It wouldn’t be a surprise if Peter Kelly had his own personal contrails.

The on-the-go executive is continually traversing the globe, jetting from Mumbai to Montego Bay, Tijuana to Tunisia, San Diego to Dundalk, IE – and well beyond. It’s all part of running National Pen, a distributor that serves small and medium-sized business in 23 countries.

For the Ireland native, the thrum of international commerce carries an excitement intensified by the robust success he’s spearheaded at National Pen, a long-time Counselor Top 40 distributor that was acquired by Cimpress (asi/162149) in 2016. In 2018 alone, National Pen’s global business is up 20% under Kelly’s leadership.

“National Pen is experiencing the biggest growth in its history,” says Kelly, who joined the distributor in 2006, marking the executive’s first job in the promo industry. “Driven by the improvements we’re making from within, I see the company going from strength to strength and continuing to evolve and expand both organically and through acquisition.”

National Pen’s impressive performance during the current fiscal year builds on a series of wins under Kelly’s leadership. Over a nine-year span, he was pivotal in driving 350% growth in National Pen’s international business. Led by Kelly, the firm’s European profits quadrupled. Even during the recession of 2008-09, the distributor’s European sales soared to double-digit growth. Ultimately, Kelly’s outstanding performance earned him the promotion to CEO/president of National Pen in 2016, a rise up the ladder that saw him relocate to the company’s San Diego headquarters. He continued in the National Pen CEO role following the acquisition by Cimpress, also joining the board of the Netherlands-based parent company.

“Peter and his National Pen team have epitomized our customer-focused and entrepreneurial mindset, shared with us their expertise in promotional products, and have been excited to explore how our technology can improve the value they offer to their own customers,” says Cimpress CEO/Chairman Robert Keane. “Peter is a talented and capable leader who I very much enjoy working with.”

As his globe-trotting suggests, Kelly is working tirelessly to ensure National Pen’s success well into the future – work that includes molding the company to meet buyer demands of today and tomorrow. For one thing, Kelly’s focused on balancing National Pen’s business in different channels. “I see a significant shift from offline to online, but believe multichannel is the ultimate way to business optimization,” he says. He’s also actively aligning National Pen to capitalize on its position in existing markets while remaining open-minded about the idea of expanding into newer markets down the line. “I believe the promo industry will continue to grow in importance into the future, much in line with growth in economies,” says Kelly.

To help National Pen best capitalize, Kelly is playing a lead role in developing essential plans, business systems, relationships and infrastructure. But as critically, he’s cultivating a reinvigorated culture, shaping a firm with the energy of a startup that thrives on speed, ingenuity and excitement for evolution.

“The biggest challenges we face are speed of change and the so-called culture of being a ‘traditional business,’” says Kelly. “When you consider a business as traditional, you perceive a slower level of change and development. When you think of the business as cutting-edge or technologically based, I believe it alters the sense of urgency and openness to change.”