PPAI Names Margie Price, MAS, and Joel Schaffer, MAS, The 2017 Hall of Fame Inductees
Promotional Products Association International announced during its North American Leadership Conference in San Francisco it will induct Margie Price, MAS, president and owner of St. Louis-based distributor Premiums Plus, Inc. and Joel Schaffer, MAS, owner of Randolph, New Jersey-based supplier Soundline, LLC, into its Hall of Fame. Price and Schaffer will be honored at the Chairman’s Leadership Dinner during The PPAI Expo, January 8-12, in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
“Margie and Joel join a distinguished group of promotional products industry leaders who have made a measurable impact on their industry, their association and their communities,” said Paul Bellantone, CAE, PPAI president and CEO. “They are exemplary role models for their industry peers and colleagues, as well as for newcomers to the industry. It is an honor to recognize their legacy and welcome them into the PPAI Hall of Fame.”
Price has been an active member of PPAI since 1990. In that time, she has shown broad and deep commitment to the industry and the Association. Among her contributions to PPAI are two terms of services on the PPAI Board of Directors, once as the appointed two-year PPAI Regional Association Council (RAC) delegate after election to a four-year term in 2005, and service on a number of its committees. She served as chair of the Promotional Products Education Foundation (PPEF) in 2004 and advocated for the formation of the first PPAI Women’s Leadership Conference, volunteered on the Women’s Leadership Conference Work Group and worked collaboratively in the development of the Women’s Leadership Conference Grant program that was introduced in 2012.
Price was recognized in 2011 with the PPAI Woman of Achievement Award, and in 2012 with the PPAI Distinguished Service Award as well as the inaugural H. Ted Olson Humanitarian Award.
“I don’t know any words that will express how deeply moved I am to receive this incredible honor so I will simply say thank you and I promise I will try to be the kind of person who deserves to be in PPAI’s Hall of Fame,” she said.
Schaffer began his career in the promotional products industry working part-time as a distributor in New York. After working in sales with Jostens he joined Leathersmith of London as president of the U.S. arm of the British company. In 1986, Schaffer started his own business publishing an audio magazine for the promotional products industry, which ultimately became Soundline in 1991. Schaffer and his family are still active in the industry. He serves as a mentor, advisor and teacher in his community, for SAAGNY and the industry.
Schaffer served on the PPAI Board of Directors in 2004 and has facilitated education sessions for The PPAI Expo, the Regional Association Council (RAC) and regional trade shows. He also held board training sessions for various regional associations and broadcasted PPAI’s first national webinar from Seattle, Washington. He joined the board of the Association of Metropolitan Advertising Specialty Suppliers (AMASS), which merged with Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) in 1976. He was recognized in 2011 with the PPAI Distinguished Service Award for volunteer service to both PPAI and the regional community.
“When you enjoy the work you do for others and then get recognized for it, that’s fulfillment,” says Schaffer. “I am so very proud and thankful to join so many marvelous people who are in the Hall of Fame. It is even better when the award is pre-posthumous.”
BIC Honored at Proforma Convention
BIC Graphic announced it received several Supplier Awards at the annual Proforma Convention held last month in Las Vegas. Included are the Centurion Award, awarded to supplier parters who grew sales in excess of $100,000 in 2015 vs. 2014; Supplier of the Year Awards, awarded to supplier partners in four categories (printing services, packaging, promotional products and additional services; Printing Services Award (bronze, BIC Graphic Calendars); and Promotional Products Award (silver, BIC Graphic).