Sustainable Packaging
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Join PromoKitchen + PromoCares for a discussion on Sustainable Packaging with Alex Symms of PowerStick and Denise Taschereau of Fairware brought to you thanks to the support of Hit! Promotional.
ABOUT THE GUESTS:
Alex Symms is a MAS/MASI certified National Accounts Manager at PowerStick with close to 20 years of experience in the promotional products industry. NOTE: At the time of this recording he was National Accounts for Chamelon Like and has since made the change to PowerStick. Both companies are masters in their craft and rely heavily on packaging to compliment their product line.
Additionally, Alex had the good fortune of partnering with all functions throughout his career: R&D, Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, and Leadership & Management. In addition, he’s also blessed to be Digital Marketing Certified, Google Analytics Certified, & Social Media Marketing Certified. He’s had the pleasure of being able to service Customer Service generalist roles, Human Resource generalist roles, as well as National Account Management roles and believes this gives him a unique ability to fully adapt to many situations, solve problems quickly, and give the absolute best service available when working with customers. He also believes it gave him a unique ability to understand and apply synergies in these positions to yield the greatest benefit to the business leaders with whom he partners with.
His passion is working closely with executive level teams to understand the business and design and to execute sales plans to help drive business for them by thinking out-of-the-box and offering unique products and add-on services to create a competitive advantage for them and over the competition. This ensures repeat business, referrals, and a completely satisfied customer. His core competencies consist of HONESTY, INTEGRITY, and TRANSPARENCY. Combined with a passionate curiosity to learn and a battle-worn confidence to push through any adversity, he’s been able to maintain success in a very competitive industry with dramatic fluctuations in costs, advancement in product technology, and adapting to innovation.
Denise is chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder of Fairware. Denise got the idea to launch Fairware when she noticed how difficult it was to source promotional merchandise that reflected the social and environmental priorities of many of the brands and organizations she admired.
Prior to starting Fairware, Denise spent seven years as the Director of Sustainability and Community for Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada’s largest outdoor retailer. At MEC, she oversaw the Co-op’s national environmental programs, community grant-making and ethical sourcing programs, and wrote their award-winning first Sustainability Report.
She is currently a board member of Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). PPAI is the largest non-profit trade organization for suppliers and distributors of promotional products. Denise is also a board member of Promocares, a group working to inspire, educate and provide actionable strategies to encourage social and environmental responsibility in the promotional products industry. Denise was a member of ETSY’s Manufacturing Advisory Board, a Board Member with the Green Meeting Industry Council and the past co-chair of Vision Vancouver. She has a Master of Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University.