At Microsoft, Anouk Pape spent more than 20 years helping drive remarkable sales results and spearheading successful global launch campaigns for Office365, Dynamics and Azure. She also led Microsoft co-partner marketing efforts with some of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, including Vodafone, Telefónica, and Orange.

Now, the experienced business leader is bringing her expertise to Top 40 distributor BDA (asi/137616). Pape has joined the Woodinville, WA-headquartered firm in the role of divisional vice president of global marketing and creative services.

Anouk Pape, BDA

At BDA, Pape will play a key role in go-to market strategies, digital, lead generation, social media marketing, and sales enablement programs.

“While at Microsoft, I became aware of BDA’s creative approach and the power of branded merchandise to drive client engagement and add an element of fun to a portfolio of software and hardware products,” Pape said in a statement.

She continued that Jay Deutsch, BDA’s CEO and co-founder, and the distributorship’s team have “created an amazing global business and played a significant role growing some of the most respected brands on the planet. I join BDA with tremendous enthusiasm to be a part of the company’s journey and I’m eager to work across the organization to inspire continued growth and evangelize our history of creating innovative campaigns that people love.”

In a competitive marketplace in which securing top talent can establish a critical advantage, Deutsch believes BDA has scored a huge win with bringing Pape aboard.

“Anouk embodies the client-obsessed spirit of BDA,” said Deutsch, a member of Counselor’s Power 50 list of the promotional products industry’s most influential people. “With decades of global enterprise marketing experience, Anouk’s expertise will be a tremendous addition to the BDA team as we continue to grow our international portfolio and deliver best-in-class campaigns for clients across all sectors.”

Pape’s roles at Microsoft included director of global business programs, Industry Solutions; senior business program manager, Worldwide Learning; and senior partner/channel marketing manager, Microsoft Mobile Device Sales, among other roles.

BDA has made some headline-grabbing moves of late. In August, the company hired one of promo’s most well-known sales professionals, Jill Albers, as senior director of business development. That came a couple months after BDA expanded its international footprint through the acquisition of ipm | gruppe – a leading distributor in Germany’s promotional products sector.

BDA ranks sixth on Counselor’s most recent Top 40 distributor list, as determined by reported 2022 North American promotional product revenue of $422.2 million. The company works with a bevy of major clients, including Major League Baseball, Mercedes Benz, NBC, The Home Depot, and Johnson & Johnson. A global firm with almost 40 years of experience, BDA operates more than 50 locations in North America and eight international offices.