Norman Cohn is chairman of the Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI). Under Cohn's guidance, ASI remains staunchly committed to the continued success of the promotional products industry and to raising awareness of ad specialties throughout the general marketplace through such vehicles as ASI's Global Ad Impressions Study

Norman Cohn was born in 1933 in Waterloo, IA, and graduated with a BS and a BA from the University of Northern Iowa. While a senior in high school, he became a distributor of advertising specialty products, and in college, also became a supplier of promotional products. By the late 1950s, his family owned the largest supplier company in the advertising specialty industry.

In 1962, Cohn's family acquired ASI and sold all of their supplier activities. With the acquisition of ASI, the Cohns moved to the Philadelphia area and immersed themselves full-time into growing ASI and the industry. In 1998, ASI re-entered the trade show business with ASI Show^®.

Norman Cohn was named ASI's chairman of the board in 1967 and remains active in the company.

Over the years, Cohn introduced numerous innovations to the industry, including the first full-color catalog, a demonstration of the first fax machine and the first industry-specific computerized business software system to manage supplier and distributor businesses. ASI Computer Systems^® remains the most widely used business management system in the industry. In addition, Cohn is proud of helping promote the many accomplishments women have made to the industry.

Cohn was the head of the supplier committee for the Advertising Specialty Guild, which merged with the predecessor of PPAI. He also served on PPAI's public relations committee for several years.

Over the years, Norman Cohn has also served on numerous boards, including the International Board of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). He was International YPO Chairman of Education and International YPO Chairman of Communications, each for two years. He was an officer of the Great American Achievements Program, a member of the Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, represented the State of Pennsylvania on the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution, and was the chairman of the Bicentennial Council of the Thirteen Original States. He also served on the Boards of the National Public Radio, the Pennsylvania Board of Commerce Bank, Jewish Publication Society, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Philadelphia Heart Institute, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the World Affairs Council, the Walnut Street Theatre, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Mayor's Millennium Philadelphia. He currently serves on the executive board of the National Liberty Museum and the board of the Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism.

In 2003, he received the Award of Merit from the Philadelphia Art Alliance and is currently a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. In 2016, he was recognized with PPAI's Pioneer Award, which recognizes people whose business acumen or technological skills played a role in the advancement of the promotional products industry.

Cohn and his wife, Suzanne, have been married for over 50 years. They have five children and 10 grandchildren. ASI remains a family-owned company, with a fourth generation having interned at the company co-founded by their great-grandfather, Maurice Cohn, who was inducted into the PPAI Hall of Fame in 1990.

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Matthew Cohn is vice chairman of the ASI Family of Companies which includes ASI Show^®, ASI Computer Systems^® and the Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI). Throughout his career, Cohn has launched businesses in publishing, e-commerce, trade shows and medical information. In 1988, Cohn led the team that developed ESP^®, which quickly became the advertising specialty industry's most widely used research tool and business platform.

In 1998, Matthew Cohn launched ASI Show, which made the Tradeshow Week 200, a listing of the largest shows in the U.S. The show has also been recognized by the Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 as one of the fastest-growing shows in North America. Three times, the Wharton Small Business Development Center named ASI Show to the Philadelphia 100 - a hallmark of entrepreneurial achievement - as one of 100 fastest-growing privately held companies. The company made the Inc. 500 list as the 153rd fastest-growing private company in America.

The Philadelphia Business Journal recognized Cohn in its 40 Under 40 awards, and he was named among the Top 100 People to Watch by Business Philadelphia magazine, as well as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the trade show industry by Tradeshow Week.

Cohn is on the board of the audit committee of The Bancorp Bank (NASDAQ:TBBK). He is also on the International Board as well as the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), where he was the 2010-2012 International Walk Chair. In addition, he serves on the International Board of YPO (Young Presidents' Organization - the world's largest organization of CEOs) where he is the International Events Chair and serves on the audit committee. Cohn has served as president, education chair and treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization. Additionally, he has been on the boards of CADE, a Philadelphia nonprofit helping children make smart decisions, and the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO).

