“Impact potential.”
Elizabeth Wimbush says that’s what drew her to PPAI and her newly announced role as the Association’s first-ever director of sustainability and responsibility. The PPAI Board of Directors made elevating these causes a pillar of the strategic plan it developed for the industry in 2021. And the hiring of Wimbush indicates PPAI’s sincere intention to see it through.
“There is a need to bring everybody and all this positive intent together and galvanize it into action,” says Wimbush, an industry veteran of nearly seven years. “I want to be part of that.”
The native Canadian, who currently serves as vice-president of supply chain and sustainability for distributor Genumark (PPAI 261066, D11), will begin her Association tenure late next month. As she is set to become one of the industry’s most important leaders and an authoritative voice on all things ESG, she says the earliest days in her new role will be about listening and collaborating.
In her post, she will head an overarching responsibility committee of industry volunteers, which will encompass groups focused on sustainability, product responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I really think that it’s a great opportunity for there to be a lot of feedback taken in from all sorts of different stakeholders, to come up with a plan that really works,” Wimbush says.
While the industry itself will offer recommended directions, PPAI’s intent is for Wimbush to take the wheel.
“We cast a fairly wide net in search of the right person for this position,” says PPAI Senior Vice President Alan Peterson. “Elizabeth clearly stood out as the candidate best suited to lead. She comes from the industry and understands the challenges of suppliers, distributors and buyer clients, and she has the same passion in these areas as the most conscious end users of promotional products.”
Wimbush will report to Peterson. After settling in and assessing the resources needed, it is expected she will begin staffing a new department to support the initiatives she develops.
The opportunity, in essence, is a blank canvas and a mandate to do what needs to be done for this industry – often criticized as one marked by waste – to clean up its act once and for all and push past negative connotations.
“I think it speaks well to PPAI really listening to members and understanding that it is important,” Wimbush says. “PPAI has a focus on providing value to everybody and to make sure that their voices are not going unheard.”
The most immediate opportunity for overall industry growth is through education, she says.
“There are so many buzzwords out there and a lot of fearmongering and praying on people’s emotions around the urgency of climate change,” Wimbush says. “I think that the first thing is really helping to empower people with education on what they can do personally and what their business can do, and to understand that there are clear paths forward, and there are frameworks in place that can help everybody contribute.”
Wimbush herself is as educated on the topics as anyone in the marketplace. She’s earned credentials in sustainability from MIT Professional Education and the United Nations Systems Staff College. Her supply chain background brings accreditation in logistics, ethics in decision-making and operations perspectives, among others.
After beginning her career with CN, the Canadian National Railway Company, she owned and operated a café in Toronto for seven years before being recruited to the promo industry by Catherine and Mark Graham, co-founders of commonsku.
Wimbush’s first job in promo was as a production manager for Rightsleeve Marketing, the distributorship the Grahams owned before selling to Genumark in 2019. By January 2022 she had become Genumark’s VP of supply chain and sustainability. She helped guide the company – distributor No. 38 on this year’s PPAI 100 – to achieve B Corp status in May.
Catherine Graham says she saw Wimbush’s interest in corporate responsibility soon after she joined Rightsleeve. Although it wasn’t the nature of her initial role, Wimbush was encouraged to apply her passion wherever she saw the opportunity.
“Liz brings a deep understanding of the industry to her role and a strong perspective on where the industry needs to evolve,” Graham says, noting Wimbush’s experience driving relationships with sustainable suppliers. “She understands what is needed to make an organization successful in adopting sustainability goals and corporate responsibility initiatives.”
Wimbush, who is currently in the process of moving with her husband from Toronto to Los Angeles, says most of her free time is spent with her two dogs, riding her motorcycle, hiking or swimming. On the road or in the woods, alone or with friends, “I’m never bored when I’m out in nature,” she says.
Those are moments worth protecting, and that drives Wimbush.
“The incredible richness and diversity of life is the most awe-inspiring thing,” she says. “Making sure that future generations can enjoy the same natural world that we’ve been able to enjoy is really important.”
She says much of her life and career seem to have led her to the new role.
“It really ties into my ‘why.’”
