Clay Hall, who principals say has overseen more than $45 million in sales and $12 million in gross profit in his sales leadership career, is now director of owner success at Top 40 distributor AIA Corporation (asi/109480). The Neenah, WI-based firm announced Hall’s promotion to the newly created position on Tuesday. He will report to Kimberly Fulford, AIA’s senior vice president of owner success.

"Clay has a strong track record of helping AIA owners build their businesses and succeed in this quickly changing industry," Fulford said in a statement. "He brings tremendous sales leadership and industry experience to this role, and his established relationships with AIA owners well-position him to hit the ground running."

Clay Hall

Part of AIA since 2015, Hall will play an essential role on the distributorship’s Owner Success Management Team, a department dedicated to helping the company’s network of more than 300 independent business owners with sales coaching and business development resources. Hall will be responsible for ensuring AIA owners receive ample support in reaching their business, sales and rebate goals.

In a statement, Hall said he is excited to help fuel owner success through AIA’s services, tools and the support of the Owner Success Management Team. "I'm thrilled to take this next step with AIA and further support our owners to compete and win in the promotional products industry,” said Hall.

The newly promoted executive has nearly 30 years of experience in the print and promotional products industries. Prior to joining AIA, he was regional sales director for Top 40 distributor Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601) from 2012 to 2015. Before that, he was a business development manager at Staples Print Solutions. Additionally, his background includes serving as director of sales, document and print management at Corporate Express. At AIA, he was most recently a success manager for owners and director of distributor recruiting. “During his career, Clay has managed both national and regional sales teams, overseeing more than $45 million in sales and $12 million in gross profit,” AIA noted in a statement.

Hall’s appointment comes after AIA hired Fulford into the SVP of owner success role in September. With 2017 North American promotional product revenue of $175.4 million, AIA ranked 11th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. Counselor recently conducted a podcast/Q&A with CEO Matt Gresge where he discussed, among other topics, initiatives AIA is undertaking to accelerate sales growth.