi/84863)
Norm Hullinger, Broder Bros. (asi/42090)
Rick Brenner, Prime Line (asi/79530)
Jonathan Lu, Alibaba Group
Edgar Hernandez, BIC Graphic Worldwide
Doug Hayes, Ash City (asi/37143)
Ted Stahl, GroupeSTAHL
Marc Roy, BrandAlliance (asi/145177)
Lori Kates, Vitronic Promotional Group (asi/93990)
Rick Mouty, Profill Holdings (asi/300152)
Bill Smith Jr., Brown & Bigelow (asi/148500)

Learn more about members of the 2013 Power 50 in the October online and print editions of Counselor, which contain predictions on what’s ahead for the industry. For the complete Counselor Power 50 ranking, click here.

Melinda Ligos is ASI’s editor in chief and senior vice president of professional development. ASI publishes seven catalogs, five magazines and seven newsletters. ASI’s magazine circulation is audited and growing, and Counselor^®’s collection of top lists are now the industry standard.

For more information, contact Andy Cohen, Counselor editor, at (215) 953-3326 or acohen@asicentral.com.

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) is the largest media, marketing and education organization serving the promotional products industry, with a network of over 25,000 distributors and suppliers throughout North America. ASI leads the industry in technology solutions, providing cloud-based e-commerce, enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and customer relationship management software (CRM). ESP Web^® is the industry’s leading tool for sourcing hundreds of thousands of products. A family-owned business since 1962, ASI also provides online research, marketing, advertising opportunities, trade shows, education, award-winning magazines, newsletters, custom websites and catalogs to help members sell, market and promote their brands. Visit ASI at www.asicentral.com and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the CEO’s blog.

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