Cohn has been a featured speaker at national conferences such as American Society of Association Executives, Direct Marketing Association, Internet World, Annual Catalog Conference, Seybold Seminars, International Association of Exposition Managers and SISO.

Cohn is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business with a dual concentration in marketing and entrepreneurial management, as well as the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences with a degree in economics. He and his wife Lea have two children, Sydney and Mackenzie, who are very active in raising money for diabetes research at www.cohnsisters.com.

Timothy M. Andrews is president and chief executive officer of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), which has 400 employees and serves a network of 25,000 suppliers, distributors and decorators in the $20.7 billion promotional products industry.

Andrews has more than 30 years of experience in digital media, publishing, information services, marketing and advertising. He joined ASI as president in 2003 and is responsible for the vision and operations of the privately held company.

Under his guidance, ASI has become the industry leader in technology and multimedia marketing across all platforms. Customer satisfaction is the focal point of ASI’s research and data services, marketing tools, trade shows, educational resources, catalogs and the award-winning Counselor magazine.

Andrews is also president of ASI Show, which annually hosts 15,500 distributor attendees at trade shows and events across North America, and vice chairman of ASI Computer Systems Inc., whose accounting and business platform is used by nearly 1,000 companies.

Prior to joining ASI, Andrews served as chief executive officer of Primedia Business Magazines, a $400 million media company. He led key business, editorial and product strategy for the company’s 80 magazines, 100 websites, 24 trade shows and its group of 450 reference titles.

Before Primedia, Andrews spent 16 years at Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, where he served in a variety of senior management, editorial, marketing, technology and product development roles. He launched the first real-time news-alerting products in the industry, introduced a web-based version of Dow Jones Interactive long before other companies recognized the importance of the web, and led the team that developed Personal Journal, an electronic newspaper that later became part of WSJ.com.

His final role at Dow Jones was as founder, president and chief executive officer of Factiva, a joint venture he championed with Reuters, which at launch had annual revenues of $225 million, 750 employees in 40 countries and products in 22 languages.

Andrews serves on the Leadership Council of ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit investigative newsroom founded by the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and the general counsel of Dow Jones. He is also a member of the board of directors of Connectiv, the world’s leading business information association.

In addition, Andrews is active in several community organizations. He served three years as board president of the Arts Council of Princeton and is a trustee and secretary of the McCarter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts in Princeton, NJ. He also actively supports several community programs in his rural Indiana hometown, including a food bank and a community endowment fund that provides annual grants to local organizations.

Andrews earned a degree in journalism and economics from Ball State University, which named him as its first Outstanding Young Alumnus and later inducted him into the institution’s Journalism Hall of Fame. In 2021, Andrews endowed a Multicultural Center Graduate Assistantship focused on LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus community) studies at Ball State, with a preference for LGBTQ+ candidates who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color). In honor of the Andrews Graduate Assistantship, Ball State dedicated the lobby of the multicultural center in Andrews’ name.

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Carol Albright joined ASI in 1986 as its first human resources employee and is now ASI’s senior vice president of human resources. Under her guidance, ASI has been consistently ranked among the “Best Places to Work” in Philadelphia and Bucks County, PA.

Carol Albright and her team are responsible for staffing and retention, employee programs, training, employee relations, maintenance of employee records and performance consulting.

Albright successfully oversaw the staffing of ASI over a period of growth that quadrupled the number of employees. In 1990, she was recognized as Employee of the Year.

Albright has a B.S. in industrial labor relations from Rider University and a Master’s Degree in instructional systems design and performance technology from Pennsylvania State University. She also holds certificates in human resources management from the Institute of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University and in training and development from Bucks County Community College.

Albright is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Society of Training and Development, and the International Society for Performance Improvement.

