“Jim had the most beautiful, wonderful smile. It came deep from within his soul. His smile mirrored through his eyes.”

That’s how Jo-an Lantz, MAS, president and CEO at Geiger, described Jim Hayes, a 40-plus-year veteran of the promotional products industry, who served as senior promotional and branding specialist at Geiger. Earlier this week, Hayes passed away peacefully in his sleep after a multi-year struggle with frontotemporal dementia from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Meeting Hayes in a work capacity – meeting him in any capacity – did not mean that a friendship with him was superficial, according to Lantz. “It was the real deal. He would do everything to help you. It didn’t matter if you were not even introduced to Jim; If you saw him, you felt that he wanted to be your friend.”

Lorrayne Mancari, retired regional sales vice president at Geiger, echoed the sentiment.

“You could talk to Jim for the first time, and he treated you like you were his friend for life,” says Mancari, who was a close friend of Hayes. “That’s how he was with his clients, too. They loved him. He’d talk to clients whose parents he’d dealt with in years past.”

A Florida State graduate whose South Boston accent would reemerge occasionally, Hayes would come to have great success with the Florida promo market, first setting his stake with Jim Hayes Corporate Recognition. In 2002, he would join distributor Forrester Smith as a senior sales representative. Geiger acquired Forrester Smith in 2006, bringing Hayes and Mancari to what is now PPAI 100’s No. 5 distributor.

Mancari remembers the first meeting after the merger, Lantz pointed toward Hayes and claimed she had been trying to recruit him for years, to which he responded, “You finally got me.”

“Jim was scrappy, a self-made success,” Lantz recalls. “He worked hard and earned his success. He was fearless; if something intimidated him, you would never know it.”

Operating out of Miami for much of his early career, Hayes maintained large accounts with cruise ships. When he moved two hours inland to Orlando to be closer to his adult children, he was able to maintain those accounts through travel and the roots of trust he’d planted over the years.

Mancari says that Hayes could sell like just about anyone in this industry, but he carried himself humbly with a casual and friendly demeanor, always smiling and often hugging.

“He was such an inspiration,” Mancari says. “You never, ever knew from talking to him how much he sold. And he was a million-dollar producer years ago when that was even rarer. He never bragged.”

Wayne Greenberg, MAS, president of Swag Krewe powered by Geiger, says that creating friendships out of colleagues was part of who Hayes was.

“Jim Hayes was everyone’s best friend,” Greenberg says. “The only thing bigger than his smile was his heart. If you needed any help with anything he was there for you. Professional yet fun, serious yet cheerful, Jim was just someone you always wanted to be around. He had a positive impact on anyone who knew him.”

Hayes’ daughter, Courtney Hoffman, CAS, is carrying on her father’s promo legacy, currently holding the position of senior promotional products consultant for Geiger.

PPAI extends sympathies to Jim’s wife, Joanna, and all of his family and loved ones.