Counselor 2023 Person of the Year Andy Shape believes firmly that it’s essential to streamline and enhance service offerings through technological evolution if a distributorship wants to compete at scale in the modern promotional products industry.

Now, the Top 40 distributor he helms, Stran & Company (asi/337725), has taken another significant step in strengthening its tech-driven solutions by appointing experienced senior technology executive Ian Thomas Wall as chief information officer (CIO), the Quincy, MA-headquartered firm announced Jan. 4.

Ian Thomas Wall, Stran & Company

“We are thrilled to welcome Ian given his impressive professional history and demonstrated ability to leverage technology to enhance operations, improve efficiency and strengthen the customer experience,” said Shape, Stran’s CEO and a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of promo’s most influential people.

Shape added: “We continue to implement digital technologies to provide our sales team with tools to enhance lead generation and closure rates. We also believe Ian’s skillset and experience in technological strategic planning will be invaluable as we work to improve our organizational efficiency and look forward to his contributions.”

Wall’s resume includes most recently serving as senior vice president of digital transformation and service delivery at Digital Radius, a consulting firm focused on implementing software-as-a-service solutions for its clients. At Digital Radius, Wall was responsible for overseeing all enterprise information technology and acted as a CIO for clients and managed project teams.

Meanwhile, as CIO and interim vice president at Bentley University, Wall managed a team of more than 70 people, supporting the institution’s global remote, hybrid, and on-campus learning technology operations.

As director of enterprise applications at Tufts University, Wall managed the implementation, update, and support of the school’s enterprise applications while supervising 50 team members.

Wall has also served as the director of enterprise business intelligence at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and head of business intelligence strategy at Biogen Idec, as well as associate director of Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT). He holds a master’s degree in science and engineering management from Tufts University.

Strong Q3 for one of the #promoproducts industry's most prominent publicly traded companies.https://t.co/L5xGn7WvuQ @stranpromosol

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) November 6, 2023

“Part of what makes Stran a premier player within the promotional products industry is its history of developing, creating and implementing technologies into its operations and services,” Wall said. “Given Stran’s forward-looking culture, I am excited to be a part of the senior leadership team.”

Stran, a publicly traded firm, has made other notable personnel additions of late. Those include appointing Nick Kiefer as executive vice president of sales and Michele Pytlinski as senior vice president of client strategy.

Through the first nine months of 2023, Stran’s total sales tallied about $52.55 million, representing year-over-year growth of 29%. The firm’s full-year 2023 sales will be reported during the first quarter of 2024.

With 2022 North American promotional products revenue of $64.3 million, Stran & Company ranked 34^th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry. The company went public in late 2021, and has since finalized several acquisitions, including Premier Business Services, GAP Promotions (asi/199882), Trend Brand Solutions (asi/346428) and T.R. Miller Co. Inc. (asi/272250).