Matt Barnes is senior vice president of supplier sales and marketing, responsible for the vision and growth of ASI’s supplier sales and marketing activities, including supplier membership and ASI’s digital and print advertising and marketing offerings.

Barnes joined ASI in July of 2014 as vice president of supplier sales, managing a large base of supplier accounts. In 2015, he was promoted to vice president of publishing and media services, responsible for the print and digital strategies of three magazines, ASI’s family of catalogs, and all other content-oriented products and services.

In recognition of his management skills, Barnes was named ASI’s Rising Star Manager of the Year in 2017.

Before joining ASI, Barnes worked for the Cohn Family for three years as president of its Australian business and before that as group president and publishing director at North American Publishing Company, where he led its promotional products division for 14 years.

Barnes received a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University. Barnes, his wife and two children live in Washington Crossing, PA.

Michele Bell is vice president of editorial, education and special events, overseeing the day-to-day operations of ASI Media, which includes an award-winning staff of editors, writers, designers and social media experts, ASI University and high-profile industry events such as the Power Summit and the Counselor Awards. She is charged with delivering digital-first content that best serves ASI’s audiences.

Bell joined ASI in 1997 as a senior editor. She has edited Counselor, Advantages and Successful Promotions magazines, launched SGR and traveled the world representing ASI while reporting on global markets, helping secure ASI’s reputation for delivering first-hand international news. She’s won numerous journalism awards, including prestigious national Jesse H. Neal Awards for a cover story on economic and cultural shifts in China and its impact on the promo industry and for Best Profile on the 2018 Counselor Person of the Year.

In 2012, Bell was honored as ASI’s Employee of the Year and in 2013 she was invited – as an “exceptional industry woman” – to contribute to a book published by an industry organization. In 2021, she was awarded the “A Woman’s View Supplier Visionary Award” presented each year to an industry leader whose contributions and dedication to the advancement and empowerment of women is unrivaled.

Bell has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communications from Temple University.

Steve Bright has been executive vice president and general counsel for ASI since 1996, and his work with the Cohn family goes back over 30 years. He advises the Cohn family and ASI management on a variety of legal, business and strategic issues.

From 1972 until coming to ASI, Steve Bright was a partner in the Iowa law firm of Phelan, Tucker, Mullen, Bright and Walker. He holds membership in both the Iowa and Pennsylvania Bar Associations.

A devoted Hawkeye, Bright earned B.B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. degrees from the University of Iowa. He was a professor in the College of Business from 1974 to 1991 and continues to serve on the university’s Law School Foundation Board. He has also co-authored articles published in Lawyer’s Cooperative Publishing (third edition, 1993) and Taxation for Accountants (May 1991 and January 1994 editions).

Nancy Carmona is ASI's senior vice president of business strategy and analysis. She oversees all major business analytics and financial reporting, working with business executives across the company in developing strategic initiatives and plans based on sophisticated financial analysis designed to drive ASI's revenue.

Carmona has nearly 20 years of experience in financial planning and reporting, with a proven record of productivity and quality. She and her finance team are in charge of budgeting and forecasting, providing critical analysis used in the day-to-day financial management of ASI and ASI Show, as well as completing ad hoc reports explaining trends that appear during the business cycle. Carmona is also responsible for the oversight of financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting for ASI Computer Systems.

Carmona joined ASI in December 2006 as a senior business analyst. She has her MBA from LaSalle University.

Andy Cohen is senior vice president of editorial and marketing services at ASI, responsible for the company’s content, as well as its marketing, education, events, trade shows, research and communication efforts. In addition to ASI’s marketing agency, ASI Creative Labs, Cohen oversees the creation of ASI’s marketing efforts as well as the production and attendee marketing for the company’s trade shows and events. ASI’s corporate website at ASICENTRAL.COM is also produced and created within Cohen’s groups.

