Voting is under way for the PPAI Board of Directors Class of 2022, and will run through September 29. PPB Newslink is taking a closer look at each of the four candidates, and today spotlights Todd Pottebaum, MAS+, president of Quality Resource Group (PPAI 159353), in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Pottebaum has spent 17 years working in the promotional products industry, and in that time, has served as committee member and chair of the PPAI Marketing Information and Research Committee, and as a speaker at several PPAI Expo education events. Pottebaum is also a member of Upper Midwest Association of Promotional Professionals (UMAPP), for which he has served as president, vice president, treasurer and secretary as well as a board member, volunteer chair and co-chair for the End Buyer Expo. In 2015 he was named UMAPP Volunteer of the Year. He also has spoken at regional education events and panels and served as a panelist at a national industry conference.

Outside the industry, Pottebaum is a member of Meeting Professionals International’s marketing and membership committees and has been named an MPI Volunteer of the Year for the Minneapolis/St. Paul Chapter. Prior to working at Quality Resource Group, Pottebaum worked for Carlson Marketing Group and studied at the University of Northern Colorado.

In his free time, Pottebaum enjoys spending time with his family and carrying out his personal mission statement, which he says is “to grow and serve as a leader, live a balanced life, enrich the lives of others around me, create sustained comfort for our special needs child, and make an enduring difference in this world.”

Asked how PPAI can best use its limited resources to fulfill the Association’s mission of protecting and growing the industry, while simultaneously ensuring the success of a diverse and sometimes disparate constituency, Pottebaum says, “PPAI’s board works in concert with PPAI staff and an engaged pool of talented volunteers to own and execute the overall mission by way of the strategic plan. This process creates a valuable feedback loop that’s used to hone the strategic plan in the best interest of the industry and for the PPAI membership.  

“I’ve been a student of this process for years and believe that it creates the highest and best use of limited resources while maintaining a laser focus on:

  1. Driving meaningful member value
  2. Advocating for the industry
  3. Developing and leveraging strategic foresight to fuel member innovation
  4. Managing a progressive and efficient member organization

“Each goal is critically important. However, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of goal No. 3, Developing and Leveraging Strategic Foresight. It would be my ambition to curate information, tools, trends, data and examples of success so that a disparate constituency may filter and determine how to best innovate for the future of a rapidly changing and digitally focused marketplace.”

The annual PPAI board election gives members an opportunity to select leaders who can transform the Association. This year's Board of Directors election will be conducted online and by paper ballot. Paper ballots have been mailed to all voters. To learn more about the election, who can vote and how to vote and the distributor and supplier candidates, visit PPAI's website. The results of the election will be published in early October.