Voting is under way for the PPAI Board of Directors Class of 2022, and will run through September 29. PPB Newslink is taking a closer look at each of the four candidates, and is beginning the series today with Dan Frailey, president of supplier RuMe, Inc. in Centennial, Colorado.
A member of the promotional products industry for nearly five years, Frailey has served on several industry advisory committees and panels. Outside the industry, Frailey has served as chair of the board for Heartland Alliance, as committee chair for the Big Shoulders Fund, and is the founder of Booth Social Impact. In his free time he enjoys skiing, snowboarding, designing and building furniture, and participating in CrossFit. He is a fan of the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco 49ers, as well as Notre Dame football.
Prior to joining the promotional products industry, Frailey worked with Groupon, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Susquehanna International Group. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Asked how PPAI can best use its limited resources to fulfill the Association’s mission of protecting and growing the industry, while simultaneously ensuring the success of a diverse and sometimes disparate constituency, Frailey says, “Our industry is a web of 14,000 diverse collaborators. This interconnected web makes possible an incredible variety of business models, and products and services for corporate marketers. With so much diversity, only PPAI can speak and ‘think’ for the whole industry on the macro-level issues that are bigger than any single company. In a time of unprecedented demographic, technological and economic change, key questions abound.
“For example: If politicians implement a carbon tax, how would that impact our reliance on global supply chains? Millennials spend more money for fewer goods and prefer experiences to things; how will we adapt? Artificial intelligence, drones and virtual reality, formerly just punchlines, are becoming commercial realities—will they complement our roles or replace them? Amazon Amazon Amazon?
“Every company leader needs actionable answers to these questions. PPAI needs to be the forum for finding those answers.”
Watch upcoming issues of PPB Newslink for an indepth look at each of the remaining three board candidates.
The PPAI Board of Directors election gives industry members the opportunity to select the leaders that can transform the Association. This year’s election is being conducted online and by paper ballot. Paper ballots were mailed to all voters. To learn more about the election, the distributor and supplier candidates, and how to vote, visit PPAI’s website. The results of the election will be published in early October.
