#29 David Klatt & Melissa Ralston

Koozie Group (asi/40480)

2021 Rank: #39

David Klatt – CEO

Industry Experience: 5 years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 4

Melissa Ralston – Chief Revenue Officer

Industry Experience: 16 years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 1

Klatt and Ralston move 10 spots higher on this year’s list thanks in part to solid scores on influence from Power 50 peers and industry personnel. The pair of executives also slide up thanks to an aggressive rebranding strategy that started with the company’s name change in 2021 (from BIC Graphic) and has continued with enhancements across a number of fronts.

Klatt and Ralston have proactively positioned Koozie Group as an industry leader in key areas such as sustainability and corporate social responsibility – a reality evidenced by the company’s “Keep it. Give it.” program. Suppliers have been forging more partnerships with retail brands to meet growing demand, and Koozie Group has been in the thick of the movement, as evidenced by this year’s teaming up with GCI Outdoor and others.

As a result, promo’s sixth-largest supplier returned to revenue growth in 2021 – something that the duo have been working to build upon in 2022.

Meanwhile, Klatt and Ralston tell ASI Media that Koozie Group has been hard at work bolstering its employee levels – and strengthening its culture.

“We’ve hired dedicated team members that are solely focused on employee engagement, recognition and development as we feel strongly that by making this a fun and rewarding place to work, we’ll be able to better fulfill our goals of delivering purposeful products and satisfied customers,” says Ralston. “We’re retraining and building out a learning module system by function to ensure our employees have the proper tools and training to make them successful.”