Cohen has been with ASI since 2005, first as editor of Counselor^® magazine and then as executive director of integrated media. He was appointed editorial director in December 2015, promoted to vice president of editorial and marketing services in October 2016 and to senior vice president in May 2019.

Prior to ASI, Cohen worked at Nielsen Business Media in New York, where he was an editorial staffer for magazines such as Sales & Marketing Management, Incentive and Potentials in Marketing. He was editor-in-chief of Incentive magazine from 2004-2005.

Under Cohen’s guidance, ASI magazines have won more national awards than any other industry publication, including numerous Jesse H. Neal awards, the most prestigious honor in the business press.

Cohen is a graduate of Vassar College with a BA in English. He lives with his wife and son in Tuckahoe, New York.

Bob DeFord is ASI's senior vice president of distributor sales and marketing, with oversight of the strategic vision, direction and growth of ASI's integrated platform of distributor products and services. This includes the ESP platform, with the largest searchable collection of products in the promotional products industry, and over 15,000 ESP Websites™.

DeFord is also responsible for overseeing over 23,500 distributor and decorator memberships, ASI magazine subscriptions, catalogs and digital marketing.

DeFord joined ASI from Comcast, an American global telecommunications conglomerate that is the largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue. At Comcast, he developed a new go-to-market strategy and a sales coaching and mentoring program that increased account executive sales and made his team number one in Comcast's Northeast region. After developing a new, company-wide sales process and coaching program, DeFord implemented the program in the greater Philadelphia area, where he was senior director of direct sales, responsible for seven senior managers and 225 sales professionals.

Prior to Comcast, he worked at SuperMedia (a merger of Idearc, Verizon Information Services and Bell Atlantic Yellow Pages), where he was responsible for nearly $200 million in sales across a team that stretched from New York to Maryland.

DeFord has a BS in marketing and business from Rowan University and an associate degree in business administration and management from Camden County College. He lives in Marlton, NJ, with his wife Susan and their three sons.

Kevin Jiang is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the ASI Family of Companies, charged with leading software development, data and technology security and global infrastructure, to support all ASI products and services.

ASI’s flagship product, the technology platform ESP^®, has nearly 1 million products and manages the promotional products industry’s supply and marketing chain. Jiang was recruited to ASI in 2020, quickly demonstrating a proven ability to align ASI’s technology team to deliver on the many business needs of clients.

Jiang joined ASI from Verisk Analytics, a large data analytics and risk assessment company that serves multiple industries, where he was CTO and senior vice president (SVP) of technology and product delivery in the insurance segment.

Prior to Verisk, Jiang was vice president of product development at IBM’s Watson Talent unit, where he reorganized product teams, increasing product consistency and predictability while sunsetting legacy systems. He also implemented automated QA system testing, a major initiative now under way at ASI.

He also worked for 16 years at Thomson Reuters, rising from a manager, director and vice president to ultimately serve as CTO and SVP of technology development in its intellectual property and science division.

Jiang earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and his master’s degree in engineering, computer design/management information systems from Penn State University. He is a founding member of the John Maxwell Group, where he remains a certified leadership coach, trainer and speaker.

Chris Lovell is ASI’s senior vice president of sales. Lovell has been with ASI since 1991 and has devoted her career to working with industry suppliers and helping them increase their profits by positioning their firms for long-term success.

Selected as one of Counselor magazine’s 2004 Women of Distinction, Chris Lovell continues to be active in the promotional products industry. She serves on the board of the Promotion Products College Education Foundation and was past president of the board of directors for the Gold Coast Promotion Products Association, serving on a variety of committees, including by-laws, membership, education, tradeshow, awards, legislation, nominating and budget.

In addition, she served on the Promotion Products Association International’s Marketing Information and Research Committee and on the board of the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA), where she also was co-chair of the Membership Retention Committee.

She received her Bachelor’s Degree in education with a minor in mathematics from Fredonia State University. Before embarking on her sales career, Lovell taught elementary school and junior high mathematics.