In the News
PromoStandards Announces Its Official 2025
People of the Year Award Winners
As part of PromoStandards annual tradition at Tech Summit, we were proud to announce those selected by our members as standouts in the industry throughout 2025. Each winner is nominated based on the type of company they work for, being a Supplier, Distributor, or, Service Provider.
Our Supplier of the Year winner was Ajay Kaul, IT Operations Leader at SanMar. Ajay is a long standing member of PromoStandards, and head of the Best Practices Committee.
The Distributor of the Year was Allen Casey, Senior Manager of Integrations and Automation at HALO. Allen is a member of our Standards Committee.
Last, but certainly not least, was our Service Provider of the Year, David Shultz, CPO at commonsku. David has been an outspoken advocate of PromoStandards for many years and has become known for creating engaging music and video content for the PromoStandards community.
We would like to once again thank each of them for being outstanding members of the organization, and congratulate them as our People of The Year!
Membership growth and expanding the adoption of the organization’s electronic communication standards will:
Increase diversity in the PromoStandards community,
Promote collaboration with other industry professionals,
And facilitate efficiency in the promotional products and adjacent industries.
To meet these goals, the Board will utilize new standards created by the Standards Committee and guidance from the Best Practice Committee.
The PromoStandards Official 2026
Board of Directors:
Catherine Graham-Chair
Co-Founder and CEO at commonsku
Amy Rabideau-Vice Chair
VP of Product at Hit Promotional Products, Inc.
Philip Gergen-Treasurer
CIO at Koozie
Group
Amy Rabideau - Chair
VP of Client & Community Engagement at Antera Software USA
Catherine Graham - Vice Chair
Co-Founder and CEO at commonsku
Eric Alessi - Treasurer
President & CEO at Essent Corporation
PromoStandards Hosts Annual Tech Summit, Connected Technology and Business LeadersÂ
PromoStandards hosted its annual Tech Summit at the Wyndham Grand hotel in Clearwater, FL, from February 2nd to February 24th, 2026. This annual networking event features two days of presentations and discussions focusing on industry-relevant developments and PromoStandards integrations. More than 200 participants representing over 100 companies attended. This sold-out event was the largest in the industry, connecting technology and business leaders across the supply chain.
“The Tech Summit is a place to get together, learn, and rekindle old friendships and make new ones. It’s an opportunity to keep the momentum going for overall technology adoption,” said Catherine Graham, Co-Founder and CEO at commonsku.
Stephen Reynolds, Certified Information Systems Security Professional at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, returned as the keynote speaker. Stephen is a former computer programmer and IT analyst (once working at Hit Promotional Products). He frequently works on matters involving data security, privacy, artificial intelligence and computer forensic investigations.
Additionally, there were breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, and panel
discussions. Topics covered were:
- State of Tech in Promo
- PromoStandards Best Practices
- Volunteering with PromoStandards
- New Standards Introduction
- Ecommerce, POD & PromoStandards
- AI Tools for Developers
- RevOps & PromoStandards
- Keynote Session - AI Prompt Engineering
- AI in Promo - Emerging Technologies and Advanced Use Cases
Dine-Arounds were held on the second day, and a volunteer beach cleanup on behalf of Clearwater Marine Aquarium was held on the third day of the summit.
More News
- PromoStandards Announces Its Official 2023 Board of Directors - March 14, 2023 - ASI CentralÂ
- PromoStandards Announces Its Official 2023 Board of Directors -Â March 8, 2023Â -Â PPAI Media
- PromoStandards Hosted Its Inaugural Tech Summit, Connected Technology and Business Leaders -Â March 2023Â - DistributorCentral
- PromoStandards Hosts First-Annual Technology Summit - February 23, 2023Â - ASI Central
- Proforma CTO Brian Carothers Named PromoStandards Distributor Person Of The Year -Â Â February 22, 2023 - PPAI Media
- Largest Group Of Industry Technologists Ever” Gather At PromoStandards Tech Summit - February 21, 2023 - PPAI Media
- PromoStandards Announces Its Service Provider Committee - January 4, 2023Â - PPAI Media
- PromoStandards Announces Hack-A-Thon Winning Teams - November 28, 2022 - ASI Central
- Power 50 2022: No. 6 CJ Schmidt, Hit Promotional Products - November 18, 2022Â - ASI Central
- Power 50 2022: No. 13 Jon Norris, Starline USA - November 17, 2022 - ASI Central
- Power 50 2022: No. 17 Ashley McCune, Facilisgroup - November 17, 2022Â - ASI CentralÂ
- Power 50 2022: No. 47 Mark Graham & Catherine Graham, commonsku - November 14, 2022Â - ASI Central
- PromoStandards 2022 Tech Summit is Rescheduled, Will Take Place in February 2023 - October 2022 - DistributorCentral
- ASI In The News - October 2022
- PromoStandards Hosted Its First Annual Hack-A-Thon, Brought Teams Together to Solve Promotional Product Industry Challenges - October 2022 - DistributorCentral
- PromoStandards 2022 Tech Summit Postponed Due to Hurricane Ian, Will Take Place in Early 2023Â - September 29, 2022 - DistributorCentral
- PromoStandards Develops New Tech Standards for Clearing Purchase Order Issues - May 10, 2022 - ASI Central
- ASI Central In The News - June 2022
- PromoStandards Launches Live Classes, Plans In-Person Summit - February 10, 2022
- Calling All Service Providers and Solution Providers - January 13, 2022
- PromoStandards @ PPAI Expo Vegas - January 10, 2022 - October 27, 2021
- PromoStandards Launches New Website - July 19, 2021
- PromoStandards Adds New Advisory Members - January 25, 2021